Hey everyone! I'm dealing with a weird issue where my GPU's "3D" usage is around 40-50% even when I'm just idling. I checked Task Manager and that seems to be the main culprit. Here's a bit more about my setup:
- **OS:** Windows 10 Pro (Version 10.0.19045 22H2)
- **GPU:** RTX 3050 8GB
- **Driver:** Game Ready Driver - 576.032 (updated on 4/16)
- **CPU:** Intel Core i9-9900k (currently running around 3.60GHz with Turbo Mode up to 5.0 GHz)
- **RAM:** 16GB (2x HyperX Fury RGB, 3000MHz)
- **Drives:** 2 SSDs (1 Crucial 480GB SATA, 1 Kingston NV2 1TB NVMe), and 1 HDD (WDC 1TB)
- **Monitors:** 1 AOC 2460G4 (144Hz, 1080p) and a Sony Bravia TV that's on its last legs.
When I say idle, I usually have Steam, Discord, and Chrome with 4 tabs (Bsky, X, Whatsapp, and YT) open. So, is this level of GPU usage normal? Could there be something like malware or Chrome extensions causing it? I ran a full scan with Windows Defender and Malwarebytes, and they didn't find anything. Also, I don't use any software that I shouldn't have. Any advice would be appreciated!
2 Answers
Looks pretty normal to me! If your performance is okay in games, then I wouldn’t stress too much about it. But if you notice any frame drops or performance issues, it might be worth checking your background applications or any Windows bloat that could be hogging resources.
Mining malware usually runs at 100%, not this. What you're seeing might be from desktop acceleration. Even when idling, your GPU can get used for things like streaming video on YouTube, which could explain the 40-50% usage. Just remember that Windows sometimes doesn't correctly show GPU clock speeds, so what looks like higher usage could be normal operating patterns for your setup.
Yeah, mining malware often tries to stay under the radar by using only a portion of the GPU. If it’s running all the time at a steady low percentage, it’s worth investigating further.
I thought the same, but I've had some heavier games that used to run fine start to struggle. Maybe I'll look into disabling some unused Windows features.