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Visualizer Causing High CPU Usage

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itsafreshie
Posts: 2
Joined: April 3rd, 2021, 11:54 pm

Visualizer Causing High CPU Usage

Post by itsafreshie »

Hello! I am new to Rainmeter and have just started working on my first setup with a few cool skins that I have found on the internet. I am really enjoying the new feel of my desktop but I've encountered a CPU issue while using the visualizer skin that I have set up (Ocean Visualizer). With 4 different visualizers active (as shown in the screenshot) my Rainmeter CPU usage spikes up to almost 25%! I currently have a core I5-7600K at 4Ghz. Is this high amount of CPU usage normal or is there something that I can do to reduce this? I really love how my desktop looks, however 25% CPU when I am listening to music is just too much for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Screenshot:
https://imgur.com/a/KtC4L5n
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SilverAzide
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Re: Visualizer Causing High CPU Usage

Post by SilverAzide »

itsafreshie wrote: April 4th, 2021, 12:08 am Hello! I am new to Rainmeter and have just started working on my first setup with a few cool skins that I have found on the internet. I am really enjoying the new feel of my desktop but I've encountered a CPU issue while using the visualizer skin that I have set up (Ocean Visualizer). With 4 different visualizers active (as shown in the screenshot) my Rainmeter CPU usage spikes up to almost 25%! I currently have a core I5-7600K at 4Ghz. Is this high amount of CPU usage normal or is there something that I can do to reduce this? I really love how my desktop looks, however 25% CPU when I am listening to music is just too much for me. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Screenshot:
https://imgur.com/a/KtC4L5n
This is entirely expected with visualizers, as they run at a very high refresh rate. With 4 running at once, I am not surprised. One thing you can check for is the refresh rate is set properly in each skin. Right-click the skin and select the "Edit skin" option. At the top of the file, there is a section named [Rainmeter]. Look for a line that reads Update=<some number>. Make sure that number is not less than 16. You can experiment with values larger than 16 (milliseconds) to see where the animations start to stutter or look bad, then select a smaller value.

Also, make sure on the Rainmeter Manage dialog, on the Settings tab, you have the "Use hardware acceleration" option checked.
itsafreshie
Posts: 2
Joined: April 3rd, 2021, 11:54 pm

Re: Visualizer Causing High CPU Usage

Post by itsafreshie »

SilverAzide wrote: April 4th, 2021, 1:49 am This is entirely expected with visualizers, as they run at a very high refresh rate. With 4 running at once, I am not surprised. One thing you can check for is the refresh rate is set properly in each skin. Right-click the skin and select the "Edit skin" option. At the top of the file, there is a section named [Rainmeter]. Look for a line that reads Update=<some number>. Make sure that number is not less than 16. You can experiment with values larger than 16 (milliseconds) to see where the animations start to stutter or look bad, then select a smaller value.

Also, make sure on the Rainmeter Manage dialog, on the Settings tab, you have the "Use hardware acceleration" option checked.
Thanks for the response! I think my best option for now is to make a setting to toggle them off when I am not listening to music. Turning on hardware acceleration did help a bit too.
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balala
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Re: Visualizer Causing High CPU Usage

Post by balala »

itsafreshie wrote: April 4th, 2021, 12:08 am With 4 different visualizers active (as shown in the screenshot) my Rainmeter CPU usage spikes up to almost 25%!
:o Using four visualizer skins at a time? :o This is completely crazy. As SilverAzide said, you should never do this: https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36699&p=187618#p187618 (same applies even if the Update is greater than 16).
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