Comment 9 for bug 298663

My experience is similar. Using top, I've noticed the following:

1 - Open a folder on a remote machine. Remote is a windows server.
      CPU goes up to ~5% and stays there.
2 - Close the window. CPU stays at ~5%.
3 - Open a folder on the local machine.
      Nautilus utilization becomes negligible.
or

1 - Open a folder on a remote machine. Remote is a windows server.
     CPU utilization goes up and stays up.
2 - Open another folder on the local machine.
     CPU utilization becomes negligible.

It seems that after opening the remote folder, opening a local folder returns utilization to < 1%.

Both the local folder and remote typically reside on my desktop, when not open.

While in my testing, 5% is not outrageous, but I've seen utilization sit a 20+%. Noticed since the fans speed up :-)