Chrome GPU acceleration

So thanks to the fact I have HWiNFO64 running 24/7, I happened to notice that Chrome has been forcing my GPU to run 24/7.



I don't see any point to this so I turned off GPU acceleration and now it stopped.

Are there any disadvantages to this? Obviously its going to use my CPU more but I'd rather it push my CPU than my GPU, especially since my 780 Ti does not have a bin under its base 1006MHz whenever its being used for 3D. That's almost 83 hours that my GPU has been running full tilt (minus boost) without me knowing it... I'm actually kind of amazed that I didn't notice it since my ACX fan is usually loud, guess my ceiling fan has been drowning it out.

And ironically, disabling GPU acceleration actually *dropped* my CPU temps a few degrees. I am guessing the hot air coming through the radiator was zapping my H100i a bit. I run my H100i on silent mode (ASUS AiSuite) because... well Corsair fans are loud...

 

I always ensure to uncheck the box that says "continue running Chrome" in the background.

Never noticed my fans spin up.

Can you confirm whether or not you have that setting on or off? also, what driver are you running?

 

To tame Chrome CPU/GPU usage, I use "The Great Suspender" extension to stop background tabs, only the foreground tab is active. I use the whitelist for sites I want active in the background.

I thought I had it set for 3 seconds timeout after leaving a tab, but the lowest setting now is 20 seconds... I guess you could do it manually to do it quicker.

I also use uBlock Origin + Privacy Badger extensions to block unneeded stuff - saving CPU/GPU and network.

It also helps on old machines without a lot of 'pute in them

In about:flags I enable all 2d/3d GPU assists, and enable all layer rasterization with 16 msaa sample count.

This is on an old AMD 9950 CPU + Nvidia GT240 1GB GPU w/8GB memory.

I watch videos in Firefox / IE - Amazon, NBC, CBS, Hulu, etc and Cyberlink DVD Blu-ray's, and all while browsing - the suspended tabs don't take many resources.

For youtube I watch in Chrome + h264ify extension, and whitelist youtube so I can keep that tab active for listening while working in other tabs.

 

I have it running in the background which I suppose I could disable but I honestly haven't noticed any negative impact from turning off acceleration.

365.19 of course.

See you have way too many extensions. I try to keep Chrome the opposite of how I had Firefox. I have ABP and Privacy Badger enabled.

I haven't noticed any negative effects since turning off acceleration as of yet but I suppose just disabling the background task would work if I do discover something.

 

The only other extension I have active besides ublock Origin and Privacy Badger is "The Great Suspender" and that disables far more resource usage than it uses, you should give it try

It's helped others to keep their idle CPU usage lower and therefore keep the CPU cooling fan off. It's the solution for those of us sensitive to noise in an otherwise silent environment.

The h264ify extension is the only other one that is only active with Youtube to set playback settings.

Those are all the extensions for Chrome I need; I disabled Ghostery and use Privacy Badger instead.

I also use a limited FF extension/plugin set on this old computer; FF is still slower than Chrome.

On my other computers, they are way fast enough to indulge in my favorite browser with lots of extensions, FF

 

Chrome hasn't been misbehaving since I went back to ABP and Privacy Badger. Less than 1% of my CPU gets used by the whole system when it's idle in 10 compared to an average 5-10 in 8.1

 

Even when you have 5-30 tabs open? All running some kind of page script or gif's, or other changing content?

 

At any given time I have usually 10 or so tabs open and I happened to check my idle usage the other day and was just amazed. Now that Insider 14342 (whichever is on the slow ring, im too lazy to look right now) either intentionally or unintentionally disables Defender when Avast is running, everything is smooth.

 

I don't notice Chrome CPU usage at idle on faster computers either, but I sure notice it on slow ones.

But, on faster computers, Chrome active tabs kicking up the CPU usage - even briefly - can kick up sensitive fan profiles, causing the laptop fans to spin up and down. It doesn't sound like you are seeing this behavior.

Actually I don't even use Chrome on faster computers... not as the default browser anyway, that's for FF to handle.

 

Yeah I have a Corsair H100i in my desktop with the fans plugged into the motherboard. ASUS AiSuite keeps them basically dead silent until the CPU hits 60C when it ramps them up which is very rare. My 4790K is 4.4GHz at 1.2v and my room is around 75-78F now. The CPU only really goes up when I'm gaming because my 780 Ti is the ACX variety. Temps would probably drop if I changed my fan configuration to pull instead of push but I don't like the idea of my radiator being held suspended over my motherboard by the fans on top rather than the radiator lying on a plate in my case with no way it's going to come lose and fall down.