High CPU usage when playing a video

Zalex108

@vvvivaldi said in High CPU usage when playing a video:

#ignore-gpu-blocklist - disabled

Try enabling that one and Toggle ON/OFF the HWA on V settings.

Or already did it?

vvvivaldi

@Zalex108 Already tried it. Tried all 16 settings states I mentioned in the second code block, as well as the defaults in the first block.

I will do more tests and file a bug report later, if I will be able to describe it in a reproducible way. Currently the issue boils down to the fact, that Vivaldi doesn't enable HW decoding for some video codecs, while Chrome and Firefox do. Simply opening the videos locally is enough to check. Example of suck video format is:

Format                      : MPEG-4
Format profile              : Base Media
Codec ID                    : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size                   : 266 MiB
Duration                    : 12 min 29 s
Overall bit rate            : 2 982 kb/s
Writing application         : Lavf57.83.100

Video
ID                          : 1
Format                      : AVC
Format/Info                 : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile              : [email protected]
Format settings             : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC      : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames   : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP        : N=1
Codec ID                    : avc1
Codec ID/Info               : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                    : 12 min 29 s
Bit rate                    : 2 843 kb/s
Width                       : 1 920 pixels
Height                      : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate mode             : Constant
Frame rate                  : 60.000 FPS
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0
Bit depth                   : 8 bits
Scan type                   : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 0.023
Stream size                 : 254 MiB (95%)
Color range                 : Limited
Color primaries             : BT.709
Transfer characteristics    : BT.709
Matrix coefficients         : BT.709
Codec configuration box     : avcC

What I don't know is whether it's only me, or anyone else have similar issues too. It may not be very obvious on more powerful CPUs. But still, even with more CPU power it is undesirable waste of recourses. And there is now a simple test - the video I linked to in my second post should use the HW decoder if other browsers use it in the same system.

Zalex108

@vvvivaldi

Try checking on the Snapshot, despite currently, if I'm not wrong, it's the same as Stable.

Do a StandAlone installation and test there also.

Any change a month ago +/- that would be triggered?

mib2berlin

@vvvivaldi
Hi, Chrome and other are using own codecs and they have to pay for it, Vivaldi does not.
May you can install the codec to Windows, Vivaldi will use it.
Does your video player support HW acceleration in your system?

Cheers, mib

Zalex108

@vvvivaldi

Just tested your linked video and it pushes the CPU here as well on HD3000.

HWA | On
Override GPU Flag | On

Pending to check on the nVidia.

@mib2berlin

Does it happen on your system?

vvvivaldi

@Zalex108 Checked few older snapshots up to 1.16.1226.3 from Jul 3, 2018, 4:42 PM - issue is present. So apparently it's not a regression. Just to be clear, when I said "About a month ago I noticed..." I only meant that I've noticed it recently. It is possible that the issue had been unnoticed because I didn't watch videos while doing something CPU heavy, or it is related to some changes on my system.

mib2berlin

@Zalex108
Yes, Intel HD 4000 bit I can test on my workstation with Win/Lin Nvidia.
Moment!

Cheers

vvvivaldi

@mib2berlin Tried playing same video in VLC and Media Player Classic - both use HW decoder. I have a bunch of codecs in my system, never had any issues playing any formats locally.

Zalex108

@vvvivaldi

VLC already has it's own Codecs folder, doesn't need any Codec Pack installed.

WMV is another thing... xD

Zalex108

@mib2berlin said in High CPU usage when playing a video:

@Zalex108
Yes, Intel HD 4000 bit I can test on my workstation with Win/Lin Nvidia.
Moment!

Cheers

No hurry!

Thanks

vvvivaldi

@Zalex108 Well, those are the players I've got here. Checking everything else in the "Open With..." menu: Windows thingy called "Movies & TV" - uses HW; Windows thingy called "Photos" - uses HW; Windows Media Player - want's me to setup some stuff I don't want, so skipping it. And as I've said, Firefox and Chrome use HW too. The codec pack I've got installed is called "K-Lite Codec Pack 14.5.0 Full". I'm not really familiar what and why, but I'm using it since XP times, and haven't had any issues with it.

mib2berlin

@vvvivaldi @Zalex108
Same on Windows with Vivaldi stable on Nvidia.
I will check on codecs tomorrow if we find a workaround.

