Very High GPU Usage With New Launchbox Update (13.7 and 13.8)

[Wonderboy]

I open LaunchBox and GPU usage immediately ramps up to well past 30% and just stays there, I'm only in LaunchBox and haven't opened BigBox or even done any navigating in the app, this is just how it behaves when opening up to the most recent system. Even climbs up to over 40% sometimes.

I left it open for over 5 minutes and it just stayed like that. Closed it and opened it again several times, but it still does this every time.

Before the latest 2 updates I never noticed this before, has something changed?

Task Manager screen cap:

https://imgur.com/a/eq4reWd

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Wonderboy

[C-Beats]

We don't have any code we run on the GPU. WPF does utilize DirectX to render the app which will use the GPU when possible. How much really depends on what all you have visible. We really don't have much control over how the runtime utilizes that as it's all managed by the .NET runtime and isn't called explicitly by us.

[Wonderboy]

10 hours ago, C-Beats said:

We don't have any code we run on the GPU. WPF does utilize DirectX to render the app which will use the GPU when possible. How much really depends on what all you have visible. We really don't have much control over how the runtime utilizes that as it's all managed by the .NET runtime and isn't called explicitly by us.

Okay, I'm not sure I fully understand everything you wrote but I think I get the gist of it. Are you saying that Launchbox does not directly require large GPU resources?

Can you tell me if that kind of GPU usage is at all normal, when the program is just sitting there and showing some box art?

I'm imagining it isn't and based on what you said the problem must lie elsewhere ie: not in Launchbox code but perhaps in the .Net runtime code?

[C-Beats]

14 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

Launchbox does not directly require large GPU resources

Simply stating that we don't have much control over what is being used.

 

14 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

Can you tell me if that kind of GPU usage is at all normal, when the program is just sitting there and showing some box art?

To be honest I've never looked. It would also greatly depend on hardware and so my experience probably wouldn't line up with yours. Some things you could try are to use bigger grid images to see if it lessens the load. Could also swap to List View and see if it decreases.

One thing to note is that any resource sitting on the GPU I'm fairly certain is released or offloaded once the app is no longer active and so shouldn't have much impact on your ability to play games launched from it.

[Retro808]

14 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

Can you tell me if that kind of GPU usage is at all normal, when the program is just sitting there and showing some box art?

The number you are seeing is about normal for my set-ups over the years. Past couple years it tends to sit around 1200-1400 depending on which pc it is and the theme/view being used. I know I have seen similar from other users posts. 

[Wonderboy]

13 hours ago, Retro808 said:

The number you are seeing is about normal for my set-ups over the years. Past couple years it tends to sit around 1200-1400 depending on which pc it is and the theme/view being used. I know I have seen similar from other users posts. 

I'm not sure I follow you. 12-14% is a long way from 42%, it just seems excessively high to me for a program that is sitting there doing nothing, and so I think there is an issue. Especially considering it didn't do this before, as I have only noticed it on the previous 2 updates, because the fans in my PC started ramping up as soon as I opened Launchbox.

Is there a way to downgrade the version of Launchbox?

Edited October 13, 2023 by Wonderboy

[Retro808]

5 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

I'm not sure I follow you. 12-14% is a long way from 42%, it just seems excessively high to me for a program that is sitting there doing nothing, and so I think there is an issue. Especially considering it didn't do this before, as I have only noticed it on the previous 2 updates, because the fans in my PC started ramping up as soon as I opened Launchbox.

Is there a way to downgrade the version of Launchbox?

You misread my post. 1200-1400 is not a percent. I was referencing the memory count 1200-1400MB/s. Your screen shot shows you are around 1450MB/s. Its been several years since my builds have been below 1000. I believe there are some posts back as far as 2021 users asking about their memory being in the same range. Even though the app is sitting so to speak LB has cached a bunch of data in the memory to aid in speed of the app and responsiveness. Newer versions offer updated features so it is always likely it could have increased a bit. Our devs try to balance this as much as possible. 

To install a prior version look in your \updates folder. It contains all prior installers for versions you have used. Rerun the one you need. 

[Wonderboy]

1 hour ago, Retro808 said:

You misread my post. 1200-1400 is not a percent. I was referencing the memory count 1200-1400MB/s. Your screen shot shows you are around 1450MB/s. Its been several years since my builds have been below 1000. I believe there are some posts back as far as 2021 users asking about their memory being in the same range. Even though the app is sitting so to speak LB has cached a bunch of data in the memory to aid in speed of the app and responsiveness. Newer versions offer updated features so it is always likely it could have increased a bit. Our devs try to balance this as much as possible. 

