On my work laptop, my Chrome updated to the latest stable release 76 (76.0.3809.87) today and now Chrome is virtually unusable for the majority of the tools I use for my job. Specifically, taking actions that invoke Javascript- or call-intensive functions causes the browser tab in question to shoot to 100% CPU in the Chrome task manager and the web page typically appears to freeze until whatever is causing it to freeze resolves itself. The following are examples of actions that cause the behavior: clicking filter elements on a PowerBI report typing in the reddit.com search bar (CPU spike immediately ends once the suggestions for what has been typed so far have loaded) taking virtually any action in Azure DevOps Boards or Backlogs I was using Chrome yesterday fine up until I left. I always hibernate my work laptop prior to leaving for the day and was not on it last night. In fact, it is likely that the device went to sleep and woke up on the same network as a result of this behavior. There really is no potential for malware involved, but I ran every available scan anyways to no avail. I've searched long and hard today on how to remedy this issue but cannot seem to find anyone that has experienced this specific situation. I can only conclude that there is some new or changed behavior in Chrome 76 that did not exist in the version 75 I had yesterday. Please, help me track this down. I'd rather not have to swap all of my work functions to another browser.

Jul 31, 2019

Chrome 76 64-bit high CPU usage on tabs with Javascript-intensive functions

On my work laptop, my Chrome updated to the latest stable release 76 (76.0.3809.87) today and now Chrome is virtually unusable for the majority of the tools I use for my job.

Specifically, taking actions that invoke Javascript- or call-intensive functions causes the browser tab in question to shoot to 100% CPU in the Chrome task manager and the web page typically appears to freeze until whatever is causing it to freeze resolves itself. The following are examples of actions that cause the behavior:

clicking filter elements on a PowerBI report
typing in the reddit.com search bar (CPU spike immediately ends once the suggestions for what has been typed so far have loaded)
taking virtually any action in Azure DevOps Boards or Backlogs

I was using Chrome yesterday fine up until I left. I always hibernate my work laptop prior to leaving for the day and was not on it last night. In fact, it is likely that the device went to sleep and woke up on the same network as a result of this behavior. There really is no potential for malware involved, but I ran every available scan anyways to no avail.

I've searched long and hard today on how to remedy this issue but cannot seem to find anyone that has experienced this specific situation. I can only conclude that there is some new or changed behavior in Chrome 76 that did not exist in the version 75 I had yesterday.

Please, help me track this down. I'd rather not have to swap all of my work functions to another browser.

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Crashes and Slow Performance,Windows,Stable (Default)

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Last edited Aug 15, 2019

All Replies (69)

Andrea Giannoni

Aug 1, 2019

I've got the same issue, together with many people.

Everything was working fine until version 76.0.3809.87, now CPU goes up to 100%.

A lot of WebApps, including Google Calendar and Gmail, are almost frozen.

My system should be secure enough to exclude the malware cause, I also tried to disable all my extensions and to work in Incognito mode to avoid any external interference, but the issue was still there.

Only Chrome v76 is affected, older versions or other browsers work fine, so I also exclude network issues.

Hope this post can help to investigate

Last edited Aug 1, 2019

John Claassen

Dec 1, 2019

I just started experiencing this problem, and after reading Kirill's post I realized that after a recent large download I had about 2GB left on my computer. I deleted some files and chrome's activity returned to normal.

Some info: Chrome 64-bit, version 78.0.3904.108

Before resolving the problem, I was looking at Chrome's task manager and I noticed that there was an extremely high number of idle wake ups, hovering around 6 to 7 thousand. This was without anything JS-heavy running.

When opened, Chrome had a low-ish number of idle wake ups. Once I navigated to a page like youtube that number would spike to around 6 to 7 thousand, and after navigating away from that page the number of idle wake ups would remain that way. At this point chrome would use 40%-50% of my cpu while idle according to my system monitor (in chrome's task manager the number listed was usually around 160).

I don't know if any of this is helpful but I thought I'd share in the hope that it is.

Daneel Yaitskov

Dec 2, 2019

I downgraded to Firefox and issue disappeared.

Jacky Wong 3158

Dec 12, 2019

I thought I would share my issue to maybe help identify this issue.

I update my Chrome to the latest version 79.0.3945.79 yesterday morning.

It was running smoothly all day until I finish work. Even in the pages I was having issue with previously, smooth as butter.

Then comes this morning I came to work, logged in and start up Chrome. Same sluggish/high CPU issue is back again.

There was no updates to the PC nor any extension installed. The only difference is I switched off my PC and turned it back on.

This is really frustrating because I always loved using Chrome and now every day I wonder why I even bother still using it if this issue continues to linger.

Kevin Boyle

Dec 14, 2019

I'll chime in here - have been looking for a thread on this for a month, and just came across this.

I'm seeing many forms, and certainly google products performing really slow: dynamic elements not clearing, cursor not tracking into form entry boxes, typing lagging by 30 seconds+, etc... however, my CPU does not seem to be spiking, and I still have memory free.

I'm on a 2018 core i7 Macbook with 16GB of ram and am not using Google enterprise products - we're a Microsoft shop; however, Chrome WAS my primary browser. MacOS is up to date, and I'm on Chrome Version 79.0.3945.79

Would love updates on this.

Fulltron Service

Jan 12, 2020

I also have a problem like that even in version 79 of Chrome.

When loading any page that uses a lot of JavaScript, the CPU usage increases to 100% and causes partial freezing in the Chrome, even the mouse pointer slows me down despite having an i5 and 8GB of RAM of which I have 43% in use.

I do not understand what happens, even continues to occur despite activating the full web rendering using GPU but still 100%.

Mike Davis 4208

Jan 22, 2020

I'm having the same problems. It started 2 weeks ago on my work desktop running Windows 10. Now it has started at my house on my desktop running 10. It is definitely a Chrome problem. I tried all the fixes like renaming default folder, resetting Chrome, clear cach, etc.. I fixed it briefly on both computers by reinstalling Chrome. This worked for 2 days and then right back to slow.

Google user

Jan 22, 2020

support.google.com I've also face same problem please tell me, what is the solution for this problem I am totally upset with your services.. I would really appreciate an early reply as this is a very important matter.

Last edited Jan 22, 2020

John Lawler

Feb 7, 2020

I found a fix finally! I had hardware acceleration turned off, etc - but what finally did it for me was to open the Developer Tools (DevTools) and turn OFF the "disable cache" setting in the Network tab. It is SUPPOSED to only force a reload when DevTools is open, but it would seem that it causes every single tab to reload every time, all at once, which is bogging tHings down.

With the cache enabled, all the tabs load a heck of a lot faster!

Jacky Wong 3158

Feb 11, 2020

Out of curiosity, has anyone's browser gotten better or using less CPU with the Chrome 80 update?

I updated mine hoping it would help but not much difference, still using a lot of CPU.

Andrew Aponte

Feb 12, 2020

@Jacky Wong - Nope, if anything the CPU usage seems to have gotten even worse after the Chrome 80 update

Jacky Wong 3158

Feb 14, 2020

@Andrew Aponte - That is pretty sad. I think I should just switch to the new Microsoft edge browser, it runs smoothly on the exact same page I visit while Chrome uses a ton of CPU :(.

Google user

Feb 15, 2020

Good updates