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Question

Why is Flash CPU usage so high on my PC?

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
April 20, 2013
3 replies
81668 views

To other psoters here - Please do not hijack my thread for any other performance issues with Flash other than high CPU usage.

This thread is (hopefully) dedicated to why the CPU usage on my desktop PC jumps when I go to a page with flash 'content'. Thank you!

I am hoping that there is an answer for why my computer is using a very high amount of CPU percentage when I am viewing flash content?

I am running Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2 on a Gateway GT5432 desktop computer.

I have Shockwave Flash version 11.7.700.169 installed.

I am using Firefox version 20.0.1 (but I have seen same problem of high CPU with Google chrome).

Here is one page that is causing the high CPU usage.

- http://logansroadhouse.com/Default.aspx

That page appears to have lots of Flash content.

If I open that logans roadhouse page, my CPU usage goes from an average of 12%, to 80%!

The process I see jump are:

- Firefox's "plugin-container.exe" goes from 0% to about 50%

- Firefox browser "firefox.exe" goes from around 8% to 14%

- Adobe's plugin "FlashPlayerPlugin_11_7_700_169.exe" goes from 0% to 16%

- TOTAL CPU change from 8% to 80% after opening up just this one page !

When I close the page, the CPU usage goes down again. Open again - CPU goes high again.

Also if I go to the firefox addons page and DISABLE the SHOCKWAVE FLASH plugin, then go to that Logans Roadhouse page, very little of the content I saw with Flash enabled is visible - which I take to mean it is a page consisting of lots of Flash 'content'. Also the CPU usage remains low (8%) if I go to that page - after disabling the Shockwave Flash plugin.

I have seen the CPU also go high on youtube.com pages also - CPU jumps just as I said above - if Flash is enabled. CPU then drops after disabling Flash plugin.

I was hoping you had a fix for my problem? My PC becomes almost unusable with the CPU so high. It sure looks like it is the Flash plugin driving the CPU so high.

This topic has been closed for replies.

P

petramal

New Participant

On our computer there is also high CPU usage using Flash with Firefox. However, the CPU usage is much lower, a third or a quarter, when the very same sites are opened using Flash with Microsoft Edge (the new browser bundled with Windows 10). Consequently, the CPU heats up dramatically with Firefox+Flash, but the temperature is moderate with Edge+Flash. So it seems to be a problem of the Flash plugin for Firefox.

Until the problem is solved by Adobe and/or Firefox, open up Tools>Add-Ons>Plugins in Firefox and change the setting for Shockwave Flash from Always Activate to Ask to Activate. Then Flash will run (and send CPU usage shooting up) only if you want it for some particular feature on a website and choose to activate it.

ams-ams

Participating Frequently

Same here petramal. I was running Flash Player version 19.0 r0 within Firefox 42.0 on Windows 7, and disabled it because of high CPU usage.

jeromiec83223024

Community Manager

You guys might want to try out the 64-bit Firefox Beta. This version uses Firefox's native plugin sandbox, instead of the one that we had to retrofit to 32-bit Firefox. It should also make much better use of available memory on 64-bit machines.

Mozilla Firefox Web Browser — Download Firefox Developer Edition or Beta & Help Determine the Next Firefox — Mozilla

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paulHATESadobe

New Participant

Because the flash player coding is absolute crap. I have a 2.8GHZ quad-core intel xeon with 10gb DDR ram and when i open a youtube video the shockwave flash can run close to 90% of the CPU power. How ridiculous is that?

chris.campbell

Community Manager

On my system (windows 8, Intel i5 2500K @ 3.3Ghz) I'm seeing the following after fully loading the URL referenced above

Firefox: .3% - 1.2%

Plugin container: .4% - 1.0%

FlashPlayerPlugin_11_7_700_169.exe: .4% - 2.2%

Of course our CPU's are different so I wouldn't expect the percentages to be the same. However, I'm definitely not seeing anything dramatic. Do you notice any difference if you temporarily disable protected mode (see the bottom of the FAQ below)?

How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

M

mnalepAuthor

Participating Frequently

I added the line ProtectedMode=0 to that mms.cfg file, and it made very little difference to the overall CPU usage.

