[GS] GPU usage reduced by open a browser on the back? (I'm not an ad, really not!)

[yorkgrass]

OK, so I'm not an ad, but this only happens to this specific browser, so I have to mention its name opera, sorry.
My PC: i5 4690K oc 4.5/ 32G/ GTX1080
I'm running Civ6 just about ok, benchmark about 13s. so no complains. however, I notice my gpu is constantly above temp 75c, gpu usage flicking between 50 to 90. So I was trying things to reduce the usage, long story short, I accidentally left a browser page on on the background. (I never left it on, because the one I used before took as much cpu as the game, I'm on borderless window mode btw) And suddenly, GPU usage dropped to 30, temp is stable about 65c, (early in the game, less than 50 turns) I thought there is no way that browser reduced gpu usage, so I turn it off, gpu jumped to 90% right away! so I thought maybe a browser thing? then I tried with chrome and firefox, no effects, 90% gpu all the way.
I'm stumped! Well I'm not that stupid to expect this to be a miracle solution for GPU taxing, but I do need some ideas how this happened? is there something wrong with my pc setting? Or maybe it's just coincident? if you have a suggesting please do share, and if you are using opera could you please try this and share your results?
ps. I turned on the turbo mode, no idea if that matters.

 

[Victoria]

Great info, many a solution has never been found due to people thinking some symptom is crazy.
For Opera to be reducing your GPU like that we would have to assume it is messing with some graphics settings, but what. I do not know.
I do know my fan goes crazy sometimes and other times not. I have found background downloads also causing things and also if the kids have turned the heating up in the house so I guess from my side I woukd suggest you need to consider environmental and background tasks in your investigations as they need to be rules out...
Because you are getting a browser difference ... have you checked disk usage and network usage during these different browsers? Perhaps our greedy browser friends are watching us more than we like?
Even my CPU stats appear to be quietly squirted off my PC from time to time so it would be no surprise.
I’ll install Opera and next time my fan goes I will turn it on smd report back. It may be it helps, maybe other things muddy the waters also. Tracking something like this down can be a pain as Spinning fans are caused by many things.

 

[yorkgrass]

Great info, many a solution has never been found due to people thinking some symptom is crazy.
For Opera to be reducing your GPU like that we would have to assume it is messing with some graphics settings, but what. I do not know.
I do know my fan goes crazy sometimes and other times not. I have found background downloads also causing things and also if the kids have turned the heating up in the house so I guess from my side I woukd suggest you need to consider environmental and background tasks in your investigations as they need to be rules out...
Because you are getting a browser difference ... have you checked disk usage and network usage during these different browsers? Perhaps our greedy browser friends are watching us more than we like?
Even my CPU stats appear to be quietly squirted off my PC from time to time so it would be no surprise.
I’ll install Opera and next time my fan goes I will turn it on smd report back. It may be it helps, maybe other things muddy the waters also. Tracking something like this down can be a pain as Spinning fans are caused by many things.

Thanks for the reply, network is 0, I turned wifi off but no effects. disk usage is not showing on my test app, so I have no idea. and I just tried, fullscreen shows the same results.

 

[Victoria]

disk usage is not showing on my test app,

Turn on perfmon? The best thing windows ever made for me.
.. btw, I have i7,1080

 

[yorkgrass]

Turn on perfmon? The best thing windows ever made for me.
.. btw, I have i7,1080

disk usage at peak when loading a game or end turn, other than that minor fluctuation. it is the same with or without opera on the background. when gpu usage like 99%, the disk usage remain silent.