Chrome CPU Usage Jumps to 95% When Playing YouTube Videos After the Latest Update
Asked by
VelvetOrbit42
Since Chrome updated on August 6, starting any YouTube video causes my CPU usage to spike to around 95%, regardless of the video quality. As soon as I pause or stop the video, usage drops back to roughly 1–5%. My processor is a Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Has anyone else noticed this, and is there a specific setting or fix I should try? I was mainly using Chrome for syncing with my mobile devices, but I may switch browsers if this continues.
Answers
Check whether hardware acceleration was disabled in Chrome. Open Settings, search for “hardware acceleration,” turn on “Use graphics acceleration when available,” and restart the browser. If it was off, video decoding may be falling back to the CPU and causing the spike.
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If hardware acceleration is already enabled and the problem started right after the update, try disabling and re-enabling it, then restart Chrome. It may also be worth testing with extensions turned off, since an extension can interfere with video playback. If another browser handles the same video normally, that points more toward a Chrome-specific issue than a hardware problem.
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The same video uses only about 3% CPU for me in Edge, so testing another Chromium-based browser can help confirm whether Chrome is the culprit. Firefox is another reasonable option, especially if you no longer need Chrome’s device syncing. Switching browsers is more of a workaround than a root-cause fix, but it should avoid the excessive CPU usage.
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