CPU spikes observed when playing youtube videos

[Gopala Krishna Bandaru]

CPU is going almost 100% and videos feel laggy. Playing just one video on youtube , the cpu goes to almost 70% usage and then if 2 or 3 tabs are opened for video playback, the cpu goes to 100% usage. Its a recent phenomenon. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling nvidia drivers, still the same issue.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+23ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.5.0-17.17~22.04.1-generic 6.5.8
Uname: Linux 6.5.0-17-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.capabilities.gpu0: Error: path was not a regular file.
.proc.driver.nvidia.capabilities.mig: Error: path was not a regular file.
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0000.01.00.0: Error: path was not a regular file.
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend: suspend hibernate resume
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend_depth: default modeset uvm
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 535.154.05 Thu Dec 28 15:37:48 UTC 2023
 GCC version: gcc version 12.3.0 (Ubuntu 12.3.0-1ubuntu1~22.04)
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82.5
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Fri Feb 9 06:45:36 2024
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: jammy
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation GA106 [RTX A2000 12GB] [10de:2571] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:1611]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2023-08-16 (176 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Release amd64 (20220419)
MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. To Be Filled By O.E.M.
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_IN:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_IN
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-17-generic root=UUID=44a159e4-2bf4-4656-bf23-dd33975faef6 ro quiet splash nomodeset vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/16/2020
dmi.bios.release: 5.14
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P4.00
dmi.board.name: A320M-HDV R4.0
dmi.board.vendor: ASRock
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP4.00:bd07/16/2020:br5.14:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rnA320M-HDVR4.0:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:skuToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.family: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.sku: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.113-2~ubuntu0.22.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx N/A
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers-* N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:21.1.4-2ubuntu1.7~22.04.8
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-2ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20210115-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.17-2build1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

* What web browser are you using?

* What is the name of the process using the most CPU?

* Maybe unrelated, but your '88x2bu' kernel driver (for USB wifi) seems to be crashing.

* Please be sure to only use the 'Additional Drivers' app to install Nvidia drivers because it looks like you might have an unsupported driver installed, which may cause problems.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Oh sorry, I see the problem. The high CPU is caused by the 'nomodeset' kernel parameter. Please remove that parameter because it tells the system to use high CPU instead of using the Nvidia GPU.

'nomodeset' might be OK if the Nvidia driver was properly installed, but the Nvidia driver doesn't seem to be working. So please also uninstall the one you have and only use the 'Additional Drivers' app to install drivers.

[Gopala Krishna Bandaru (bandargo)]

Hi Daniel, thank you! I have made the changes as you said ( using additional drivers to install nvidia drivers and also removed nomodeset from grub config) and checked the cpu and gpu usage, cpu is still at > 80% and gpu usage between 20-25%. I am using microsoft edge.

I switched over to chrome and there doesnt seem to be cpu usage more than 30-35% while the gpu usage shows about 28-47% usage in nvidia control panel while playing video on 4 tabs of youtube simultaneously. Looks like something to do with microsoft edge browser is causing the cpu spikes.

Also regarding the 88x2bu, my wifi adapter doesnt get recognized by ubuntu and had to manually install the drivers for it. It is netgear a6150 which doesnt have drivers for it by default in ubuntu while installing the os.