Causing high CPU on the SYSTEM process

[thany]

Steps to reproduce

1. Have a laptop with an Intel IGP and a discrete Nvidia GPU
2. Up-to-date drivers, default settings

Now notice how Element, when started, causes about 10% of CPU usage (probably around-or-about full blast on 1 CPU thread) on the SYSTEM process, about 5-10 seconds after having started it.

3. Quit Element

Give it 5-10 seconds, and notice how the CPU uasge on the SYSTEM process settles towards 0%

4. Go into the Nvidia control panel and set it like this:

Leave everything on the list of features untouched. Also don't forget to hit Apply.

5. Start Element back up, and observe CPU usage on the SYSTEM process again. It should have settled back towards 0%.

Element is the only electron-like application of several, on my pc, that causes this, so it doesn't really matter what other software you should or shouldn't run.

Outcome

What did you expect?

It shouldn't cause CPU usage like that at all. It's extremely difficult to diagnose, and still also very tricky to track down by process of elimination. Maybe Element shouldn't ever trigger discrete GPU activation - no other desktop software is doing that, unless it's an actually graphics-demanding program, which I think we can agree Element isn't.

What happened instead?

High CPU usage on the SYSTEM process. Probably full blast on 1 core/thread.

Operating system

Windows 10

Application version

Element version: 1.11.58 Crypto version: Olm 3.2.15

How did you install the app?

No response

Homeserver

No response

Will you send logs?

Yes

[thomaslevesque]

I noticed this too. I have a Dell XPS with Intel IGP and a NVIDIA GPU, as you mentioned.
I was wondering what caused the System process to use 25 to 30% CPU, and by closing apps one by one I realized it was Element.
Disabling hardware acceleration in Element's preferences fixed it for me, an I don't really see a difference in performance.

[thany]

@thomaslevesque Yes, disabling HWA will do the trick as well. Could you verify that forcing Element to the Intel IGP works around the high CPU issue as well?

The problem might not be HWA in and of itself, but rather that it is somehow caused by it triggering the discrete GPU.

[thomaslevesque]

@thany yes, it works too. But since I don't really need HWA for Element, disabling it is simpler.