UI performance is slow on Windows 11

[zstundys]

Type: Performance Issue

The UI performance has degraded significantly in some recent version. I don't know exactly when it started, but it affects everything in the workbench.

Scrolling, hover effects, tab switching and more are all very sluggish. It's like watching a "cinematic" movie at 24 fps. On a 160Hz monitor it's very noticeable and distracting.

VS Code version: Code 1.76.2 (ee2b180, 2023-03-14T17:55:54.936Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22621
Modes:
Sandboxed: No

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor (24 x 3700)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_renderer: enabled_on video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	63.92GB (52.42GB free)
Process Argv
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Process Info

CPU %	Mem MB	   PID	Process
    0	   103	  6464	code main
    0	   113	  3308	   shared-process
    0	    86	  2256	     fileWatcher
    0	    78	 23572	     ptyHost
    0	   267	 11144	   window (settings.xml - GTA V - Visual Studio Code)
    0	   298	 12352	   window (undefined)
    0	    40	 12776	   utility-network-service
    0	    92	 15132	   issue-reporter
    0	   157	 21576	   gpu-process
    0	   151	 22816	   utility-process
    0	    91	 21076	     electron-nodejs ("C:\Users\zstun\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" --ms-enable-electron-run-as-node c:\Users\zstun\.vscode\extensions\streetsidesoftware.code-spell-checker-2.20.0\packages\_server\dist\main.js --node-ipc --clientProcessId=22816)
    0	    81	 21332	     electron-nodejs ("C:\Users\zstun\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" --ms-enable-electron-run-as-node c:\Users\zstun\.vscode\extensions\ms-azuretools.vscode-docker-1.24.0\dist\compose-language-service\lib\server.js --node-ipc --node-ipc --clientProcessId=22816)
    0	    83	 21676	     electron-nodejs ("C:\Users\zstun\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" --ms-enable-electron-run-as-node "c:\Users\zstun\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\extensions\json-language-features\server\dist\node\jsonServerMain" --node-ipc --clientProcessId=22816)
    0	    82	 22320	     electron-nodejs ("C:\Users\zstun\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" --ms-enable-electron-run-as-node c:\Users\zstun\.vscode\extensions\ms-azuretools.vscode-docker-1.24.0\dist\dockerfile-language-server-nodejs\lib\server.js --node-ipc --node-ipc --clientProcessId=22816)

Workspace Info

|  Window (settings.xml - GTA V - Visual Studio Code)
|    Folder (GTA V): 27 files
|      File types: dat(2) bak(2) gitignore(1) bin(1) xml(1)
|      Conf files:;

Extensions (9)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
vscode-tailwindcss	bra	0.9.8
vscode-eslint	dba	2.4.0
EditorConfig	Edi	0.16.4
todo-tree	Gru	0.0.224
Angular2	joh	13.0.0
vscode-docker	ms-	1.24.0
vscode-edge-devtools	ms-	2.1.1
LiveServer	rit	5.7.9
code-spell-checker	str	2.20.0

[zstundys]

Hopefully a video recording illustrates the issue better.

2023-03-16.00-30-36.mp4

[zstundys]

Tried the following, none of which fixed the issue:

• restarting the system
• disabling all extensions

[zstundys]

Attaching a profile: Profile-20230316T004058.zip

[zstundys]

After looking at the profile, I noticed that frames were being dropped for no reason. Digged around a little bit and found the culprit: NVIDIA Control Panel settings.

If others experience this issue, "Background Application Max Frame Rate" setting under "Manage 3D settings" page caused this. Turning it off and restarting VS Code solved the issue.

Why Nvidia treats VS Code as a "Background application" is anybody's guess. Might be a driver issue, not sure.

Maintainers can close this :)

[zstundys]

Looks like this was reported way back in July 2022 #107016 (comment)