Steam UI *very* slow after installing new GPU

[Stelly]

Symptom
Last weekend I changed my 2xHD7970 to 2x980GTX. In all the games and applications I have had no trouble at all so far except with the Steam UI showing and reacting very slow.

• RMB on the Steam systray icon takes seconds before the contextmenu shows. When I click a recently played game it takes seconds before it registers my click. When I click community/friends/etc. it takes seconds before the Steam window opens to the clicked tab.
  
• In the Steam window hovering over a tab it takes seconds before the dropdown menu appears. After clicking it also takes seconds before the click registers and the Steam window goes to my selected window.
  
• Screen refreshes extremely slow in the Steam window. For instance when I click a game in my library (detail view) the information of the game refreshes slow in parts on the right side. It's normal that it loads the parts in chunks but not with again seconds between each.
  
• For example in the downloads window when a game needs an update and I click the button to queue the download, it also takes seconds before it registers and places the game in the queue.
  
• The Steam news update thingy window also reacts very slow when clicking next or previous. The actual content in the window never loads even when I waited 30min before closing it.
  
• Dragging the Steam window around is also slow. Takes seconds before it shows up at the location where I dragged it to.
  
  
  
  
• Starting games goes fast like it always does and none of the games I tried so far show any problem.
  
• When in a game opening the overlay, it all goes fine. Browser opens immediately when I click something and pages load in a heartbeat.
  
• RMB on my pinned Steam icon and starting games from there also goes at the speed of light like it always did.

System
Windows 7 64bit (fully updated)
NVidia WHQL 347.52
Steam fully updated. Not signed up for any beta downloads.

I deinstalled all AMD software first by using their own uninstaller and rebooted. After that I also ran Display Driver Uninstaller to find everything the uninstaller forgot. Then I rebooted again, shut down the system again and replaced the hardware. After boot I installed NVidia drivers.

It's, I think, clear that Steam has a problem with using hardware acceleration for it's UI. I did nothing else than changing the GPUs and no game or other application who use my GPU show any signs of problems.

Do I need to reset something in Steam? Clearing a cache somewhere? Manually adjust a flag somehwere? Maybe some obscure 3D option in Windows got changed when installing NVidia driver?
I understand what happens with Steam but I don't know the problem.

[Stelly]

Solution found

In the Steam window: Steam > settings > interface > enable hardware decoding if supported

This was flagged OFF for me. I turned it ON, Steam restarted and the interface is fine again.
After that I turned it OFF again, Steam restarted and the interface is still fine!

So at least by enabling this flag, it triggered Steam to rescan a setting and adjust it.

Any way to file official bug reports to the Steam dev team?

[travhimself]

Apologies for the necro, but I've been experiencing similar UI lag and wanted to chime in.

Steam really only gets sluggish for me when I'm using it right after booting up Windows. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that the setting change you suggest is what actually fixes the issue. In my experience, if I simply exit Steam and then relaunch it, the UI is suddenly snappy again -- even without any settings changes.

This is pure speculation, but I wonder if it trips up during the startup process. It seems as though if you launch Steam AFTER Windows (and all startup items) are fully loaded, everything works fine.

[eireluke]

Originally posted by Stelly:

Solution found

In the Steam window: Steam > settings > interface > enable hardware decoding if supported

This was flagged OFF for me. I turned it ON, Steam restarted and the interface is fine again.
After that I turned it OFF again, Steam restarted and the interface is still fine!

So at least by enabling this flag, it triggered Steam to rescan a setting and adjust it.

Any way to file official bug reports to the Steam dev team?

Thanks!

[goggler]

I had this issue after upgrading to Windows 10. Did the solution "In the Steam window: Steam > settings > interface > enable hardware decoding if supported" that Stelly provided.

Works beautifully now, thanks again!

[Alt+Stab]

I also had this problem after upgrading to Windows 10 on my laptop, and I was also able to fix it with the solution above: "In the Steam window: Steam > settings > interface > enable hardware decoding if supported". Thank you.

[MongoTheRed]

Originally posted by Stelly:

Solution found

In the Steam window: Steam > settings > interface > enable hardware decoding if supported

This was flagged OFF for me. I turned it ON, Steam restarted and the interface is fine again.
After that I turned it OFF again, Steam restarted and the interface is still fine!

