High GPU usage when nothing is happening

ross93

I've been struggling to figure out why godot is using my GPU so intensely when nothing is happening...

I have an alienware 15r3 laptop that uses nvidia optimus, with a gtx1070... and an i7 6820hk cpu , and godot uses 55% of my intel gpu and 25% of my nvidia gpu simultaneously... even when nothing is happening. I don't have much experience debugging this kind of issue, was wondering if anyone could help me? it seems like it might be some sort of nvidia optimus issue (normally apps don't use both gpus at once, I think?) but I don't know what to try in order to troubleshoot. I tried limiting the fps in debug settings but that didn't do anything

Any ideas?

llasram

When you say "when nothing is happening" do you mean running the Godot editor, running a completely blank scene, or when running a scene with content which should be relatively static? If more the last, have you tried Godot's builtin-profiler to see if it points in the direction of any particular problems? The runtime monitors and video memory usage information may also help point in the right direction.

ross93

I managed to identify some of the issues... but I'm still not sure why they happen or what to do about them!

The issue only happens when the Godot Editor window had the focus...I had the godot editor and task manager side by side, and when I clicked on task manager, the gpu usage would drop to a more reasonable amount. And this isn't just when I run the game, it happens even when just the editor is open.

each of these, on their own, affected my gpu in a similar way: There's a plugin called Dialogic that I had added that was one of the causes... just click the checkbox in the plugins part of the project setting menu instantly shot up my gpu usage...

Another culprit was GPU particles (on super basic settings).

Another culprit was Rich Text Label.

Any advice about how to deal with this?

Megalomaniak

Godot editor lowers it's process updates when it is out of focus.

ross93

@Megalomaniak said: Godot editor lowers it's process updates when it is out of focus.

Is there a way to tweak this so that I can lower it permanently? or be able to control that? I'm willing to rebuild from source if needed :P although I hope there's just a setting I can tweak!

Megalomaniak

I think there should be some settings in editor settings.

cybereality

You can try forcing V-Sync on in the Nvidia settings. If V-Sync is off even a blank window can saturate the GPU.

ross93

setting Low Processor Mode usec to around 70000 in Editor -> Editor settings brings down my GPU usage to a constant 10% ish, which is a lot better, although it makes the editor a little sluggish... but not too bad

V-Sync didn't make much of a difference

But I don't understand why the dialogic plugin or the RichTextLabel is using so much GPU... really strange... is it something to do with the UI renderer? what else can I look into?

Megalomaniak

The dialog plugin is probably constantly updating itself if I had to guess, even when it might not really need it. Not sure why RTL would do it though.