** Update: I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 14.10 and compiz is now at 1% CPU.
Most of the compiz cycles consumed on my system are caused by "indicator-multiload". This has been a problem for me since, at least, 12.04. I am running Ubuntu 14.10 on an Asus laptop with the AMD/ATI chipset.
I have configured indicator-multiload to only update once every 2000 ms in order to keep CPU usage down to a sensible level.
Short of forking the code, are there any ways to mitigate this excessive CPU usage?
indicator-multiload is a must for me since I need to monitor CPU usage conveniently and I know of no alternative.
Current usage is 5-10%
Best Answer
On my xubuntu I have "Task Manager", I had a quick look and it doesn't appear to call indicator-multiload, and it's never caused a problem for me. Maybe give that a whirl?
I assume you've also uninstalled, purged, and reinstalled indicator-multiload, just in case successive overlay upgrades are the reason behind it being strange?
Best of luck!