To install a prior version look in your \updates folder. It contains all prior installers for versions you have used. Rerun the one you need. 

I see, thanks for clarifying what you meant. But I still don't understand your reference to memory usage? I was saying that the GPU usage (processing, not memory usage) is running very high and has only started doing this recently, causing the fans in my PC to increase a lot, literally 5 seconds after starting Launchbox.

This seems like very odd behaviour and a lot of excess processing, when the program is idle. Because when I took that screen shot, no caching was being done as I had left it for 5 minutes to see if it would drop down, but it just keeps fluctuating and generally staying high as though something is going on, but it's just displaying some box art, I even paused videos in the sidebar.

Other than running modern games, the only thing that uses the GPU in my system at similar levels, is running a 4k movie in full screen, but even then my system doesn't start running all fans at full speed, like is happening with Launchbox.

Something is definitely off.

[Wonderboy]

I just downgraded to 13.6 and the issue instantly went away. GPU Usage now sits at between 5-15% and no loud PC fans whizzing up. There's an issue here guys, something has changed in the latest 2 versions to make that happen.

 

Edited October 13, 2023 by Wonderboy

[Retro808]

Ah crap, I was looking at memory (I saw the 45% at the top and brain immediately went there) versus GPU. Completely missed you quite succinctly stated "GPU".  Reading is fundamental 😃

In the 13.7 and 13.8 releases I am not sure what updates would be using more GPU. So not sure why you are seeing such a big increase. 

Here is a pic of mine in 13.8 The differences are when a video is running in LB details window (GPU at almost 8%) versus when I pause the video (GPU at 0%).

[C-Beats]

2 hours ago, Wonderboy said:

There's an issue here guys, something has changed in the latest 2 versions to make that happen.

Nothing visually has changed and so I'm not entirely sure what would cause you to see any difference. Out of curiosity, what video card are you using and have you tried to update drivers? Also what theme are you using, and are you using the same theme in all versions? I could see different themes needing more GPU power depending on how many elements they render.

[Wonderboy]

13 hours ago, Retro808 said:

Ah crap, I was looking at memory (I saw the 45% at the top and brain immediately went there) versus GPU. Completely missed you quite succinctly stated "GPU".  Reading is fundamental 😃

In the 13.7 and 13.8 releases I am not sure what updates would be using more GPU. So not sure why you are seeing such a big increase. 

Here is a pic of mine in 13.8 The differences are when a video is running in LB details window (GPU at almost 8%) versus when I pause the video (GPU at 0%).

No problem, all good

Yeah, it doesn't really make much sense based of everything you guys have said, I guess there is a glitch somewhere that is behind it.

Thanks for the screen grabs, that is interesting to see how low your GPU usage is, wish mine would sit on 0% when idle, because that's what most other programs do. But I'm glad that at least the 13.6 downgrade has temporarily improved things a lot.

[Wonderboy]

12 hours ago, C-Beats said:

Nothing visually has changed and so I'm not entirely sure what would cause you to see any difference. Out of curiosity, what video card are you using and have you tried to update drivers? Also what theme are you using, and are you using the same theme in all versions? I could see different themes needing more GPU power depending on how many elements they render.

My graphics card is a GTX 1080. I updated my drivers right after this started happening but unfortunately it didn't help.

Since this issue occurred I have only tried running LaunchBox (no BigBox) and the theme I'm using is the old LaunchBox default theme.

Edited October 14, 2023 by Wonderboy

[aett]

Just chiming in to say that I'm experiencing the same issue with high GPU usage with the latest build of Launchbox. When the program is open and the window isn't minimized, my total GPU usage jumps to an average of 40%. In Task Manager, it says that about 25% of this is Launchbox and the other 15% is Desktop Window Manager. If I close Launchbox, or even just minimize it, total usage drops instantly to 0-1%.

I have a 3080 ti, and have been using it for about 15 months. I've been using Launchbox for probably two+ years. Last week, I reformatted my primary SSD and reinstalled Windows from scratch. I only just now noticed the GPU usage, so I'm not sure if it started as soon as I reinstalled Windows, or with the latest Launchbox update, which came shortly after. If it did start with my new Windows installation and not the latest version of Launchbox, then I wonder if it has to do with me now using Windows 11 instead of 10.

It's not a huge problem, because it doesn't affect gameplay (due to not being active on my screen), but I just wanted to mention that it's not just Wonderboy or their particular GPU.