Flash - CPU Usage - FPS - Frame Rate

[math_guy87]

Ok, I first want to apologize if this problem has been answered and fixed before, but I have spent days pouring over forums, and I still can not fix my problem. It requires a little bit of background first:

I can't remember how long ago it started, but whenever I am viewing a flash file (a game, videos from youtube, advertisements, etc.) My CPU usage increases to 99-100% and remains there until I close the program that is running it, or go to a different webpage. I normally use firefox, so for the longest time I was searching for the problem relating to firefox exclusively. I came across FlashBlock, and I still use it in Firefox. However, this is not a SOLUTION to the problem, just a "work around." If I actually want to view the flash content - bye bye CPU usage.

So for the longest time I focused on firefox. I completely uninstalled and removed flash and firefox from my computer, and reinstalled. I even tried it with an older version of flash, because I can't remember always having this problem, and the problem persisted. But now I have everything up to date, and the problem is still there.

Then I decided to use IE for a little bit because I was upset at Firefox. I was surprised when I was on youtube, or playing a flash game, that my CPU went up to 100% and remained there. SO instead of googling "flash firefox cpu" I just googled "flash cpu" and I have been doing some research/experimenting. I am - by no means - a very technical person or a programmer, I am an ordinary user that is upset about this problem. I went to this page http://www.bezzmedia.com/swfspot/samples/beginner/Show_the_Current_Frames_Per_Second and watched my cpu usage go up to 100. But when the animation goes to a lower fps, from about 1-5, my cpu usage goes down, but only to about 80. So what happens is I can do control-alt-delete and watch the performance tab's graph. After letting it run for a while, I get almost an perfect, symmetrical mountainous "landscape" if that makes sense - with bumps up to a hundred, and coming down to about 80. It is so consistent that I am positive my system cannot handle even normal frame rates for some reason. However, I am running on XP Pro with a Pentium 4 2.80GHz processor and 2.5 gigs of RAM and I should not even be having this problem - I can run tons of programs and not have my cpu usage go above even 50, but a flash video puts it at 100. It is ridiculous! I don't have a virus or anything, and I actually take pride in keeping my computer clean and efficient. It happens to all users on the computer as well.

Again, I am not a programmer. Is there some option somewhere that I can tell my flash content to reduce its frame rate, or not go above a certain number? It seems that many people are having this problem. I think I remember someone somewhere saying that with the newer versions, they are trying to perform "better" than an older version you had, and the frames per second increases, but I have no idea if this is true. Should I roll back to a later version, like 5? I already tried it back on version 9 but I still had the problem.

The "ideal" solution is to figure out what is going on with the frame rate on my computer. Maybe if I could just right click the flash, and tell it to play a lower fps? Does hardware acceleration have to do with this? Also, changing the "quality" of the flash content from low to high or medium doesn't affect the cpu usage - it stays at 100%.

Please help out an ignorant person if you can. I want to preserve the life of my computer as long as possible. If someone could help me - in layman's terms - I would greatly appreciate it, and so would all the other upset people googling "flash cpu problem." Thank you!

[cjm76]

Finally...proof that I am not  going mad and that kglad's tweaks to his website make no difference at all to me.

Flash Player Unacceptable CPU Use on Idle Created: Tuesday 09:55 PM                   Updated: Yesterday 12:15 PM
Component/s:	ActionScript Performance
Security Level:	Public (All JIRA Users                                     )

Severity:	Performance
Reproducibility:	Every Time
Discoverability:	High
Found in Version:	Flash Player 10              - 10_0_1_218
Affected OS(s):	Mac              - OS 10.5
Injection:	No
Steps to Reproduce:	« Hide Steps to reproduce: 1. Create empty FLA 2. Publish as AIR or SWF 3. Install/run AIR app, or run SWF in Stand Alone player or browser 4. Check CPU usage in Activity Monitor    Actual Results:   CPU usage of 3-6% on idle      Expected Results:   CPU usage of ~0% on idle      Workaround (if any):   None. Reducing frame rate reduces CPU use, but remains unacceptable even at 1fps. This is a very serious issue, particularly for AIR applications. Having 3 or 4 AIR applications open on a Mac (a scenario that Adobe would like to see/promote) would use 10-20% of the CPU minimum, even when the applications are not doing anything. I also suspect that this is the root of at least some of the performance problems with Flash CS4 on Mac, as the stage core / swfPanel players are likely each using a sizable % of CPU even when idle.      Show » Steps to reproduce: 1. Create empty FLA 2. Publish as AIR or SWF 3. Install/run AIR app, or run SWF in Stand Alone player or browser 4. Check CPU usage in Activity Monitor  Actual Results:  CPU usage of 3-6% on idle    Expected Results:  CPU usage of ~0% on idle    Workaround (if any):  None. Reducing frame rate reduces CPU use, but remains unacceptable even at 1fps. This is a very serious issue, particularly for AIR applications. Having 3 or 4 AIR applications open on a Mac (a scenario that Adobe would like to see/promote) would use 10-20% of the CPU minimum, even when the applications are not doing anything. I also suspect that this is the root of at least some of the performance problems with Flash CS4 on Mac, as the stage core / swfPanel players are likely each using a sizable % of CPU even when idle.
Language Found:	English
Bugbase Id:	none
Triaged:	Yes
Participants:	Grant Skinner,             Manfred Karrer and             Tao Feng
Browser:	Other (specify version)

