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Desktop Window Manager process taking up the rest of my GPU when playing games.

Anonymous
2022-10-15T08:57:54+00:00

Yesterday I saw in my task manager while playing games that my GPU was at a 100% when the game isn't even that demanding then I saw that Desktop Window Manager took 60% of my GPU when the game only took 40 and when I lowered my graphics the process took even more GPU usage. I have virus scanned, turned off window animations, updated drivers, run system maintenance and other stuff but nothing has worked so far and all the guides out there just repeats the same process I have tried so I hope someone here has a answer or could lead me to a direction for a answer.

i5-9600K 3.70GHz

RTX 2070 SUPER

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-10-16T11:04:58+00:00

    Hi Victor gameKing

    Thanks for the update.

    If your RTX 2070 Super usage is too high, please check whether the driver has been updated recently? If it is convenient for you, try roll back to the old driver version to see if it is normal.

    In the meantime, try holding Windows + I > Open Settings > Go to System > Then select Display > Click Graphics Settings > Change default graphics settings > Turn off Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-10-17T14:30:29+00:00

    Dear Victor gameKing

    Hope you are doing well.

    It looks like turning off this feature does the trick to reduce GPU usage, which is terrific.

    Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling can be traced back to the May 2020 update of Windows 10. For a detailed description of this feature, please refer to the description from developer Steve Pronovost.

    Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling - DirectX Developer Blog

    Although the article describes a lot of features about this function, to be more simplified, when task scheduling is handed over to dedicated hardware , Windows will continue to control the priority of the program calling the GPU, but high-frequency tasks will be handed over to the GPU's scheduling processor. manage.

    The new function is to allow the GPU to directly manage its own memory, which is graphic card memory, but it was previously managed by the system (Windows).

    That is to say, the performance scheduling of the GPU is handed over to the driver of the device manufacturer. Based on my own personal experience, turning off this function does not seem to have a significant impact on the stability of the game.

    If turning on this function takes up too much graphic memory of your dwm.exe, you could also choose to turn it off. Of course, it mainly depends on your own experience.

    Best Regards!

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-10-17T14:00:28+00:00

    My driver has the latest update and had no luck finding older versions. But what worked was turning off Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling! I don't know if I should still be worried about this problem and i'm not completely sure what Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling **** does so could you tell me if its stable to play games with this option off?

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-10-16T10:30:31+00:00

    Thanks for the answer but unfortunately it didn't work. I have done a clean boot but no luck, and there seems as if the Desktop Window Manager also spikes in gpu usages time to time while on the desktop but it's really inconsistent so its hard to see what's causing it.

    1. It's my RTX 2070 Super that has the problem.
    2. No but when entering a game with zero programs in the background it still occurs. And also everytime I open my Task manager it spikes to 100% for a second and goes down to it's idling percentage around 1%.
    3. No as I said no background applications I usually have a wallpaper changer but it has never had this problem and in this case it isn't even open.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-10-16T04:27:25+00:00

    Hello Victor gameKing

    Welcome to Microsoft Community.

    We will try our best to help you.

    According to your/Windows 10/category, we know that your problem is that "The desktop window manager (dwm.exe) occupies high GPU resources." If my understanding is wrong, please correct me at any time. I know that sometimes troubleshooting may take a while, and too much GPU resources will affect our life and work.

    Due to limited information and many reasons for the problem, we may need you to provide more detailed information:

    <ol><li><p data-prewrap="true">Could you please provide the graphics card that currently occupies too much GPU resources for desktop window manager, whether it is <strong>Intel graphics</strong> <strong>card </strong>or <strong>RTX 2070 Super</strong> graphics card? </p><p data-prewrap="true"></p></li><li><p data-prewrap="true">If the computer is not running any programs, will the problem of high occupation of desktop window manager occur? </p><p data-prewrap="true"></p></li><li><p data-prewrap="true">Whether the computer is equipped with some wallpaper automatic changing software, which may be part of the reason that dwm.exe occupies too much. </p></li></ol>

    The above three scenarios help us to better investigate this problem, and the clues you provide are the key to our solution:

    At the same time, we also recommend that you try to perform a clean boot, which will start the minimum number of drivers and boot assemblies to start Windows, so as to determine whether the background program interferes. Please see the following article for the steps of this clean boot:

    How to perform a clean boot in Windows

    Disclaimer: A “clean boot” starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. It helps to determine whether a background program is interfering with your game or program and to isolate the cause of a problem. 

    These steps of "clean boot" might look complicated at first glance. However, to avoid any trouble for you, please follow them in order and step-by step so that it will help you get you back on track.

    Please feel free to let me know if you got any further updates, thanks.

    Best regards,

    Chandy|Microsoft Community Support Specialist

    * Beware of scammers posting fake support numbers here.

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