Opening a new Brave tab spikes CPU usage

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Description of the issue:

Within the last couple of days, I’ve encountered a situation where Brave uses significant CPU time. Using Brave’s Task Manager, I determined it’s when a new tab is opened and it’s on the default New Tab. When this happens, the Windows Task Manager shows CPU usage of 4-5% for Brave, which may not sound like much, but when added to the other activity on my computer, it’s enough to force the fan to run faster, making more noise and using more battery.

Again, this started within the past few days. My workaround is to type “about:blank” in the location bar. If this continues, then I’ll set that as the default home page.

How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Open a new tab and look at the Task Manager.

Expected result:

The tab should open, the Brave content should load, and then the CPU usage should go close to zero.

Brave Version( check About Brave):
Brave is up to date

Version 1.71.118 Chromium: 130.0.6723.70 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Additional Information:

Screenshot of Task Manager when a new tab is opened, even after the computer has been sitting for several minutes:

image
image1529×1492 225 KB

Screenshot if I enter “about:blank” into the location bar:

image
image1529×1492 216 KB

It appears that the default Brave new tab page is continuing to do something after loading. If this was happening in the past, it must have been low-level, as I’ve never seen Brave spike as much in my Windows Task Manager.

This is an issue because it adds 4-5% loading on my computer. That may not sound like much, but when added to the other activity, it’s enough CPU load that the fan runs faster, making more noise and using more battery.

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No replies. I guess Brave Support doesn’t monitor the community?

I guess I’ll just change my “new tab” page to be blank instead of the Dashboard.

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New Tab opening to a blank page, is best, IMHO - I am referring to, when I start up Brave Browser.

IOW, better to start up an Internet browser, unburdened.

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That’s what I do with my other browsers, but I didn’t mind seeing Brave’s suggested news articles. But it’s not worth it to have it the browser using enough CPU to keep the fan running all the time.

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@MikeyInCVCA,
Obviously opening a new tab should not spike usage any significant amount. On my end, opening a new tab bumps CPU usage up about <0.1% according to the task manager. There are a few things I would test here:

  • I suspect one of the extensions you have installed is causing the uptick in usage. You might consider disabling extensions to test and see if this is true.
  • Try opening a Guest profile (Menu --> More tools --> Guest profile), closing your original profile window(s) so that only the guest profile window is open, then check task manager and see if opening a new tab here causes the same uptick.
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Thanks, @Mattches. I went to try this, and it seem that whatever had been causing the issue has been resolved. I reverted Brave back to the default new tab page (which I realized is the “Dashboard”), and I’m not seeing the CPU spikes like before.

I still wonder if it was some content on the Dashboard that was executing a script or other content and it has subsequently been removed or superseded.

In any event, it seems no longer to be problem. …thanks!

1 Like
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Thank you for confirming.
Going to close this thread for now but please reach out to us again if you have any further issues or concerns.

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