VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#1

Post by Kristine1975 » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 2:29 PM UTC

VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering
github.com

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#2

Post by okket » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:01 PM UTC

TL;DR: It seems to be a problem in Chromium, the relevant CSS (one second change) results in a 60hz animation cycle.

Workaround:

  "editor.cursorBlinking": "solid"

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#3

Post by johnhattan » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:03 PM UTC

okket wrote: post #2

TL;DR: It seems to be a problem in Chromium, the relevant CSS (one second change) results in a 60hz animation cycle. Workaround: "editor.cursorBlinking": "solid"

You think this is gonna be fixed in Chromium, fixed in VSCode, or working-as-designed?

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#4

Post by davidascher » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:04 PM UTC

Reminds me of this ancient Firefox bug about the performance cost of the throbber: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=437829

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#5

Post by adamnemecek » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:04 PM UTC

...21st century desktop application development ladies and gentlemen (not that I'm proposing anything constructive).

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#6

Post by Mahn » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:05 PM UTC

Sounds like this can be fixed by moving away from animating opacity to something more rudimentary like flipping the display property in JS. CSS3 animations from my experience are a bit taxing in general, and something you want to use only in small bursts, not constantly running in the background.

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#7

Post by revelation » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:05 PM UTC

okket wrote: post #2

TL;DR: It seems to be a problem in Chromium, the relevant CSS (one second change) results in a 60hz animation cycle. Workaround: "editor.cursorBlinking": "solid"

Okay, but checking at 60 hz if an animation needs to be updated is not relevant work. In no universe should that cause 13% processor load.

Sure maybe you can get smarter and realize that all animations run at 2 hz and then also only check at 2 hz, but it seems the root problem here is an entirely different one.

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#8

Post by okket » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:06 PM UTC

johnhattan wrote: post #3

okket wrote: post #2

TL;DR: It seems to be a problem in Chromium, the relevant CSS (one second change) results in a 60hz animation cycle. Workaround: "editor.cursorBlinking": "solid"

You think this is gonna be fixed in Chromium, fixed in VSCode, or working-as-designed?

Issues/bugs are filed, see https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/22900#issuecommen...

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#9

Post by abrkn » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:06 PM UTC

I recently switched from Atom to VS Code and have noticed a considerable reduction in lag, especially when using CMD+D and searching through project files.

Re: VS Code uses 13% CPU when idle due to blinking cursor rendering

#10

Post by thecpphorse » Thu, Mar 23, 2017, 3:09 PM UTC

Google Docs has the exact same behavior and has for years. I can hear my laptop's CPU whining when the cursor fades in and out.