I typically run 3 VMs, identical OSs on each, to replicate a scaled down production environment. My laptop idles at near zero CPU usage, and kvm nicely deduplic

I typically run 3 VMs, identical OSs on each, to replicate a scaled down production environment. My laptop idles at near zero CPU usage, and kvm nicely deduplicates memory between the VMs. I'd have a look at your setup configuration before ripping it out. Something is off, there. A poor hypervisor, mixed OSs and possibly, some base load on the VMs that can justify the external behaviour.