iCUE services constantly uses up 7-10% CPU

Noticed by chance today how the System Idle Process on my Windows 10 PC which usually gets about 99% of the CPU time when the PC is idling now only gets about 90-93%.

 

When I was looking to find out what other processes were constantly putting a load on my CPU, I found the two below processes being the culprits:

 

Corsair.Service.CpuIdRemote64.exe (6-7% CPU)

Corsair.Service.exe (1-3% CPU)

 

What exactly are these services doing (especially the first one with CpuIdRemote in its name) and why is it they constantly use almost 10% CPU? That's quite a lot for a background service!

 

I don't have any other services behaving like this. Had it only been 1-2% it might have been OK. But certainly not almost 10% of your CPU time on a constant basis!

 

The normal thing is to have a process that once in a while will ask for some CPU time. Not like this where the CPU is permanently loaded in the background.

Typically high CPU usage is tied a few specific devices. Can you list your Corsair devices connected to iCUE? CPU% is also tied the CPU capabilities, so if you are using a 5 year old i3, it is not going to be the same as someone using a 9900K with HT enabled. Some hardware specifications might put this into context.

 

*I've remembered what you are running, but not likely others will. My combined usage for those two services are less than 1% on my 8700K. That's with 9 HD fans, 1 LNP, 1 C-Pro, K95P, Iron Claw wireless, and Dominator RGB RAM, although that is in a passive state right now. RGB memory is one of the higher consumers if in software mode.

Edited May 15, 2019 by c-attack

Sorry for the missing information. Here it is:

 

iCUE devices

 

HX1000i

• Commander Pro (4x120mm LL RGB Series fans)
  
• H115i Platinum (2x140mm LL RGB Series fans)
  
• 32 GB 3200 MHz DDR4 Venegance RGB Pro RAM
  

 

PC specs

 

• Case: Corsair Obsidian 500D RGB SE
  
• Board: MSI MEG Z390 ACE
  
• Bios: Version E7B12IMS.150
  
• VGA: MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti SEA HAWK X 11GB
  
• PSU: Corsair HX1000i
  
• CPU: Intel Core i7-8086K
  
• MEM: Corsair Venegance RGB 3200MHz CL16 4x8 GB
  
• HDD: 1 x Samsung 950-series PRO 512GB M.2 NVMe, 1 x Western Digital Red 4 TB, 1 x Seagate IronWolf 10 TB
  
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H115i Platinum
  
• OC CPU: 5.1 GHz - vCore 1.33V
  
• OC GPU: 2000-2050 MHz - MSI OC Scanner Core Clock Curve
  
• OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
  

 

Great to hear you only see 1% util for the same processes combined! That means something doesn't seem right over here I guess. I'm on the latest version of Windows 10 Pro and same thing for the iCUE software. And everything is working just fine apart from this CPU util issue.

 

That's weird...

Edited May 15, 2019 by WebMaximus

Go to the RAM settings in iCUE and disable "software mode", this tends to add a bit of CPU utilization. It gives you some cool effect, though at the cost of CPU. Let me know if this helps. If you are still seeing higher CPU utilization from other parts, then we can see if we can narrow it down.

 

Lastly do you have HT enabled?

Wow, spot on!

 

When disabling full software mode for my RAM, the CPU util dropped and the System Idle Process showed the normal 99% or so.

 

I think I'll still keep it enabled though since I do like the effect.

 

Any chance this could be addressed somehow in an upcoming version of iCUE? Or maybe it's unavoidable?

 

Just feels a bit weird why this feature would need a constant 10% CPU time or so.

 

Sorry, forgot to mention I do have HT enabled.

I know they are working on a way to lower the consumption in software RAM mode. Generally speaking, the total commit has been getting lower and lower each time. There are a few odd effects that eat more than their fare share and having the app open and graphing will use a bit more as well. If you are doing something like full screen gaming or a software render, close iCUE to the tray. For now, you can usually get away with hardware mode RAM lighting for most single layer patterns or preset effects.

After another test I realized I'm now using a very simple static color for my RAM which works just fine without full software control enabled.

 

So...problem solved :)

 

Many thanks for the quick and spot on support and help!

I have the same problem but i cant find any ram settings on icue software what can i do?

Hi,

 

I've just purchased a new MSI laptop and installed iCue to handle my Scimitar RGB Elite mouse.

 

"iCue Service for MSI motherboards" is sitting at 15% CPU usage, up to 20% on start up & idle. My fan speeds are at ~ 4000RPM & 2500 RPM during this.

 

If you close the iCue application, the iCue MSI service still remains active. If I force close the service, the fan speeds & CPU drop to 0.

 

It is possible to close the iCue service for MSI motherboards, the iCue application remains open and functional but my CPU usage and fan speeds remain at 0, as they should.

 

What is the purpose of this service and why is utilizing such great usage? Does anyone know of a workaround or fix? I've not found much on this, other than whats here, which all looks recent too.