Technologies for performance monitoring include a computing device having multiple processor cores. The computing device performs a training workload with a processor core by continuously polling an empty input queue. The computing device determines empty polling thresholds based on the empty polling workload. The computing device performs a packet processing workload with one or more processor cores by continuously polling input queues associated with network traffic. The computing device compares a measured number of empty polls performed by the packet processing workload against the empty polling thresholds. The computing device configures power management of one or more processor cores in response to the comparison. The computing device may determine empty polling trends and compare the measured number of empty polls and the empty polling trends to the empty polling thresholds. Other embodiments are described and claimed.