another data point. it might not be AMD vs intel directly.
I had another user try it out on a newer Intel System: 2x Xeon Gold 5218, 64GB, 2x V100, so Cascade Lake.
this system exhibited the same high CPU use as the AMD systems. but the Intel Broadwell/Haswell/Ivy Bridge stuff all uses low CPU utilization, but the overall task runs about the same time (usually ~11-12hrs for my systems, running 4-5 concurrently).
I had another user try it out on a newer Intel System: 2x Xeon Gold 5218, 64GB, 2x V100, so Cascade Lake.
this system exhibited the same high CPU use as the AMD systems. but the Intel Broadwell/Haswell/Ivy Bridge stuff all uses low CPU utilization, but the overall task runs about the same time (usually ~11-12hrs for my systems, running 4-5 concurrently).