Loading Forum Pages in Chrome browser huge CPU usage - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: metalphreak
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 12:34:16 pm
content: Does anyone else get some serious lag/cpu usage when opening the forum? Sometime's I'll open a few tabs on my laptop (MacbookPro/OSX) and it lags for a bit before I can scroll up/down. At the same time my cpu usage takes a massive hit. I've sort of noticed the same thing on my desktop, but its not as obvious because its a much more powerful quad core cpu.Is it just some issue with SMF and chrome?

author: Chet T16
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 12:45:31 pm
content: Yeah i get that, it locks up for a few seconds before you can scroll down as you say.This is using chrome on my dual core 1.5GHz netbook

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 12:58:12 pm
content: Nope, mine is as near instantaneous as you can get it for being on the other side of the planet to the server, and no CPU spike, and I'm rending a HD video in the background in real-time.Dave.

author: Teknotronix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 01:22:32 pm
content: Quote from: metalphreak on January 23, 2012, 12:34:16 pmYep, exactly the same thing here. Macbook unibody, Windows 7 and chrome 16.0.912.75 m

author: metalphreak
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 01:30:26 pm
content: Yeah it's nothing to do with the server or network latency. Chrome seems to run into some trouble rendering the page. I might do some investigation in the morning and see if there's a fix for Chrome or SMF.Also running chrome version 16.0.912.75 m here too.What browser do you use Dave?

author: 8086
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 03:12:37 pm
content: I've noticed this on my laptop frequently using firefox. On my desktop using the same browser there is no issue, but my laptop isn't terribly underpowered or anything, I think SMF must not be very efficient.

author: McMonster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 03:27:48 pm
content: I maintain some SMF forums of roughly the same size myself and don't see any problems. This forum is noticeably slower than any other SMFs on my Windows 7 with Firefox 9.0.1 (more RAM, CPU time and bandwidth). On my mobile phone with Symbian 3's built in browser it's barely navigable comparing to the same other forums. My best guess is that all those FB, Twitter and other stuff is the reason for this, forum worked fine before they appeared.

author: PedroDiogo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 04:21:49 pm
content: Quote from: metalphreak on January 23, 2012, 12:34:16 pmSame problem here too! Macbook Air, Mac OSX 10.7.2 and Chrome.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 08:08:22 pm
content: The same here. It isn't constant, though. CPU usage is considerably higher using Chrome compared to Safari. All tabs have their own process, that takes from 0.1% to 1.75% of the processor usage. Flash player takes about 1% idle, with some embedder Youtube videos loaded. Chrome itself takes anything from 1% to 30%. Sometimes the tab's process may take more CPU usage. All that is while idling. When loading pages, Chrome takes all the CPU for itself, so lag is the most apparent manifestation of this problem.I have attached a screenshot of the CPU usage when loading a page on this forum.

author: RTC
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 10:57:01 pm
content: I can confirm loading pages on this forum takes a lot longer than other SMF-based forums I visit.For some reason, the alternative themes don't work either, I like to use Babylon, but it doesn't seem to be loading the CSS or something.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 11:03:21 pm
content: For me blocking the 'social' links in the forum helps a lot. Performance, especially on mobile devices, got a lot worse when they were enabled (it's close to unusable on mobile now), and I don't see the point of having them enabled. Too bad enabling content blocking to block them also blocks the ads, guess I have to chose between bad performance and depriving Dave from ad money. Content blocking on mobile devices is also much harder.

author: oliver602
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2012, 11:50:16 pm
content: Same here, forum sometimes takes far longer than other websites to render when you zoom in Android ICS. Not noticed much on the PC.

author: sonicj
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 02:20:59 am
content: i've noticed chrome renderer randomly whilin' out in the activity monitor. restarting the browser usually takes care of it... haven't investigated it further.i have used multiple browsers since i first switched to mac so its not really a big deal when something doesn't work right... i just open it elsewhere. Opera has historically been my browser of choice, but its a quirky sob when it comes to flash on the mac. Camino is a solid browser.-sj

author: metalphreak
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 02:26:14 am
content: yeah I've noticed when it lags the social media icons under each post pop up one at a time.Is it really necessary to have tweet/+1/facebook links for every post in a thread? Perhaps it snuck in with the updates like the sociable bar on the main site.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 04:23:47 pm
content: I suspect this has something to do with the overloaded amount of twitter/facebook icons on the site (I just checked developer tools - well over 150 requests to external images etc. just on this page, still loading!). I just opened 6 topics, chrome was using well over 1GB and locking up.Edit: i just blocked all facebook, twitter and google (those facebook like buttons etc.) plus requests, now runs smooth. I think Google Plus is especially slow, as those requests took ages to load..

