Random 100% GPU usage

[Vokun]

So Wallpaper Engine suddenly starts eating 100% of my GPU at random times multiple times every day when playing any game and it slows down my PC to a halt. I have to force close WE through task manager when this happens and the PC is immediately working as normal when I do. I don't know what triggers this, but sometimes I have noticed that alt tabbing out of games will cause this (might have been a coincidence) and other times this happens even though I have been in full screen mode the entire time.

Any idea what might be causing this? I am running a triple monitor setup, 2x 1440p monitors and one 1080p monitor if that matters on a Ryzen 3700X, 16GB RAM and a GTX970.

[Tim]

Is Wallpaper Engine showing 100% GPU usage in the task manager or another application? Can you run our scan tool the next time this happens and share the log file? Make sure Wallpaper Engine is still running if possible when using the scan tool:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/431960/discussions/1/3307213006836797842/

Alternatively, try to run the scan tool now already (with Wallpaper Engine running).

[Vokun]

wallpaper32 (32 bit) is using 100% of the GPU, I assume that's Wallpaper Engine, right? It shuts down WE when I kill that process at least. Managed to get a screenshot now when it happened again: https://i.imgur.com/HLmpIcc.png

Also, where are the launch options for Wallpaper Engine where I can choose the 4th option scan tool? I have looked everywhere in the Steam settings and I have no settings for launch options as far as I can tell

[Tim]

Just launch Wallpaper Engine via Steam and you will be presented with the 4 launch options. Again, please make sure that you are experiencing the high load while using the tool for the best results.

[Vokun]

Ok, thanks. I'll create another log file on pastebin next time it hangs if I am able to since the PC is almost completely frozen when this happens.

Here is the current pastebin with WE running at least when everything is working as normal. https://pastebin.com/0MgjnPrH

[Vokun]

Here's the paste from when the 100% GPU usage happens: https://pastebin.com/DEKnvVDK

[Tim]

I would recommend you start by doing a clean re-installation of the latest graphics card drivers, make sure to download the latest ones from Nvidia and to check the "Perform clean re-installation" checkbox during setup. Afterwards, open up Nvidia GeForce Experience and turn off Nvidia Share as it's known to cause performance issues on some systems, make sure to turn off the "In-game overlay" option. You also seem to have two GPUs and two monitors, make sure they are plugged into one graphics card and not into one each.

After all of that, try restarting your system and see if the issues persist. If they do, it might be caused by Groupy because it's injecting some code into Wallpaper Engine. I don't remember Groupy causing issues like that but in theory it could. I would recommend to just uninstall it, restart your PC and see if the performance issues continue. If they do, you can re-install it and we'll have to have another look.

[Vokun]

Ok, thanks. I did the first steps, but I literally only have one GPU - a GTX 970 and 3 monitors and all those monitors are hooked up to that 970. What is the second GPU you see? I have no idea what that would be.

I installed Groupy for the first time a couple of days ago and these WE issues were a problem long before then, so I'll wait with uninstalling that program and see if the issues continue.

[Tim]

Ah alright, sorry about that, was confused about something and misread the config.

Alternatively, I would also suggest you switch to the 64 Bit version of Wallpaper Engine just to make sure there are not any conflicting system components, see the last section here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/431960/discussions/2/1711816259057344264/

Generally the 100% lock up could also occur when you run out of available video RAM which could very well be just reached when playing WoW with three monitors active, as it looks like your card only has 4 GB of video RAM. You could use GPU-Z to confirm this while playing and see if the "Memory Used" section in the Sensors tab is nearing 100%, then it's probably just that your graphics card is running out of memory which significantly slows down everything, causing the 100% GPU usage.

In that case I suppose the only thing you can really do is to disable Wallpaper Engine while World of Warcraft or other VRAM-heavy games are active through "Application Rules" in the "Performance" tab of the Wallpaper Engine settings.

[Vokun]

Alright, thanks for the help :) Running 64bit now so I'll see how it goes. WoW is more of a CPU heavy game than a GPU one, and I rarely see it use more than 20-30%, I also only run games on the main monitor while the others are for web browsing and video.

[Tim]

As I said, I was specifically talking about video RAM which is not visible in Task Manager and requires external tools like GPU-Z. If WoW takes up all your video RAM, it may still run smoothly while Wallpaper Engine starts to stutter, it's unrelated to the GPU core usage of WoW which is why I would take a second look at that.