[Michael Borbor]

Yes you're right there are definitively a few performance issues with Flash Player, any software is perfect. Adobe engineers must be working very hard on this, remember that Adobe's plans are taking a full feature FP to cell phones so I think will see big progress about performance in the near future.

[Greg Dove]

That JIRA bug report is the same information I posted earlier (there's a link to it from the blog entry which is more descriptive). As I mentioned, it's specific for mac players and adobe (based on comments on grant skinner's blog) appear to be working to fix it.

But I think the point everyone pretty much agrees on still remains....4% is not the same as 85% at idle for example and if adobe fix this (as they should) then there is still 81% "opportunity" for CPU reduction if the application is intended to be in a 'resting' state - this is related to coding, i.e. 'us'.

[kglad]

i can't see anything in that pic.  it's too small and too low resolution so scaling it up causes it to be unreadable.

but i believe you.  did you clear your browser's cache before re-visiting kglad.com?  if not, can you try that and see if utilization is still above 40%?

[cjm76]

KGLAD - to the top left of the pic is a link where you can download the .jpg.  Its 330Kb in size and plenty big enough.

Agree with Greg Dove, this is an issue with Mac and Flash Player and needs to be fixed by Adobe.

PLEASE can anyone suffering from same problem as me on this thread go the following website, register, then search for "FP-2009" and then VOTE (on the left of the page) to increase the priority on this issue.

https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/secure/Dashboard.jspa

This bug currently has 131 people who have voted for it....lets get it up to 150 quickly!

Chris

[kglad]

got it.  thank you.  i didn't know about the activity monitor.  (i have a new macbook pro but only got it to program for the iphone when i'm traveling.)

i tried my website using safari and saw between 30%-40% cpu utilization.  so, that's more than a 10-fold difference between my pc and mac.

some of that may be the better specs on my pc but most of that must be a problem with flash and safair/mac os.

i'll tweak my website some more and see it that improves the mac performance.

[lunaticinsane]

Hi,

I was just looking on web to find out if someone having the same problem like me... I am using windows XP on my athlon 2600+, 768mb ram, nforce2  and ati 9600xt configurated computer. I am having the same troubles, which browser i use if a flash content (whether it is video or a banner) i got 100 percent cpu usage (even i write this message)...I hope Adobe is aware that this problem is not effected only Mac users...

[kglad]

i don't think there's any flash on this page.  so if you're getting 100% cpu usage from this page, you have problems beyond a flash issue.

[lunaticinsane]

I was watching a video by that time

All non flash content sites works well, i hope Adobe works this out. By the way, kglad you seem you would like to ignore that kind of a problem because that you dont have but there is suc problem, check out google for "cpu usage flash" keywords...

[Maharashi]

I agree with lunatic. kglad, it is not helpful to anyone that you keep sidestepping the issue and pretending that your 'sick programming skills' are going to fix the known issue. There is plenty of evidence to point towards Flash being the main concern, and even the original post is enough research to show that the common denominator is the Flash plugin. See how many people are having the exact same problem, all exatly with Flash content, most running at at least 1 gig ram and like, 3.0 processors? It is not a coding error, and prominent news stations, flash creators, web designers, game artists, are not all flawed. You're one to believe highly in coincidence aren't you? lol. Getyourselfreal bro. ; ).

Focus on raising awareness, and motivating Adobe to solve the issue. 'Nuff said.

PS - The same happens on any facebook flash game. It takes me hellah long to harvest my sunflowers in FarmVille. LMAO.

[zeroskillz]

kind of raising the dead here...

[Michael Borbor]

Adobe has already done a huge improvement in performance, and fixed a couple

of bugs for Macs, you just need to wait a little bit until Flash Player 10.1

gets released.

This a bug that was fixed.

http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-2009

[Michael Borbor]

I think is the fact that developers or designer are doing pretty complex apps, I visited all web pages that were mention in this thread, and the Mandelbrot was the one that during drawing used at most 10% of my CPU, and then inmediately CPU usage when down to 0, both in Firefox 3.0.10 and IE 8. But I got a Core 2 Duo Quad, I believe that if I use my all P4 PC then things will be different, but in my old computer even open wordpad is painful.

