Epic Games Launcher - Suspiciously High GPU Utilization

[Vycyous]

First, I wasn't really sure which forum to post this in, but I've decided to post it here since it is at least somewhat related to games.

Has anyone noticed the Epic Games Launcher's rather high GPU utilization? I noticed it a long time ago, but I figured that if there was anything nefarious going on, surely someone would have figured it out by now. It seems that the launcher is typically loading the GPU to between 5-10% utilization, even when it's just open and doing nothing else. It makes me think that Epic is using GPU cycles for cryptocurrency mining or something - not an accusation, just a thought.

To be fair, even GOG Galaxy also seems to bounce around between 1-5% GPU utilization, although I think it might be the images/videos cycling across the default store page. Epic's launcher opens with just static images. I opened all of the launchers and let them sit for a minute or so, then opened task manager and took a screenshot, which you can see below. I'm not accusing Epic (or GOG) of anything shady, but it just seems odd.

Any thoughts?

 

[Steevo]

That isn't enough cycles to justify it, perhaps it's building shader cache content.

 

[Vycyous]

That isn't enough cycles to justify it, perhaps it's building shader cache content.

With thousands, if not millions of people leaving the launcher open, wouldn't that add up to quite a lot of GPU cycles that could possibly be harnessed for crypto mining? Total speculation, of course. I have zero proof that anything like that might be taking place.

 

[lmille16]

I haven't looked at it on my machine. I'll take a look after work...

 

[Rahnak]

With thousands, if not millions of people leaving the launcher open, wouldn't that add up to quite a lot of GPU cycles that could possibly be harnessed for crypto mining? Total speculation, of course. I have zero proof that anything like that might be taking place.

Not nearly enough to offset the backlash and image damage they would get for it, so no. Plus Epic is already swimming in Fortnite money. Could just be a bug. I'll check usage on my machine as well when I get home.

As a side note, why do you have ALL the launchers open? Was it just for comparison?

 

[rtwjunkie]

I’ve noticed no high utilization on mine. Just normal idle usage and temps when launcher open and not gaming.

 

[Vycyous]

Not nearly enough to offset the backlash and image damage they would get for it, so no. Plus Epic is already swimming in Fortnite money. Could just be a bug. I'll check usage on my machine as well when I get home.

As a side note, why do you have ALL the launchers open? Was it just for comparison?

That's true, I can't imagine they would do something like that knowing how the public and press would likely react. Especially, as you said, since they're already raking in loads of cash with Fortnite. It really just seems odd for it to utilize the GPU so much. I noticed it months ago, so if it's a bug, it certainly hasn't been addressed.

Yes, I opened all the launchers simply for comparison.

 

[londiste]

I have pretty much the same 7.x% GPU utilization with Epic Launcher open. However, this is with 420MHz idle-ish core clock on the GPU, so actual usage is still very low. The moment you close the window, usage goes down to nothing.

 

[Vycyous]

I’ve noticed no high utilization on mine. Just normal idle usage and temps when launcher open and not gaming.

Does it usually sit at around 5-10% like it does on my machine(s)? I've installed the Epic Games launcher on multiple machines (running AMD and Nvidia GPUs, AMD and Intel CPUs) over the last few months and I've always noticed it's using more GPU resources than I think it should be. It just seems really strange, but it's probably nothing to worry about.

I have pretty much the same 7.x% GPU utilization with Epic Launcher open. However, this is with 420MHz idle-ish core clock on the GPU, so actual usage is still very low. The moment you close the window, usage goes down to nothing.

You're right. I hadn't checked it when closing the window - launcher still running in the background/system tray. I guess that pretty much answers that question and quells any fears of cryptocurrency mining.

 

[Chomiq]

1 GIF running in Firefox = 4% GPU usage. Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[leppie]

There is/was a bug where the launcher would freak out after you installed a driver and you still had it running.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Does it usually sit at around 5-10% like it does on my machine(s)?

I will have to check exact numbers for you tonight when I get home.

 

[Vycyous]

There is/was a bug where the launcher would freak out after you installed a driver and you still had it running.

Assuming you mean graphics/video card drivers, I guess that makes sense with the launcher seemingly so dependent upon the GPU. I always close everything before installing a driver or just about anything, so that's not what is happening here.

 

[notb]

Normal GPU acceleration for window graphics. Relax and appreciate, because it takes away some load from the CPU.

You should be seeing similar GPU load while browsing the web (if you've enabled GPU acceleration in browser).

 

[delshay]

Can you not use the desktop shortcut to start the game or go to the game folder & start it from there. I don't own many Epic games, but I do know you can launch World War Z this way.

 

[Solaris17]

I have pretty much the same 7.x% GPU utilization with Epic Launcher open. However, this is with 420MHz idle-ish core clock on the GPU, so actual usage is still very low. The moment you close the window, usage goes down to nothing.

Made probably like everything else in the world Now and 3D accelerated. So the whole window is content is drawn on GPU. I bet it has a bunch of slide frames and cool button animations and neat videos for trailers.

5% is par for the course.

 

[lmille16]

Definitely just has to do with GPU rendering when the launcher window is open. Here are two screenshots. One with it open and one with it just running fully in the background. And I waited and watched before each screen shot to see the behavior. And when I say "No Epic" it's still running, but the launcher is closed out

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The launcher effectively is UE4 so the high GPU load is not surprising. Ehm, it was not designed to be a lean program.

If you close the window, it quits.

 

[windwhirl]

The launcher effectively is UE4 so the high GPU load is not surprising. Ehm, it was not designed to be a lean program.

If you close the window, it quits.

Yep. When browsing through the library or the store, the launcher and one of the UnrealCEFSubProcess.exe make use of the GPU.
EDIT: the one that has "--type=gpu-process" in its command line.

If minimized to the taskbar, then there should be a negligible amount of GPU usage, like 1% or less (this on a RX 580)

 

[bubbleawsome]

On my 4k laptop the epic store can use 30% of my 1050 pretty easy. Sadly the new normal.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

To be fair, the animations on the new Steam library can cause significant load too. So yeah, "sadly the new normal." UI developers don't like lean and efficient anymore. They want pizzazz and flair.