Desktop Windows Manager high GPU usage

[Andrey Tkach]

Hello fellow linusians,

 

I've discovered a strange behavior with dwm.exe process and I hoped someone here can clarify things for me. 

Little background - this issue came to my attention while I was trying to push my system to produce stable 4k@60 in Witcher 3 on ultra/high settings. The specs are ryzen 3800x (yes, I got marketed into buying one of these), 32GB RAM 3600, RTX 2080super. The result is not bad - I get 50ish frames at ultra settings and if I drop some to high it's more like 55-60, but still not ideal. 

So I've noticed that while system isn't running any games, GPU usage shown in Task Manager and MSI Afterburner can go as high as 10-15%, divided between Desktop Windows Manager and Client Server Runtime Process. I've googled what these processes are and basically came to conclusion that the issue with them is unavoidable due to how Windows works these days. 

However, my main question is about what happen to dwm.exe GPU usage while the game is running. I've launched Witcher 3 to look at the behavior of this process and found out that it seems like all GPU load from the game was processed via dwm.exe, while the witcher.exe process sits at 0.1% GPU load. In the same time MSI Afterburner shows 99% GPU usage. Is this normal? If not, what can I do about it? Thanks in advance to anyone who takes time to post in this thread. 

 

P.S. For testing purposes I've ran witcher on my monitor in 1080p, not TV.

[Kilrah]

It's all good, it's just that the task manager doesn't show all types of GPU loads.

[Andrey Tkach]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

It's all good, it's just that the task manager doesn't show all types of GPU loads.

Do you, by any chance, know a way to monitor real GPU usage by process? 

[Kilrah]

Nope, never looked into it.

[ichihaifu]

Its actually not "all good". There is something really weird going on since some months ago (some people traced it as far back as to around windows 1903 release) with DWM and Nvidia graphics cards.

I've come across two larger threads about it so far with little googling:

1. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/desktop-window-manager-dwmexe-using-high-usage-gpu/a14dae9b-8faf-4920-a237-75ebac8073f5
2. https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/1643170269568692270/
3. .. and a ton more when you do a simple 'desktop window manager high gpu' search

There are some different symptoms about it that people are describing, but basically it narrows down to DWM getting stuck doing something it shouldn't, and causing insanely high GPU usage when there should be next to no activity.

 

I'm also unfortunately sitting in the boat with this problem; Prior to playing any DirectX game I have no problems, but as soon as I fire up something (my test cases have been Monster Hunter World and Rimworld.. both performance extremes covered), my desktop becomes unresponsive thanks to DWM. Programs are still functioning, albeit they might as well be in a strangle hold given their performance.

When I exit the game, I'm left with flickering and unresponsive desktop, that only goes away after I log out and back in (or kill DWM, but that also breaks almost every other open program, so relogging is almost faster, and definitely simpler).

 

I'm nearing the point of completely reinstalling windows, but some posters had tried rolling back to previous windows and driver versions just to have the problem come back after a while, needless to say that makes me hesitate.

[ShBieAndooh]

thought I was the only one BTW here's my GPU doing weird stuff...

[Alex Hoff]

Any updates on this? I'm having the same issue on my Lenovo Thinkpad P50s, with dwm.exe taking up to 50% of my integrated GPU if I'm running rainmeter, and sitting at 1-10% when idle

[Agony80]

Anyone fixed the issue? I got the same thing since a few days.

[TooMuchSus]

I'm having the same issue.  Sometimes going to the Details tab of Task Manager and setting "dwm.exe" to "Normal" priority can stave it off for a bit, and restarting my computer tends to fix it momentarily.

Essentially the first time my PC boots up for the day, I can't run shit because the DWM takes all my GPU's power.  But then either I restart my PC, or the GPU usage causes it to crash, and once it comes back it runs fine with no issues.  But the cycle almost always restarts the next day

[Oregano Hauch]

I have the same problem since today! What is happening?

[GAlexander95]

Glad it's not just me, I noticed lately my game performance has been tanking. I've got a 2080ti and even though I play in 4k I should be running things better than I am and my GPU has been hitting 99% in games pretty often lately when it shouldn't and it's messing with performance. I was looking around and found dwm (Desktop Windows Manager) and cspr (Client Server Runtime Process) both taking up waaay more CPU than they should be at any given time. Is it just a bug with windows? 

[everdread]

OMG! Yes this is exactly what i've been experiencing. I'm on a rig worth over 5 grand and Even as I type this DWM just decided to take a 15% bite out of my GPU. Which logically shouldn't affect anything but the text output has to play catch up. This is one among many other symptoms of this insane process. Did anyone figure out anything??? PLEASE HELP! I'm about to lose it.

[AmbientTemperature41c]

got the same problem!

[NoteHermelin]

I have noticed a similar but extreme behavior on my Surface Pro 6, where the Desktop Manager would (lately) not use less than 45%-50% GPU-Usage while I'm on the Desktop doing nothing. When im in One Note or Word it goes up to  80%-90% GPU-Usage and would not go below 70% usage. It drains my battarie wich is anoing, because i use it mostly for school and I cant really get more than 2hrs of usage out of it (usualy i got more than 10hrs). If its of any intrest, its a i5 8250U with Intel Graphics 620 and 256gb. I also lately updated it to the most recent (so it says) version of Windows 10, 2004 .

If anyone could help me it would mean a lot to me!

[Mark Kaine]

On 3/10/2020 at 9:06 PM, ichihaifu said:

Its actually not "all good". There is something really weird going on since some months ago (some people traced it as far back as to around windows 1903 release) with DWM and Nvidia graphics cards.

