Has anyone else been experiencing WindowServer using about 30% CPU on a consistent basis?
I'm on a Mid-2012 MBPr and it's been that way since install.
I'm on a Mid-2012 MBPr and it's been that way since install.
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WindowServer Constant CPU Usage
- Thread starter r3volution11
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Not seeing that on my Late 2012 13" rMBP. Created a new partition and installed on that this morning. Nothing unusual showing up in Activity Monitor at the moment, but it's early days!
I guess it could be something with my setup that's a bit buggy. I'm using dark mode currently, I'll try giving regular mode a shot.
I'm on the same system, I'm getting between 5%-25% on WindowServer, and nothing is being done on the system except for looking at the Activity Monitor. I've noticed my 2012 MBRr getting hotter then normal too. Also notice this on iOS 9 on my iPhone 6 plus. It gets very hot now.
I've never really noticed WindowServer before, so I can't compare, but on my Air clean install, its usually hovering at around 5-8%. It's usually right under kernel_task, but sometimes goes over.
I haven't paid attention to temperature before so I can't compare it previously but with the CPU being used a bit more on a consistent basis that makes sense.
My iPhone 6 is also running really hot with iOS 9, plus the battery drain is killer. I figured that'd be the case however, it's been that way with every other beta really.
Well, if the CPU is being used on a more consistent basis, you're going to have more heat. What doesn't make sense is why the CPU is being pegged like that?
My wild guess is that it has something to do with Metal and more optimizations need to be made when using the onboard Intel GPU.
You're right! I turned off automatic graphics switching (so I'm just using the Nvidia GPU) and the WindowServer is now hanging around 2-5% ....big difference.
I got all excited but this didn't help me any. Still hovering around 25% when I have my usual stuff open on my displays (15" + Thunderbolt Display). If I had some stuff it gets down to around 10% but will still jump over 20% occasionally. Oh well.
From what I've read, WindowServer is OS X's equivalent of LightDM or Gnome DM. It pretty much draws everything you see on the screen and is the basis of your session. It doesn't just do Dashboard (and in any case, I have Dashboard disabled on this clean install, so it's not like it has any enabled widgets or is even running).
False, WindowServer is used to draw everything you see on your screen. That's why the usage is higher than you have transparency enabled and reduced when you disable it.
I've filed a radar on this in the past and they're working on optimizing it as much as possible but they basically said it is expected to incur some CPU cost due to the UI on Yosemite and so on.
Metal is supposed to help reduce the CPU usage by reducing the CPU overhead with optimized GPU calls on El Cap but so far, not entirely optimized yet as we see here.
Oh my bad than. But maybe it is drawing widgets in background. 
I've got 2 spaces and 5 windows openede while extracting a bluray (rar parts) and WindowsServer is at 2-3%. (Yosemite) But i think that before where i had el cap on the system , there wasn't any higher usage.
This is with integrated Intel HD3000 (384MB).
And according to this , it can cause higher cpu if you have many icons on the desktop.
Source: http://www.macissues.com/2014/10/20/prevent-the-windowserver-process-from-dragging-yosemite-down/
I've got 2 spaces and 5 windows openede while extracting a bluray (rar parts) and WindowsServer is at 2-3%. (Yosemite) But i think that before where i had el cap on the system , there wasn't any higher usage.
This is with integrated Intel HD3000 (384MB).
And according to this , it can cause higher cpu if you have many icons on the desktop.
Source: http://www.macissues.com/2014/10/20/prevent-the-windowserver-process-from-dragging-yosemite-down/
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Oh my bad than. But maybe it is drawing widgets in background.
I've got 2 spaces and 5 windows openede while extracting a bluray (rar parts) and WindowsServer is at 2-3%. (Yosemite) But i think that before where i had el cap on the system , there wasn't any higher usage.
This is with integrated Intel HD3000 (384MB).
And according to this , it can cause higher cpu if you have many icons on the desktop.
Source: http://www.macissues.com/2014/10/20/prevent-the-windowserver-process-from-dragging-yosemite-down/
What model and year is your Mac?
WindowServer is typically much worse on Retina Macs, which makes sense because of the scaling it has to do all the time. On my `12 rMBP 15", it is constantly above 6% and often goes up to 30% if I have multiple windows on screen.
*sigh* is it a 13" or a 15" one? please give specific hardware specifications so that it is possible to differentiate a general problem with OS X or whether it is related to that specific hardware model.
Yea, that explains it, it's not a retina model, so the WindowServer is not going to be as stressed as a Retina model.
Not a new problem, as can be seen in the related threads at the bottom. With issues like these the first thing to do is create a new user, login and check if the issue exists. That will help to confirm if it is an issue specific to your software setup.
But still, this should not happend at all, retina or not.
Correct, no one is saying otherwise. The hope is that Metal is supposed to reduce the CPU usage regardless of what display you have by allowing the GPU to pick up more of the work (which it can do faster). But then again, how optimized is Metal driver that it won't eat up more battery?
So far, we're not seeing anything like that in El Cap DP1. Hopefully, DP2 will improve this.