If you are rocking a Windows PC, chances are you have Chrome installed. It is by far the most popular browser out there and for good reasons. It is very fast, stable, reliable, minimalist, compatible, and many other things. There is one major downside, though, especially for gamers, which is the CPU and RAM usage. So why does Chrome use so much CPU?
Chrome uses as many resources as it can or as it needs to make your browsing experience as smooth as possible. By default, Chrome will have hardware acceleration enabled, which will make your browser very fast but in turn will use a lot of CPU and RAM, slowing down your computer and other programs.
This is both a good and a bad thing, depending on what you want. If you like to keep your browser running in the background while doing other things, like playing demanding video games, then you may want to close it. But if you are only doing one thing at a time, it will allow you to be as productive and efficient as possible.
If you are interested in more details about the answer to the question, “Why does Chrome use so much CPU?“, and also how to reduce it, keep on reading to find out.
Why Does Chrome Use So Much CPU?
Chrome might use a lot of computing power because of a few different reasons. The main reason why Chrome can use so much CPU power is by creating separate processes in Windows. Each tab counts as a different process, which is good for performance, but it will consume your RAM and CPU power. You can see it yourself by opening the Task Manager while Chrome is open and going to the “Details” tab. So how to fix the CPU usage?
We have already mentioned hardware acceleration, so let’s tackle that first. Hardware acceleration is a feature in Chrome that allows it to utilize your hardware more efficiently for faster processing. This sometimes works, other times it does not.
Turning it off will lower your Chrome CPU usage either way. You can turn it off by opening Chrome. clicking on the menu (three dots) in the top right corner, and selecting “Settings” from the drop-down menu. Chrome will bring you to a new tab. Now you just have to type in “hardware acceleration” in the search bar.
You will see an option that says “Use hardware acceleration when available“. Simply uncheck it, relaunch the browser, and you are done.
Another reason why Chrome might use more power than normal is that you might have malware on your computer. Removing malware is pretty straightforward. Once again, open the Chrome settings menu by following the steps mentioned above. Next, type in “reset” in the settings search bar.
You will see two options pop up. The first one is to completely reset all Chrome settings, but the other one that says “Clean up computer” is the one you want to use for malware detection. Simply click on it and then press “Find” to find and delete malware. Another way to delete malware is to install third-party anti-malware software that will probably do a better job of cleaning up malware and other harmful software like trackers from your computer.
The third solution would be to remove all extensions that you have and don’t use. Just like extra tabs, additional extensions will be opened as separate processes in your operating system, even if you are not using it at the moment. One or two extensions will not make a huge difference, but if you have 5+ extensions, consider removing a few of them.
Conclusion
So why does Chrome use so much CPU? Chrome creates separate processes for all tabs and extensions. This is why it eats up RAM and CPU power, but it is also what allows it to be a very fast, reliable, and stable browser. Even if a tab or extension crashes, you won’t lose your progress thanks to this. You can do a few things to reduce CPU usage. You can try turning off hardware acceleration, removing extensions that you do not use, and also closing tabs that you don’t need at the moment.