So at least by enabling this flag, it triggered Steam to rescan a setting and adjust it.

Any way to file official bug reports to the Steam dev team?

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This has fixed everything for me. I appreciate it a TON!!! I've been struggling with this for weeks.

[Diar]

the little box that says enable hardwere encoding is greyed out

[milteN]

h

[wuddih]

Originally posted by CowGoesMOO:

the little box that says enable hardwere encoding is greyed out

that you have hardware that doesn't support it.

[kover.balint]

You have provided me with a solution, thank you. But I still dont know what caused the problem, and that is frustrating

[Stelly]

Originally posted by kover.balint:

You have provided me with a solution, thank you. But I still dont know what caused the problem, and that is frustrating

Programming lingo:
My guess. When you toggle the flag, the correct methods are run to scan and to enable or disable GPU processing settings. But the code in some installation and startup appears to run different methods that puts settings in a limbo state where it's trying to use GPU features that aren't avaible and then they get run slowly on the CPU.

Normal words:
It's not a problem with your system or software, it's a bug in Steam software under certain conditions that Valve didn't test.
Not really the blame on them because you can only test so many scenarios when you have hundreds of millions users all with their own system configuration of hardware and software.

[rusty167]

Originally posted by Stelly:

Solution found

In the Steam window: Steam > settings > interface > enable hardware decoding if supported

This was flagged OFF for me. I turned it ON, Steam restarted and the interface is fine again.
After that I turned it OFF again, Steam restarted and the interface is still fine!

So at least by enabling this flag, it triggered Steam to rescan a setting and adjust it.

Any way to file official bug reports to the Steam dev team?

Just wanted to thank you - it helped my right now. So still an issue, I guess.

[chaosblade]

Just hit me as well after upgrading my Windows 10 build. Stelly's fix still works, so thanks again :)

[𝓭𝓹𝒊𝒆𝓽𝟵]

Wow I restarted my PC and my Steam UI was lagging SO HARD wtf... I thaught wtf my PC is dead ? No just such a incredible soulution xD Okay thanks man !

[BluLightShow]

Originally posted by Stelly:

Symptom
Last weekend I changed my 2xHD7970 to 2x980GTX. In all the games and applications I have had no trouble at all so far except with the Steam UI showing and reacting very slow.

• RMB on the Steam systray icon takes seconds before the contextmenu shows. When I click a recently played game it takes seconds before it registers my click. When I click community/friends/etc. it takes seconds before the Steam window opens to the clicked tab.
  
• In the Steam window hovering over a tab it takes seconds before the dropdown menu appears. After clicking it also takes seconds before the click registers and the Steam window goes to my selected window.
  
• Screen refreshes extremely slow in the Steam window. For instance when I click a game in my library (detail view) the information of the game refreshes slow in parts on the right side. It's normal that it loads the parts in chunks but not with again seconds between each.
  
• For example in the downloads window when a game needs an update and I click the button to queue the download, it also takes seconds before it registers and places the game in the queue.
  
• The Steam news update thingy window also reacts very slow when clicking next or previous. The actual content in the window never loads even when I waited 30min before closing it.
  
• Dragging the Steam window around is also slow. Takes seconds before it shows up at the location where I dragged it to.
  
  
  
  
• Starting games goes fast like it always does and none of the games I tried so far show any problem.
  
• When in a game opening the overlay, it all goes fine. Browser opens immediately when I click something and pages load in a heartbeat.
  
• RMB on my pinned Steam icon and starting games from there also goes at the speed of light like it always did.

System
Windows 7 64bit (fully updated)
NVidia WHQL 347.52
Steam fully updated. Not signed up for any beta downloads.

I deinstalled all AMD software first by using their own uninstaller and rebooted. After that I also ran Display Driver Uninstaller to find everything the uninstaller forgot. Then I rebooted again, shut down the system again and replaced the hardware. After boot I installed NVidia drivers.

It's, I think, clear that Steam has a problem with using hardware acceleration for it's UI. I did nothing else than changing the GPUs and no game or other application who use my GPU show any signs of problems.

Do I need to reset something in Steam? Clearing a cache somewhere? Manually adjust a flag somehwere? Maybe some obscure 3D option in Windows got changed when installing NVidia driver?
I understand what happens with Steam but I don't know the problem.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1458455461495443650/?ctp=2