BI "overhead" CPU usage?

adam_adam · Mar 27, 2019

I'm new-ish to BI, and still fine tuning. I have worked through the guide to optimizing BI, and I'm wondering if this is a common experience:

If BI is freshly restarted, it runs at 30-50% CPU usage under my current settings. I'm happy with this. The following things seem to change the CPU usage, and #3 is a problem.

Active vs. Inactive profile: Minimal or no change to CPU usage. I am guessing this is because I currently have little/no recording in place.
Live feed vs. paused: If I pause the live feed, the CPU usage drops 10% or more.
Freshly restarted BI vs. leaving BI open: If I let BI run (live feed open) for a long period of time (1+ days) I usually see the CPU usage elevated quite a bit (sometimes 85% or 95% CPU usage). Setting to Inactive+paused lowers the CPU usage 15% or so.

Is it normal that the "overhead" (inactive+paused) CPU usage is only 25% when freshly started BI, but is 60% or even 70% if BI has been running for several hours or days?

I've checked Windows task manager and have verified that the bulk of the CPU usage is indeed BI.

crw030 · Mar 27, 2019

Not typical of my experience, maybe you have some type of runaway process or memory leak or?

Current BI system is 12 days online, and is holding solid at 10% CPU WHILE recording.

IAmATeaf · Mar 28, 2019

Won’t a lot of this depend on what machine spec you have and how many and spec of cams?

adam_adam · Mar 28, 2019

IAmATeaf said:
Won’t a lot of this depend on what machine spec you have and how many and spec of cams?

Thanks for the reply!

To be clear, I'm not asking if the baseline "overhead" CPU usage of 25% is normal. I am asking if it is normal to have BI start at ~35% (~25% if 'inactive' and 'paused') and move up to ~80% (~65% if 'inactive' and 'paused') a day later, under the same settings & conditions.

It happened again from yesterday to today. Seems to take several hours (or days) to occur -- if I let it run for a mere 30 or 60 minutes, I don't notice a change in CPU usage.

If it is not normal, I'd welcome any advice / tips about how best to address or troubleshoot.

Here is a summary of my specs:

CPU:
HP EliteDesk 800 G2 SFF
i5-6600 3.30GHz
8GB RAM
HDD (not SSD)

This PC is used exclusively for BI.

6 Cams:
1 Hikvision cube cam (used indoors)
1 Alhau/Dahau dome cam (used indoors)
2 Alhau/Dahau bullet cams
1 cheapo Reolink 4MP bullet cam
1 WIFI Uniden doorbell cam

The 2 indoor cams do not record (yet), and live view is rarely used.
The 4 outdoor cams have live view up, and record on motion (limited recording).
BI is set up to run as a service. When I refer to "restarting" BI, I mean that I restart the app GUI and the service.

SouthernYankee · Mar 28, 2019

On each camera
What is the Frame rate
what is the Iframe value, (except on the reolink POS)
What is the frame size.

are you using wifi?
are you using hardware acceleration ?
Are you recording direct to disk ?
Are you using an antivirus software ? (this can kill a bi system)
Are you running BI as a service ?
What version of windows ?
Are you using a purchased BI or the Demo ?

provide a screen shot of the windows task manager, processes, sorted by CPU time

looney2ns · Mar 28, 2019

It's most likely this >>>>Memory creeping up-BI and BlueIris memory leak? and maybe here: cpu utilization of BI process rises up to 100% | IP Cam Talk

Also see this: Memory Leak: Quick Sync (Hardware Acceleration) | IP Cam Talk

samplenhold · Mar 28, 2019

One of the things that I have observed is that the CPU utilization goes up during times BI is moving or deleting files from the NEW and STORED folders. Once this has completed, I see the CPU go back to my 'normal' utilization.

I am recording direct to disk in BI format. My NEW folder is on a WD 10TB purple and files moved after 14 days to the STORED folder which is on a pair of WD 4TB Blue drives spanned to 8 TB total. All HDs are directly attached to the MB, not USB connected.

I did have an issue in the beginning that the CPU would peg and the HDD status was solid. Turned out that WIN 10 was doing an auto defrag, which takes for ever on a 10TB drive, especially when that drive is actively recording.

adam_adam · Mar 28, 2019

Thanks for the comments. I'd searched around for similar problems (& solutions) previously, but looney2ns pointed some out that I hadn't come across. I plan to read through those and see if that can be helpful.

