Foxconn nt-330i CPU usage is 25%+ when sitting idle

[jrinco11]

Hi all,

I have a foxconn nt-330i and I just installed openelec and the only thing I've done is installed the "Night" skin, and the sytem is sitting at 5.5%, 26.5%, 5.0%, 20% CPU usage (2 cores each with 2 threads) and the fan is constantly running. Any ideas what's using the processors with it just sitting idle?

[tergo]

XBMC in general has very high useage when idle, it is caused by code being carried over from the original Xbox. It runs in a gameloop meaning it is constantly redrawing the screen even when nothing changes.

My desktop has GTX460 graphics card, it is powerful enough to play Crysis so you would think that a few pictures and backgrounds on a screen are easy for it, right? Wrong, when I start XBMC I can actually hear my GPU ramping up, and I have a VERY quiet case. Basically it is just bad programming and it is an inherent part of XBMC, changing it would be very difficult.

Vertical blank sync setting can have some effect if I recall.

With the next version of XBMC (Eden) there is some patch (called 'dirty regions') which could potentially lower CPU and GPU useage.

[jrinco11]

XBMC in general has very high useage when idle, it is caused by code being carried over from the original Xbox. It runs in a gameloop meaning it is constantly redrawing the screen even when nothing changes.

My desktop has GTX460 graphics card, it is powerful enough to play Crysis so you would think that a few pictures and backgrounds on a screen are easy for it, right? Wrong, when I start XBMC I can actually hear my GPU ramping up, and I have a VERY quiet case. Basically it is just bad programming and it is an inherent part of XBMC, changing it would be very difficult.

Vertical blank sync setting can have some effect if I recall.

With the next version of XBMC (Eden) there is some patch (called 'dirty regions') which could potentially lower CPU and GPU useage.

ah, yes, I heard about the new version also addressing this issue - something about no longer needing to constantly refresh all the graphics on the screen (perhaps similar to what you mentioned?). I've been using it as is now for a few hours and it seems to work just fine, even with the 'high idle cpu', so I guess I'll just live with it

[Zymac]

Set Vertical blank sync to Off or "Only when playing video", then the cpu usage should be lower.

[tergo]

Set Vertical blank sync to Off or "Only when playing video", then the cpu usage should be lower.

Actuall I think it's the other way around.

Just testing on my desktop (not OpenElec but I assume it works the same):

-If I set Vertical Blank Sync to OFF then according to the debug overlay the framerate is 100fps

-If I set VSYNC to ALWAYS ENABLED then the framerate goes to 60fps.