author: Teknotronix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 06:36:51 pm
content: Quote from: hans on January 24, 2012, 04:23:47 pmWhat are you using to block?

author: PedroDiogo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 07:27:05 pm
content: Quote from: hans on January 24, 2012, 04:23:47 pmI did this too and confirm, now pages load quicker and can open multiple tabs at once.I used Adblock Plus and the filters I'm using are:Code:http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.jshttp://connect.facebook.net/*http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets/*http://static.ak.connect.facebook.com/*http://static.ak.facebook.com/*http://www.facebook.com/plugins/*http://www.facebook.com/widgets/*https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton*https://www.facebook.com/plugins/*@Dave: why do we need to have social plugins on every post? I think a single one on each thread is enough.

author: armandas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 08:22:38 pm
content: I use chrome and the stupid thing can only hide elements, not block them from loading, so the pages are still slow. Seriously, Dave, get rid of those useless buttons already.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 09:23:00 pm
content: Quote from: PedroDiogo on January 24, 2012, 07:27:05 pmSeconded that.By the way, I don't know if the cause is related to this, but my Kindle Fire takes ages to load the forum. It takes perhaps less than 8 seconds to load and render the forum, but it takes 20 extra seconds to load the rest of the social widgets. During those 20 seconds, the browser is slow and and you can barely scroll because it lags a lot. The social widgets seem to be loaded (or rendered or shown) before users' avatars and flags. (the ones on the left).

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 11:56:36 pm
content: Quote from: metalphreak on January 23, 2012, 01:30:26 pmChrome. No problems at all.Dave.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 12:00:12 am
content: Quote from: ivan747 on January 24, 2012, 09:23:00 pmOk, removed. Just the one set of buttons down the bottom of the page.Any improvement?Dave.

author: Teknotronix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 12:01:10 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on January 25, 2012, 12:00:12 amWow! It rips now! Cheers Dave.EDIT: The +1 buttons in each post are removed. Not just the page level buttons.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 12:11:25 am
content: Thanks, much better now, especially on mobile!

author: Balaur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 12:12:07 am
content: I also confirm the speed improvement. It works much nicer now on my smartphone.

author: 8086
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 01:24:34 am
content: Yup, much faster on my laptop

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 01:26:12 am
content: Now it takes 9 seconds for the Kindle Fire to load and render the page under the same conditions.This is awesome, thanks!Wow, I just tapped another link, it must have loaded (well enough to be usable) in less than 3 seconds. Almost an order of magnitude faster!

author: elCap
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 03:16:08 am
content: Thanks for taking removing the buttons! Loads much quicker now on my iPhone. On my PC I notice no difference.

author: metalphreak
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 05:22:06 am
content: Yeah it's much much better now. Don't forget there are still the social network links down the bottom if you do want to share a thread.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 05:47:31 am
content: Sorry guys, I had no idea it was slow for people. It was super fast for me here.The new dedicated server makes it runs like greased lightning, so any problems will almost certainly be external related like this contacting other sites. Seems silly that those social media buttons would actually do anything other than when pressed. I thought they were just simple graphic button that would get cached once and that's it, zero impact otherwise. Seems that's not the case.Dave.

author: 8086
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 05:52:53 am
content: The trouble with them is that they display the number of people that have shared the page. So they have to retrieve this information every time they load on a page.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 05:57:39 am
content: Quote from: 8086 on January 25, 2012, 05:52:53 amAh, of course!Yeah, that's a horrible use of bandwidth.Uninstalled forever.Dave.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 06:00:03 am
content: Thank you, definitely A LOT faster, good riddance.If I'm not mistaken, they will generate also some traffic even the mouse pointer hovered (not clicked) on top of those buttons.

author: McMonster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 01:41:04 pm
content: Confirmed to work much faster on both my laptop and mobile phone on different internet connections.Thank you for switching that off.

author: dcel
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 09:48:09 pm
content: Thanks DaveAn order of magnitude better speed loading the forum on my laptop. So much better in fact, that I dont have to have multiple windows open to read a single thread due to the lag.Chris