First question is what are you actually trying to achieve?
[snip]
Have you analysed what is causing the high usage and if there is anything else you can do about it?
First answer: Life without stress! After that, an average load around 60% capacity. We see average loads ranging from 1.2 to 5.2. On a four core machine I assume a load value of 2.5 is close enough to the 60% goal.
Second answer: just starting to research the problem(s) and the options.
There are several apps that work in concert and share database resources. The apps involve postgres 9.5, python 2.7, and PHP 7(dot what day is it?), along with standard stuff like apache.
Postgres appears to be pretty well behaved. The app written in python is saddled with GIL and is being reworked to use Apache with mod_wsgi, which will help when it is ready. PHP is still oblique to me at the moment. So I have work to learn more about these.
Other options like increasing RAM, launching multiple python instances, and a look at hardware, like adding another server are on the list.
I know enough to know I don't know enough. Comments are welcome.