[mark007]

Hi guys,

Can anyone confirm with something like gpuz, that when xbmc is used to play an external file and is minimized automatically out of true fullscreen mode, that it uses significant amounts of gpu power.

http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/9941

No responses to ticket yet but when I minimize xbmc manually even, out of true fullscreen mode, gpuz shows the gpu usage graph going up and down from 15%~ to 80%~ gpu usage. I don't think xbmc should use any cpu or gpu power when its minimized out of its true fullscreen mode. Its increasing my htpc temperatures causing louder fan speeds, so this is the primary reason i would love to see a developer be interested in looking into it.

[mark007]

bumping one last time, I'm amazed this doesn't concern other external player users, where high gpu usage can increase temperatures / noise.

Temporarily I have updated my external player bat script to kill xbmc dharma beta 1 when a movie is started... using taskkill but this isn't ideal... when a movie is playing I think certain processes within xbmc should be frozen or only allowed to run x number of executions per second... not sure what the proper way to do it would be.

Any developers got any thoughts? Both confluence and aeon65 are using spikes of gpu power when xbmc is minimized out of true fullscreen mode.

[bobo1on1]

Minimizing xbmc is not the same as having an external player active, on the latter render fps should drop below 1.

[mark007]

....of course... but when playing a video clip with or without external player xbmc shouldn't be using any gpu power.... When non animated areas of the confluence skin are visible even I don't think any gpu power should used either.....

I'm hoping a developer can explain the consistent spikes in gpu usage which looks like once every second or so.

Making the gtx295 fans go crazy Without xbmc loaded, playing a movie with mpc-hc and madVR renderer, gpu usage is only 1%, temps are low enough to keep fan speed at 30% or below.

With xbmc and any skin I have tried, gpu usage spikes up to 86% even when its minimized with external player playing.. driving fan upto the 60-70% mark to keep temps down. Something isn't right somewhere. Can you reproduce bobo1on1.

I use gpu-z to check gpu usage and temps btw.

[bobo1on1]

I don't have a windows installation to reproduce it on, but I wouldn't call a spike once a second a significant amount of gpu usage.

[mark007]

I can only reproduce when xbmc is set to use true fullscreen mode window (rather than faked fullscreen mode window) so its something related to that I feel. Without true fullscreen mode gpu usage is at 0% flat.

I would cause the spike once a second very significant because its moving gpu temperature in my case from 50C to 80C and over in some cases.

Causing gpu usage spikes to 100% even for 1ms is going to impact on the external players smoothness....

EDIT: Took a screenshot showing spikes upto 90% every second or so, cpu usage spikes also seen from 0% upto 15%. I hope someones interested enough to look into it before dharma

[mark007]

Anyone able to confirm the cpu / gpu spikes? Strangely if I minimize xbmc window using [windows key] + Tab, it doesn't happen, only some ways like alt+tab or when launching files using external player... if that helps

[mattipatti]

Hi,

I can confirm that this is still happening on xbmc 10.0 on Win 7 64bit.

I have xbmc in true full-screen on secondary monitor. When XBMC is focused everything is fine. When I focus on an application on the primary monitor, xbmc minimizes and the load spiking starts. CPU gets a 100% load every second for about half a second. easily verified from task manager as 25% on a quad core on all cores. The GPU clocks and voltage shoot to full speed, and I get a constant 20% load on a Radeon 6950, and GPU temps start climbing higher.

This happens just with the XBMC UI. No video or audio playback is required to reproduce.

The same thing also happened on my previous Radeon 4830.

[mark007]

Cheers any chance you could post that on the trac ticket. To me it's a major problem as my two gpus make an audible buzz when the spikes occur which can ruin a movie started in an external player.

[jkommeren]

Anyone able to confirm the cpu / gpu spikes? Strangely if I minimize xbmc window using [windows key] + Tab, it doesn't happen, only some ways like alt+tab or when launching files using external player... if that helps

That's enough for me if true, but I thought I was using windowskey+tab ..

I'll check

Problem for me is the GPU temps go up to a 100 degrees (radeon 4850) and the fan starts spinning like mad.
Funny that it doesn't seem to be overheating when it's in full screen mode
In either case, this should deffinately be fixed imo.

[mark007]

Unfortunately its the reason I don't use xbmc anymore now Im using avisynth scripts in mpc-hc / ffdshow which get me to about 85% cpu usage, and I get no frame drops.

When xbmc is minimized I get cpu usage of 100% which causes frame drops, and the gpu usage spikes make my gpu make weird sounds which makes the kids say "whats that buzzing sound" all when xbmc should be doing nothing.

[MrDVD]

Thx for this finding, i have also this cpu usage when xbmc is minimized and never would come to the idea that there es a diff between - "windows key + tab" and "alt + tab"

[mark007]

you're right, using windows + tab doesn't show the issue, only when I alt + tab.

Windows + tab = silence and no cpu / gpu usage
Alt + tab = gpu buzzing like a I don't know what and spikes of cpu / gpu usage

I'll add this to the track ticket

[lndiana]

Hello guys,

the probleme is not exactly the same for me : my GPU (GT430 fanless) usage climb to 100° and more (and freeze a 110°) (at approx 40% of GPU usage) when xbmc is launch and idle.
And strangely, GPU usage (and Temp) drop to 10% (45°C) when i start to play a movie, both with the external player (MPC-HC + MadVR) or with internal player.

[Quartermass]

This happens with me too... I don't think it's restricted to XBMC. Some games for example crash if you alt-tab, but not if you win-tab. I think it's an problem that's been in Windows since at least XP.

I have it on a W7 Ult x64 with current nVidia drivers on a GTX 580.