Emulationstation uses ~38% CPU when I navigate to a games list

rejesterd

This is on a raspberry pi 4 with no overclocking. Very recent build of ES (from maybe yesterday or the day before.. updated from source).

I'm wondering if someone else can try these steps and let me know the result.

Run top to monitor CPU usage
Launch emulationstation, and note the CPU usage is low (~3%).
Navigate to my games list for Dreamcast or N64 in ES.
Check top.. the cpu usage jumps to ~38% and doesn't go back down. Even if I back out to the main ES menu (so I'm not looking at a games list), it remains at ~38%, and doesn't go back down until I reboot.

Is that expected? Thanks.

quicksilver

@rejesterd that amount of cpu usage is normal. if you want to reduce cpu usage while emulation station is idle you'll need to turn on one of the power savings modes.

mitu

Please provide more info about your system, as detailed in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first. What theme are you using ? Do you have videos enabled ?

rejesterd

@mitu That ReadThisFirst link doesn't tell you how to check the version of Retropie.. would be good to add that. I'm using the default theme. I'm not sure what you mean by 'videos enabled', but I didn't do any customizations relating to themes. But really, I'm not reporting this as a problem.. there's no bad behavior observed.. I just wasn't expecting ES to take that much CPU at idle.

@quicksilver - Thanks. After playing with it further, I do see that it's still at 30-32% after a reboot.. I might not have monitored top long enough previously (when I was seeing only 3%).

mitu

@rejesterd said in Emulationstation uses ~38% CPU when I navigate to a games list:

That ReadThisFirst link doesn't tell you how to check the version of Retropie.. would be good to add that.

That's easy if you installed the system yourself

if you used an image to write on the sd card, the version is specified in the file name, and also on the download page (see retropie.org.uk/download).
if you used the manual installation method, then the version appears in the RetroPie-Setup script used to install.

If you can't tell which is your version, then one of the next question is how did you install RetroPie, to which generally users provide the filename used to install (containing the version).

But really, I'm not reporting this as a problem.. there's no bad behavior observed.. I just wasn't expecting ES to take that much CPU at idle.

When idle, EmulationStation should take a negligible amount of CPU, close to zero. If you use the default settings, the power saving kicks in after 1 min, which should further reduce CPU consumption.

rejesterd

@mitu - I think the default power settings are working, as I just needed to wait a full minute like you said. After that, it goes back down to 1-3%. Good enough for me.

Retropie version is 4.5.13, for reference. But again, looks like all is well. Thanks again guys.