This is driving me crazy and I hope you can help.
Here's a screenshot of the issue.
On the right, Windows Task Manager showing high Chrome CPU usage.
On the left, Chrome's Task Manager showing it's all coming from the Gmail tab.
Things I've tried:
- Disabled all plugins.
- Clearing cookies
- Incognito Tab
The Gmail tab will use 45-50% cpu as long as it's the foreground tab.
I've taken to activating a non-gmail tab before unfocusing the browser, but this is a cognitive load I'd love to eliminate.
Why is this happening? Is there a fix?
P.S. – I'm running Windows and this gmail cpu spike doesn't happen in Firefox or Internet Explorer.
P.P.S. – The answer to this question has lead to a new one.
In Google Chrome browser, why does Gmail use so much of the CPU when hardware acceleration is enabled?
Best Answer
Double-check your hardware acceleration settings in Chrome. Google's scripting (JS, CSS animations) is very "modern" which means it performs poorly on CPU but runs very, very fast on GPUs via modern browsers ... assuming acceleration isn't turned off, which would cause very high CPU usage.
Or there might be a bug with HW acceleration making it nuke the CPU. Firefox and Chrome like to trade off on whose acceleration is borderline worthless and breaks websites. Toggle it, and if turning it off fixes the issue try turning it on again after a Chrome update or three.