[jortony]

Re: Borbor,

    could you post some basic specs of your computer, perhaps it is a driver issue.... who knows.. but kglad also shares your fortune and we are working to help Adobe fix their delicious product.

[Michael Borbor]

Core 2 Quad Core Q9550 2.83Ghz

HD 1 TB Samsung 7200 RPM/32MB Buffer

4GB RAM

[lunaticinsane]

Correct me if i am wrong. Coding important but i am talking about even flash banners, my configuration is not that bad it can plays hd videos, could run flash banners too... Check this out, http://www.isbank.com.tr/ ,  this is a Turkish bank web page, in the middle you can see a banner including iphone and stuff... Even this banner makes cpu go %100...

İf anyone like i can add screenshot...

[cjm76]

So the   http://www.isbank.com.tr/  website sends my Mac into a 90% CPU frenzy...

lunaticinsane - Please refer to my earlier posts - THIS IS A KNOWN ISSUE THAT ADODE NEED TO FIX.   You need to log into Adobe's bug website (links in earlier post) and vote for bug "FP-2009" to be fixed.

[jortony]

Re:lunaticinsane,

   that banking website's internets seem to be down, through there have been several examples which lead to a general slowdown (ie. Youtube). Could you post your configuration WRT browser, extensions, addons, java, OS, and/or hardware. Mine are above if you see any similarities.

[lunaticinsane]

AMD Atlon 2600+ (single core)

768mb RAM (DDR 400)

Nforce2 Based mainboard

ATI Radeon 9600XT graphic card

2 Harddisks 80+30 gb 7200 rpm

Audigy sound card

Acer 23" full hd monitor

Win Xp Sp3

Firefox 3.0.1

İE 8

Java last edition

I know that my system is old but i can play HL2 at full hd, it should work out a simple flash animation i believe.

Plus, i dont think that this problem depeds on addon's. Because i usually use firefox with a couple of extension but even i use standart ie8 i get the same problem.

[jortony]

we should post this in a pub forum. I don't know how the privacy of this registered forum would influence google search queries. I have to sleep now.. will think about it when I next remember to 😃

[user2171]

I have similar problems (100%CPU) and oddly I can find very little about this in the forums.

My system should easily be able to handle the videos. Furthermore if I download the videos and play them through another video player they run fine, so it is not the hardware. I originally went crazy trying to tweak my Firefox but I also have the problem in Chrome and IE8, so it is not the browser. In fact, reading what few threads I can find it seems this problem has been mentioned on Vista, XP, and Macs, so it isn't even the operating system.

The glow app drops to less than 2fps for me. I have had videos with framerates dropping to less than 1 FPS.

Is FP-2009 the right bug? It says 3-6% on idle on a Mac. This is not the same problem I am facing.

[edu_083]

Hi

I have the same problem with sites that contain flash apps, specially with youtube and those with embedded videos. I've seen that some of you think that this can be an OS related problem; let me say I'm using Linux and I'm having the same issues.

Here are my specifications:

P4 3,2 Ghz

2 GB RAM

ATI Radeon 9200SE

Debian 5.0 "Lenny"

Linux kernel 2.6.26-1-686

Shockwave Flash 10.0 r22

Iceweasel (Firefox) 3.0.6

As someone else said in this thread I can download FLV movies and play them smoothly, with my CPU staying under 10% of usage, so I think this issue is clearly related to Flash player.

[Guest]

I don't know if you all have found out why your cpus are running at 100% but i been doing research on it and found this article and believe it or not a vacumm cleaner solved my problem i have a brand new hp pavillion entertainment just old enough to have a little dust in it but here is the scientific answer for it javascript:; im not a computer guru but this guy seams to know what hes talkin about and it worked i am running at 42 to 52% on justin.tv hq now which i was running 75 to 100% before the vacumm cleaner and my fan is not running as much now too like i said my cpu is not even out of warranty yet and i keep it shiny on the outside and it was enough dust to cause the hardware excelerater to turn off due to to much heat

[jortony]

Perhaps your computer was overheating, but I monitor my GPU temp and

it was not an issue. If anyone wonders if their GPU is overheating

before dismantling, just google "GPU monitor" and install from a good

source. I don't know how this guy seems to know what he is talking

about, he seems like the average forum user battling a problem. I have

solved my problems with Flash, but not for the sake of solving just

that problem. I bought a new high end GPU, motherboard, and a

beautiful processor, now I have no problems. Through in that process I

reinstalled windows including all drivers, different apps, and I am

using a nonstandard OS now as well, so nothing can be inferred from

that. I think it is clear possible that Flash has become very resource

intensive, and they are not going to fix it, hoping in a year or so

all of you will buy new computers.

[Roboblob]

Any ideas how this relates to Silverlight?

Any CPU usage performance comparison available between Flash and Silverlight?

Thanks,

Roboblob

http://blog.roboblob.com