A method for activating processor cores within a computer system is disclosed. Initially, a value representing a number of processor cores to be enabled within the computer system is received. The computer system includes multiple processors, and each of the processors includes multiple processor cores. Next, a scale variable value representing a specific type of tasks to be optimized during an execution of the tasks within the computer system is received. From a pool of available processor cores within the computer system, a subset of processor cores can be selected for activation. The subset of processor cores is activated in order to achieve system optimization during an execution of the tasks.