If I am still struggling, perhaps I'll come back with more detailed CPU/Cam info as SouthernYankee suggests.

Much appreciated!

Clutch · Apr 7, 2019

I'm running 4 cams right now as I'm learning my way. I was at 25% with cameras just recording alerts. I started reading on how to reduce the load and now I'm at 8% with 3 of the cameras duplicated so I can have alerts and continuously record. I haven't turned down frame rates yet.

I'm taking advantage of the intel direct to disk and I have a Nvideo GTX750 gpu being used.
This is on a Intel i7-6700 with 32GB ram. Dell Optiplex 890.

SouthernYankee · Apr 7, 2019

take a look at what other BI systems are processing.

Blue Iris Update Helper

Walrus · Apr 7, 2019

@adam_adam I have the same CPU. With 3 cams, all 2MP @ 20FPS, I'm at 9% CPU and 9% GPU. Are you using Intel hardware acceleration, and is it working? I find the latest drivers from the Intel site completely breaks hardware accel for this CPU.

looney2ns · Apr 7, 2019

Clutch said:
I'm running 4 cams right now as I'm learning my way. I was at 25% with cameras just recording alerts. I started reading on how to reduce the load and now I'm at 8% with 3 of the cameras duplicated so I can have alerts and continuously record. I haven't turned down frame rates yet.

I'm taking advantage of the intel direct to disk and I have a Nvideo GTX750 gpu being used.
This is on a Intel i7-6700 with 32GB ram. Dell Optiplex 890.

Remove the Nvidia card.
You do realize you don't have to clone cams to have alerts and continuous record.
Blue Iris Video Tutorials | IP Cam Talk
Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage | IP Cam Talk

fenderman · Apr 7, 2019

Clutch said:
I'm running 4 cams right now as I'm learning my way. I was at 25% with cameras just recording alerts. I started reading on how to reduce the load and now I'm at 8% with 3 of the cameras duplicated so I can have alerts and continuously record. I haven't turned down frame rates yet.

I'm taking advantage of the intel direct to disk and I have a Nvideo GTX750 gpu being used.
This is on a Intel i7-6700 with 32GB ram. Dell Optiplex 890.

That gpu is just wasting power. Remove it.
The optiplex model is incorrect.

Clutch · Apr 7, 2019

You are right about the model number. It is a Dell XPS 8910. I had a brain fart. I use that GPU for cad and astrophotography. I guess I can try unchecking the use gpu box and see what happens. It also has a Intel HD graphics 530 in it that I'm not using. When I want a 4th monitor I'll give it a spin.

fenderman · Apr 7, 2019

Clutch said:
You are right about the model number. It is a Dell XPS 8910. I had a brain fart. I use that GPU for cad and astrophotography. I guess I can try unchecking the use gpu box and see what happens. It also has a Intel HD graphics 530 in it that I'm not using. When I want a 4th monitor I'll give it a spin.

Blue Iris should be installed on a dedicated PC.

58chev · Apr 8, 2019

Walrus said:
I find the latest drivers from the Intel site completely breaks hardware accel for this CPU.

I found that running an Intel driver from 2017 was the best for my machine, all other drivers had the usage up over 50% for only 4 cameras and 1.4Gb RAM.
My BI PC now sits at 6-14% and under 700Mb RAM

adam_adam · Apr 23, 2019

adam_adam said:
Thanks for the comments. I'd searched around for similar problems (& solutions) previously, but looney2ns pointed some out that I hadn't come across. I plan to read through those and see if that can be helpful.

If I am still struggling, perhaps I'll come back with more detailed CPU/Cam info as SouthernYankee suggests.

Much appreciated!

Update for any future viewers of this thread with similar problems (esp. if running i5-6600 3.30GHz):
I did end up rolling back by driver to version 21.20.16.4664 (4/21/2017), and this did solve my problems. My machine now runs consistently at 30% CPU usage.

THANK YOU to looney2ns and others.

58chev · May 7, 2019

@adam_adam
Did you lock down that driver? So windows can not update it on a whim. Here is a link

adam_adam · May 7, 2019

58chev said:
@adam_adam
Did you lock down that driver? So windows can not update it on a whim. Here is a link

I did see this info within a related thread, but you have linked to a more detailed guide. Thanks for reaching out and providing it!

If I understand correctly, this will prevent WIN updates from *replacing* the driver, but the driver may still be *removed* as part of the update process, meaning I would need to reinstall the driver. Too bad the driver's removal can't be prevented, too, but I'll take what I can get!

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