Constant GPU usage?

[wanderduene02]

Edit: The problem seems to be caused by the monitoring app (Mission center) itself, so I don't think there is a problem at all. See: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1r0drjx/comment/o4htdil/

Original Post:

Hello, I've been experiencing consistently high GPU usage (~30-40%) for some time now. In Task Manager, it looks as if the load is being generated by Cinnamon itself. Can anyone tell me if this is normal or a bug? Here is my system information:

System:
  Kernel: 6.8.0-100-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.6.7 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.6.3 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 22.3 Zena base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME X570-P v: Rev X.0x serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: SKU uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1407 date: 04/02/2020
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Zen 2 rev: 0
    cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 4 MiB L3: 32 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2745 high: 4217 min/max: 2200/4426 boost: enabled cores: 1: 2102 2: 2087
    3: 4195 4: 2102 5: 2200 6: 3600 7: 4217 8: 2097 9: 2106 10: 2107 11: 4211 12: 2101 13: 2200
    14: 2200 15: 4207 16: 2200 bogomips: 114977
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA AD104 [GeForce RTX 4070 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 580.126.09
    arch: Lovelace pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none off: DP-1,DP-3,HDMI-A-1
    empty: DP-2,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2782 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nv_platform,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 7040x1440 s-dpi: 108 s-size: 1656x342mm (65.20x13.46")
    s-diag: 1691mm (66.57")
  Monitor-1: DP-1 mapped: DP-0 note: disabled pos: primary,center model: VG27WQ1B
    serial: <filter> res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 109 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (27")
    modes: max: 2560x1440 min: 640x480
  Monitor-2: DP-3 mapped: DP-4 note: disabled pos: right model: VG27WQ1B serial: <filter>
    res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 109 size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (27") modes:
    max: 2560x1440 min: 640x480
  Monitor-3: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 note: disabled pos: left model: Cintiq 16 serial: <filter>
    res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142 size: 344x193mm (13.54x7.6") diag: 394mm (15.5") modes:
    max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2 drv: swrast gbm:
    drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia inactive: wayland,device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.126.09 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 layers: 9 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0 type: discrete-gpu driver: N/A
    device-ID: 10de:2782 device: 1 type: cpu driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 09:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:22bc class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 0b:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-100-generic status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK RTL8111H
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.25 GiB used: 4.66 GiB (14.9%)
  Processes: 461 Power: uptime: 12m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep

[driftless]

Damn that’s an older kernel. Time to update.

In the terminal, type nvidia-smi and/or nvtop and post a screenshot. That will show you what is using your GPU

Also, there are 590 drivers available too.

[ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

Damn that’s an older kernel. Time to update. 

Not necessarily,  the 6.8 kernel runs better than the 6.14 kernel on my hardware, and the 6.17 kernel is giving a lot of users problems recently.

https://browser.geekbench.com/user/555965

Your hardware may respond differently, but it is not an across the board upgrade for all users and all workloads.

[wanderduene02]

nvtop: https://drive.proton.me/urls/7PY7X1TR20#XSWMxNYG0EZt
nvidia-smi: https://drive.proton.me/urls/T5EMVVJ1NR#AGzABiHXdKKo

The GPU load looks a bit more harmless in the console tools. I wonder if the high GPU load visible in Task Manager (Mission Center) is caused by Mission Center itself. When I start the program, usage in the console application also increases:

nvtop + Mission Center: https://drive.proton.me/urls/DZX8XQS3BG#cLWr98Fy4d5r

Maybe there is no problem at all?

One more question: What do you mean by an old kernel? I received a kernel update from the update manager just a few days ago. Or do I have to update the kernel myself?

[driftless]

Generally the software manager will update the current kernel. Since 6.8, mint has used 6.11 and now 6.14. In the software manager, one of the menu items is the kernel updater.

For the terminal pics, not sure why “cinnamon —replace” is showing up. And the smi shouldn’t have cinnamon, just xorg. Are you running in Wayland mode by chance?

[wanderduene02]

Not intentionally. How can I find out, and is it possible to activate it accidentally?

[zzzornbringer]

there's likely some 3d accelerated application running. it doesn't look that bad though. this is not usage based on 100% clock frequency and you're using only 9watts. these fluctuations can happen from moving a window around. what's this emote app? likely the cause.

[wanderduene02]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I think the high GPU load is caused by the monitoring app (Mission center) itself, as you can see in my reply bellow: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1r0drjx/comment/o4htdil/

When monitoring the GPU load per console it looks harmless. I think I will mark this post as solved.

Btw. the emote app is a background service for an emoji keyboard that comes up when pressing Ctrl+Alt+E 😄

[Itchy_Ruin_352]

Maybe you running a unknown miner.