I've come across two larger threads about it so far with little googling:

1. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/desktop-window-manager-dwmexe-using-high-usage-gpu/a14dae9b-8faf-4920-a237-75ebac8073f5
2. https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/1643170269568692270/
3. .. and a ton more when you do a simple 'desktop window manager high gpu' search

There are some different symptoms about it that people are describing, but basically it narrows down to DWM getting stuck doing something it shouldn't, and causing insanely high GPU usage when there should be next to no activity.

 

I'm also unfortunately sitting in the boat with this problem; Prior to playing any DirectX game I have no problems, but as soon as I fire up something (my test cases have been Monster Hunter World and Rimworld.. both performance extremes covered), my desktop becomes unresponsive thanks to DWM. Programs are still functioning, albeit they might as well be in a strangle hold given their performance.

When I exit the game, I'm left with flickering and unresponsive desktop, that only goes away after I log out and back in (or kill DWM, but that also breaks almost every other open program, so relogging is almost faster, and definitely simpler).

 

I'm nearing the point of completely reinstalling windows, but some posters had tried rolling back to previous windows and driver versions just to have the problem come back after a while, needless to say that makes me hesitate.

That's interesting I also play monster hunter world and I noticed with 1903 and up it (amongst other things) runs really bad for apparently"no reason", both on my desktop pc and my laptop...

I was able to revert to 1809 on my desktop though a backup I made and the issues are... gone... On top of that I also have much better performance overall since I disabled windows updates *completely* and it shall stay this way until MICROSOFT changes it's approach and starts to actually take this seriously and hires someone to do QA and some bug testing, so likely indefinitely...

 

[framemuse]

I started investigating it. I understood that it, in my case, isn't rely on any drivers because I deleted all the drivers and it still is at 100% usage.  

[Maple38]

I'm having a problem like this where DWM takes up a lot of my GPU when I'm gaming and causes lag. Please tell me if anyone finds a solution.

[Mark Kaine]

it's definitely a bug, either windows or gpu drivers... 

 

I made a topic about this before but most people didn't really see this as an issue - even though it definitely is, while the gpu usually doesn't boost, it's still running hotter than normal... 

 

 

I get that the desktop uses gpu but until recently this was always under 1%, now I have a 3070 and it's up to 10-15%? 

 

Makes no sense whatsoever, that's just *too much* gpu usage for no (real) reason. 

 

 

That said it about halved since I went back to older windows 10 version, but it's still not quite 'fixed'  so probably a combination of drivers and windows updates. 

 

PS: crazy that's still not fixed...

 

PSS: I don't really can say I have 'performance' issues, benchmarks are above average usually... games run perfectly fine - its just the gpu barely actually idles - when it actually should... 

[Fusseldieb]

Just registered to come here and say that I have the SAME problem.

 

I was playing Beat Saber and noticed lag spikes every 30 seconds or so. It got so annoying I went to investigate.

 

It's that damn dwm.exe. It takes all GPU it can for about 10-15 seconds and then goes normal again. This cycle repeats itself every 30 seconds or so.

 

Temps are normal under load at about 70C and ThrottleStop has no red triggers indicating that it might be throttling. 

 

As someone has suggested here, I'm almost reinstalling the whole damn machine with W10 1809 and disabling any updates.

 

[Forbidden Wafer]

Did you try to run the game maximized/fullscreen? When running in Windowed mode, DWM still need to deal with other applications.

[Fusseldieb]

On 6/16/2021 at 8:08 PM, Forbidden Wafer said:

Did you try to run the game maximized/fullscreen? When running in Windowed mode, DWM still need to deal with other applications.

Yep, tried this. After a new gaming session on a new day it took a lot longer and to occur and then did it frequently again.

 

Then (Today) it struck me: ThrottleStop doesn't tell you throttle flags about the GPU...

 

And in fact, my GPU was throttling at 75C. Note that it's a notebook.

 

Turned on the AC in my room, underclocked my RTX to the minimum I could (-502Mhz) and it's staying at about 65-70C while gaming now.

 

The culprit of dwm.exe taking the rest of my GPU was the fact that my GPU was throttling.

 

How could I overlook that one??

[muhamadmomeni]

I have the same problem since I reinstalled my windows, I keep getting 100 percent gpu usage when doing nothing I have a intel hd 5500 integrated graphic, if any one solve this please say 

[Bioxide]

Hi, I also just registered to add to this thread. I'm also running into this problem where Desktop Windows Manager destroys the GPU usage. I've tried all kinds of fixes. None of my apps (browser, discord, etc.) are using hardware acceleration. I've even tried the registry suggestion in this page.

 

I believe the issue is exacerbated if a particular window has to paint rapidly.

 

I recorded an example of the issue. I casually mine ETH and you can see how much of an impact it has on my hash rate just by having a window open. I use my mouse cursor to highlight the impact.

Here is the link: https://streamable.com/myyacl

[Deedikjepijn]

Hey I am having exactly this issue on my computer, I am running a 3070 Ti and DWM.exe is using 100% of my gpu the entire time. I just did an update to 22621.675 ni_release, well I didnt really see this issue before but I did notice stuttering in some games (where it would just most definetly not be okey with a 3070 ti)

[garconcn]

1 hour ago, Deedikjepijn said:

Hey I am having exactly this issue on my computer, I am running a 3070 Ti and DWM.exe is using 100% of my gpu the entire time. I just did an update to 22621.675 ni_release, well I didnt really see this issue before but I did notice stuttering in some games (where it would just most definetly not be okey with a 3070 ti)

I had same issue after upgrade NVIDIA game driver to latest version on 2022.10.12, switched it to studio driver which is older version fixed the issue.