High CPU usage in Big Picture Mode due to Steam's CIPCServer Thread

[dubigrasu]

This issue was already reported one year ago (and never solved) but a Steam support representative suggested that it should be posted here, since "Valve's development team regularly reads this forum".
OK then, I'll copy paste the original report and link the thread in question.
Mind you, it was reported on SteamOS forum, but is a common issue for Linux and Windows.



Lately I noticed some abnormal high CPU usage (and my CPU fan constantly at high speed) while in BPM even when idle. Looks like an issue that is present in BPM on both Windows or Linux desktop clients, but here on SteamOS is likely to be more visible since BPM is the default mode.
It gets triggered in various situations, but one sure way I can see it is:

- Start SteamOS and leave it idle for a moment
- Switch to desktop mode and start top in a terminal > press Shift+H to display individual threads
- Observe CIPCServer thread usage, at this point usage is minimal
- Switch back to BPM, play a game for few minutes, stop the game and switch back to desktop mode
- Observe CIPCServer thread usage, at this point the usage is raised to about 80-100% (in Irix mode) and stays this way for the rest of the session.
(if you're using htop be sure you have "show custom thread names" enabled from setup)

I have this issue on all my systems that I tested:
- a clean SteamOS installation using Intel+Nvidia,
- an Ubuntu one using AMD+AMD (with BPM started from the desktop client)
- and finally on Windows (on Windows the thread in question seems to be called "CreateInterface", but not that easy to trigger its high usage).
* According to the user Durtro (see post #14) is easy to do it by accessing the Steam Controller settings while gaming.

So basically the issue is that when the first gaming session is finished, this CIPCServer thread gets raised to a high usage and never goes back. The CPU gets overheated, its fan is spinning up (lot of noise) and the performance for the following (especially CPU intensive) games is affected.
Worse, the issue is also triggered if I use the overlay to adjust the controller during the game. It can also happen when accessing the store or some other internet related features.

The only way (that I found) to work around this issue is to logout and login again after each gaming session or (what I do) have Steam in offline mode.

I have here a graph trying to illustrate this behavior, basically starting with Steam client in desktop mode idle for 5 minutes, then gaming for 5 minutes, idle again for 5 minutes and then switching to BPM and so on. As you can see, the CIPCServer thread is present in desktop mode too, but there it has no negative impact.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=930419739

Also here are the framerates for the Hitman benchmark compared at low and high CIPCServer CPU usage. You can see how framerates are negatively impacted when this issue is triggered.
I suspect that for lower perf CPUs (I have a i7-4790K) the difference is even higher.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=930670886

So anyone observed something similar on their systems?

EDITS below:

- TL;DR: In my case the issue seems to be triggered when I Follow a high amount of games. see post #29

- This is true for both beta or stable steam client.

- From what I see so far this has something to do with Steam refreshing the data displayed on the screen and this being data that needs to be pulled from Valve's servers...like achievements or controller's community templates database for example. So it has to be something that is not already cached on your machine.
Basically, when the Steam client phones home, this has a greater chance to happen.
But then again, I have no idea why this is not happening with the desktop client, where the CIPCServer works without going berserk (or maybe CIPCServer is a BPM-only process dormant in desktop mode?)



- Searched through my drives and found some older Steam clients to test:

What I found differently is that while CIPCServer was still there it did not exhibit that high usage behavior, but the Steam parent process did. So, from newer to older:

- Steam Client beta 1463778979 - May 20 2016
This one was the worst, Steam process was all the time at 90% CPU usage from the moment BPM is started.

- Steam Client stable 1451690000 - Jan 1 2016
- Steam Client beta 1451445940 - Dec 29 2015
On these two versions Steam CPU usage started normally but ended in 90% usage after a game or when controller settings were accessed.

- Steam Client beta 1422669294 - Jan 30 2015
This one stands apart, it is the old carousel type BPM interface and behaved perfectly, Steam CPU usage slightly above the desktop client interface and no abnormal CPU usage at all in any circumstances.
And as a side note, although it had plenty of animations and eye candy, at no point it felt sluggish or stuttering like new clients do.

Original thread: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamuniverse/discussions/1/1291816880499593115/

[Criten]

Yes I have the same problem too the CPU utilization is about 25% during BPM mode
It drops to 5% when I exit to normal mode, I was going to do some troubleshooting but you have done that already, for now I wont use BPM because it taxesan unnecessary 20% increase on both CPU and GPU, a few games that would stutter on ultra mode, now they run without any hiccup

If anyone has a solution including Valve it would be greatly appreciated.

The steam link and software is the best gaming console anyone could have.

[999999999]

Originally posted by Criten:

Yes I have the same problem too the CPU utilization is about 25% during BPM mode
It drops to 5% when I exit to normal mode, I was going to do some troubleshooting but you have done that already, for now I wont use BPM because it taxesan unnecessary 20% increase on both CPU and GPU, a few games that would stutter on ultra mode, now they run without any hiccup

If anyone has a solution including Valve it would be greatly appreciated.

The steam link and software is the best gaming console anyone could have.

Big Picture forum ---> https://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/

[dubigrasu]

Originally posted by 999999999:

Originally posted by Criten:

Yes I have the same problem too the CPU utilization is about 25% during BPM mode
It drops to 5% when I exit to normal mode, I was going to do some troubleshooting but you have done that already, for now I wont use BPM because it taxesan unnecessary 20% increase on both CPU and GPU, a few games that would stutter on ultra mode, now they run without any hiccup

If anyone has a solution including Valve it would be greatly appreciated.

The steam link and software is the best gaming console anyone could have.

Big Picture forum ---> https://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/

It was posted there already.
This discussion was posted also here (Suggestions / Ideas) because an Valve employee recomended me so. Apparently an issues has a greater chance to be seen by Valve devs because they frequently browse here, so here it is.

[999999999]

Originally posted by dubigrasu:

Originally posted by 999999999:

Big Picture forum ---> https://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/

It was posted there already.
This discussion was posted also here (Suggestions / Ideas) because an Valve employee recomended me so. Apparently an issues has a greater chance to be seen by Valve devs because they frequently browse here, so here it is.

I see the Valve devs are helping in the SteamUniverse thread about it.

[dubigrasu]

Yeah, since is the original thread. Without much succes so far though.

[999999999]

Nothing in over a month?

[dubigrasu]

Nothing useful in more than a year actually. I reported this first time in May 2017, and for about a year nothing happened, although Valve support said that the issue is known and "a fix is in the works", or something like that.
Then I asked Valve support again and re-posted this in several places, including here at their advice. So there was something moving a month ago, but nothing useful for this particular issue.

[skinnyraf]

Have there been any significant changes to the BPM over the last year? It seems an abandoned project even more than SteamOS.

[dubigrasu]

The only modification I see is the new chat section, which is actually unusable with the Steam Controller. Not sure if there's a bug somewhere or you're just supposed to plug a keyboard&mouse.
I liked better the old one, it was something you could use, a bit slow maybe (since you were using the controller to type), but you could get the job done.
The new one is clearly not made for BPM, (let aside the not working controller) just try to read the fonts from you couch (and probably they look like crap on a TV).

[skinnyraf]

The new chat interface partially confirms, that the BPM is abandoned.

[mathead]

Hi. Sorry for reviving a very old thread, but I have the very same issue and my GPU peaks at 100% when BPM is opened. I had several gamers crashing with a grey, visually noisy screen and I found out it was the GPU that was obviously already overloaded. It's a RX 580.