Cheers, mib

Zalex108

@mib2berlin

Same means High CPU?

Zalex108

Using nVidia still uses High CPU.

Pathduck

For what it's worth, these are the results from running that Odysee video in full-screen 2560x1440.

Vivaldi Task Manager:
GPU process: 100 - 120%
Tab process: 20 - 30%

Process Explorer:
GPU process: ~15% CPU, ~4% GPU
Tab process: ~3-5%

Specs:
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4001 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, driver 460.89

So a relatively old system, no problems with that video.

Windows Task manager gives the same results as Process Explorer obviously. Note also that the Vivaldi Task Manager shows usage percentage of the available logical processors/threads, so for a 4-core/8-thread machine the max value will be 800%.

I really don't know how the Vivaldi Task Manager calculates CPU% for the GPU process as a GPU typically has thousands of "cores".

The same video in VLC gives CPU < 1% and GPU ~3%.

The same video in my preferred player Zoom Player gives CPU ~4% and GPU ~60% - which is high but madVR+LAV does some heavy processing to make it look good. By default VLC rendering looks like THB and I can't be arsed to figure out how to make it use madVR.

The advice I've always followed regarding codec packs is this:
https://forum.inmatrix.com/index.php?showtopic=107

Zalex108

@Pathduck

I neither like Codec Packs, the posted link confirms the presumption.

xD

I mostly check the CPU usage with the s and CoreTemp for fine check.

mib2berlin

@Zalex108
Hi, yes high CPU usage low GPU. With Chrome it is the opposite.
@Pathduck
With Windows task manager I can see which part of the GPU is used and Vivaldi use 0% for video decode, Chrome does.
Your CPU and GPU are very powerful even a bit older.

My system:
Intel i5 3570K 16 GB RAM
GTX 760 4 GB /Display card
RTX 2060
Driver 460.79
Vivaldi 3.7.2218.42 / Chrome 89.0.4389.91

vvvivaldi

Ok, this seems reproducible enough at this point, so I've filed the bug report VB-78053. Not gonna test with the other GPU, as it seems that the problem isn't specific to my GPU model or driver.

@Pathduck, Thanks for checking this.

I really don't know how the Vivaldi Task Manager calculates CPU% for the GPU process as a GPU typically has thousands of "cores".

In my understanding that is the CPU usage of the process called "GPU Process", the part that runs on CPU and may spawn tasks on the GPU. In any case, at least for my GPU, there's no such thing as general GPU usage. I't reports CUDA, Graphics pipeline, Decoder, Encoder, any of which can be used 100%, while other parts may be unused. Using a video decoder doesn't affect Graphics or CUDA performance for example.

And yes, your CPU is pretty beefy compared to mine. But still, wasting CPU resources for something that can be done "for free" on a GPU is suboptimal. On my system though, the CPU (really ancient 4 core xeon) is being used 100%, which leads to video stuttering, and for me makes Vivaldi simply "unable" to play some videos. And I believe the CPU part of my PC is on par with the modern low-end systems. Also it may possibly lead to high battery usage on laptops.

Pathduck

@vvvivaldi You didn't post your CPU specs (unless it's hidden somewhere), so I just assumed with a RTX3060Ti the rest of your system would match

Also we get a lot of users just looking at the Vivaldi Task Manager and going "OMG Vivaldi uses more than 100% CPU" when they have a multi-thread machine.

I do notice that Vivaldi does not use any GPU processing on video decode, while Chromium 89 and Chrome does. So that might indeed be a bug, hopefully it will be looked into.

In my understanding that is the CPU usage of the process called "GPU Process", the part that runs on CPU and may spawn tasks on the GPU.

Exactly, so what I don't understand how a value of say 120% "CPU" for the GPU process translates to the 1664 cores the GTX970 has. But that's probably hard to figure out unless looking at the Chromium source code.

iAN CooG

@Pathduck said in High CPU usage when playing a video:

I do notice that Vivaldi does not use any GPU processing on video decode, while Chromium 89 and Chrome does. So that might indeed be a bug, hopefully it will be looked into.

It does sound like a bad taste joke indeed, why should one have HW acceleration enabled if GPU it's not used?