[Linux] Steam causes ~20 C rise in CPU temp

[death incarnate]

ISSUE

When current steam beta is open, regardless of use, CPU temp spikes about 20 degrees c. Unsure if Steam is utilizing CPU cycles or interfering with 3rd party fan control software.

OS
Pop OS 21.10

STEPS
Open Steam, watch temps rise. Close Steam watch temps drop.

EXPECTED
When idle Steam should not cause a 20c increase in temps.

[Mantve]

Try going to Setings -> Library -> check "Low Performance Mode". Any difference? Personally library is using ~40% of my integrated graphics when there is a big rare achievement and other effects spam, low performance mode makes it smooth.
If you are in some game and using the overlay, a friends tab will open. Close it or disable Animated Avatars in the settings. That should also drop the unnecessary cpu usage.

[death incarnate]

I tried your suggestion without success.

Update: I narrowed down the problem a little, it seems to happen when I play Elden Ring yet didn't happen when I played Emperyon. I also didn't have Emperyon set to use Steam Cloud for saves. I tried turning off Steam Cloud for Cyberpunk and like with Emperyon the temps didn't spike so it seems it has to do with Steam Cloud.

[death incarnate]

Update 2: I turned off Steam Cloud at the Steam level rather than per game and still get temp spikes (~27 idle to 60 when Steam is open). I searched through more options and it looks like it may be Shader Pre-Caching. I caught a game processing and when it hit 100% temps dropped until the next game started. According to KDE's System Monitor when pre-caching around 25% CPU is being used.

Better vetting through two games. My confidence is high about this time which means it's less a bug and more a misfeature that I will have to deal with cause the system is doing something useful.