The "FlashPlayerPlugin_11_7_700_169.exe" file was lower - at about 6% , instead of 16% - but the other two files were about the same:

- Firefox's "plugin-container.exe" goes from 0% to about 50%

- Firefox browser "firefox.exe" goes from around 8% to 14%

- Adobe's plugin "FlashPlayerPlugin_11_7_700_169.exe" goes from 0% to 6%

- TOTAL CPU changed from 8% to 70% after opening up that page - with protected mode disabled .

(For reference purposes, my PC has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.60Ghz CPU chip.)

T

thoughtspart3

Participating Frequently

I am also facing the same problem from last 2-3 weeks since i upgraded my flash player to latest one.

All softwares and drivers are upto-date.

I play wartune MMO flash browser based game (also applicable to youtube videos) which is now using above 80% of CPU. Before upgrading, CPU usage was normal around 5-15% depending upon the events, but not more than 20% even if i open 3-4 accounts of wartune in different windows at the same time. It happens in all browsers (IE10, Mozila22.00, Opera12.15, Chrome27.0.1453.116 m).

I tried all solutions like disabling hardware acceleration, flash cache size to unlimited, clearing all flash cache etc but the same problem.

Please fix this problem as soon as possible.

My System Specs as follows

System

	Manufacturer	System manufacturer
	Model	System Product Name
	Total amount of system memory	4.00 GB RAM
	System type	64-bit operating system
	Number of processor cores	2

Storage

	Total size of hard disk(s)	307 GB
	Disk partition (C:)	18 GB Free (40 GB Total)
	Disk partition (D:)	28 GB Free (34 GB Total)
	Disk partition (E:)	11 GB Free (58 GB Total)
	Disk partition (F:)	4 GB Free (58 GB Total)
	Disk partition (G:)	6 GB Free (116 GB Total)

Graphics

	Display adapter type	Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset
	Total available graphics memory	1759 MB
	Dedicated graphics memory	128 MB
	Dedicated system memory	0 MB
	Shared system memory	1631 MB
	Display adapter driver version	8.15.10.2869
	Primary monitor resolution	1440x900
	DirectX version	DirectX 10

Network

Network Adapter

Realtek RTL8168D/8111D Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20)

OS Name	Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Version	6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description	Not Available
OS Manufacturer	Microsoft Corporation
System Name	Y2K-PC
System Manufacturer	System manufacturer
System Model	System Product Name
System Type	x64-based PC
Processor	Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU	E4500 @ 2.20GHz, 2203 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date	American Megatrends Inc. 0702, 17-01-2011
SMBIOS Version	2.5
Windows Directory	C:\Windows
System Directory	C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device	\Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale	India
Hardware Abstraction Layer	Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name	y2k-PC\y2k
Time Zone	India Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)	4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory	3.75 GB
Available Physical Memory	2.07 GB
Total Virtual Memory	7.49 GB
Available Virtual Memory	5.80 GB
Page File Space	3.75 GB
Page File	C:\pagefile.sys

Name	Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset
PNP Device ID	PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2E32&SUBSYS_836D1043&REV_03\3&11583659&0&10
Adapter Type	Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family, Intel Corporation compatible
Adapter Description	Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset
Adapter RAM	1.75 GB (1,877,536,768 bytes)
Installed Drivers	igdumd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igdumdx32,igd10umd32
Driver Version	8.15.10.2869
INF File	oem6.inf (iEGL0 section)
Color Planes	Not Available
Color Table Entries	4294967296
Resolution	1440 x 900 x 59 hertz
Bits/Pixel	32
Memory Address	0xFE400000-0xFE7FFFFF
Memory Address	0xE0000000-0xEFFFFFFF
I/O Port	0x0000DC00-0x0000DC07
IRQ Channel	IRQ 4294967294
I/O Port	0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port	0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address	0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver	c:\windows\system32\drivers\igdkmd64.sys (8.15.10.2869, 10.14 MB (10,629,408 bytes), 14-11-2012 16:57)

I am still having the problem too. It seems like this is not getting addressed. The posting has decreased because people are just giving up and learning to live with it. I can only watch 5 minutes of any flash video before my cpu overheats. I have no problem with any other video player. I just don't watch anything flash anymore which sucks but what can you do? If Adobe doesn't fix it there isn't any way for us to do it.

The thing that stinks is that a significant but small number of people have the problem. So, it doesn't get much resourses at Adobe. At least that is the way it seems to be playing out. In their defense it is really hard to isolate any consistent variables because it happens on newer and older systems with a variety of configurations.

If you find a solution please post it here.

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