Chrome 57+ Throttling

Kadauchi

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Chrome 57 has been released recently. This version introduces background tab throttling to help improve performance. This is important to know about for workers because many important scripts you use can be affected by this.

Throttling of background tabs already existed, slowing them down to only be able to run once every second, but now they are going to be limited to an average of 1% CPU usage.

Affected scripts
  • HIT Finder
  • HIT Catcher
  • Panda Crazy
  • Overwatch
  • HIT Scraper
  • Turkmaster
  • HIT Monitor

Affected browsers
  • Chrome
  • Chrome Canary
  • Chromium
  • Opera (?)
  • Vivaldi (?)
(?) denotes unconfirmed, but they are based off of chromium so they should be when their bases get updated to Chromium 57+


How to opt-out

Windows:
  1. Right click the shortcut you use to launch chrome and select properties.
  2. Add --disable-background-timer-throttling to the end of the target line, there needs to be a space separating it as pictured below.
  3. You will have to exit out of Chrome completely for this to take affect and always use the edited shortcut to launch chrome or the flag will not run.



Mac:

Enter this into the terminal
Code:
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome   --disable-background-timer-throttling
You will have to do this everytime you launch Chrome.

Both:
You can verify that the flag is enabled by going to chrome://version and seeing --disable-background-timer-throttling under "Command Line".

How to know if a tab can to be throttled

Any background tab that is not playing audio or does not have a WebSocket/WebRTC will be throttled unless you opt-out.

HIT Finder would not be throttled since it is in the foreground


HIT Finder would be throttled since it is in the background.


Having the scripts in their own window will prevent them from being throttled as long as they aren't minimized. You can have other windows covering them, just do not minimize them to the system tray.
 
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rubies

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Chrome 57 has been released recently. This version introduces background tab throttling to help improve performance. This is important to know about for workers because many important scripts you use can be affected by this.

Throttling of background tabs already existed, slowing them down to only be able to run once every second, but now they are going to be limited to an average of 1% CPU usage.

Affected scripts
  • HIT Finder
  • HIT Catcher
  • Panda Crazy
  • Overwatch
  • HIT Scraper
  • Turkmaster
  • HIT Monitor

How to opt-out

  1. Right click the shortcut you use to launch chrome and select properties.
  2. Add --disable-background-timer-throttling to the end of the target line, there needs to be a space separating it as pictured below.



How to know if a tab can to be throttled

Any background tab that is not playing audio or does not have a WebSocket/WebRTC will be throttled unless you opt-out.

HIT Finder would not be throttled since it is in the foreground


HIT Finder would be throttled since it is in the background.


Having the scripts in their own window will prevent them from being throttled as long as they aren't minimized. You can have other windows covering them, just do not minimize them to the system tray.

ty
 

TobyF

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Thank you for this.
 

BusyLes

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Would running tabs tiled instead of stacked prevent this issue for the time being?
 

electrolyte

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Jaded

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Probably a really dumb question but I have chrome pinned to my taskbar and properties wasn't on my right-click list. I went and found it another way but you said i have to use the shortcut I changed. Is there any way to figure out if it worked for the pinned to taskbar icon?
 
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Kadauchi

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Probably a really dumb question but I have chrome pinned to my taskbar and properties wasn't on my right-click list. I went and found it another way but you said i have to use the shortcut I changed. Is there any way to figure out if it worked for the pinned to taskbar icon?
Afaik it has to be a desktop shortcut. In Q2 2017, there should be an update that allows you to opt out which will mean you don't have to set the flag, but for now you'll just have to use a shortcut.
 

klyde

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It wouldnt let me do it at first, but then i added the quotation marks to the beginning of the target and then after .exe and then it seemed like it took it. Is that how its supposed to work?
 

Wadarbr549

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can someone please type out exactly what i need to put into the target area space so i can copy and paste it.
 

Jaded

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Afaik it has to be a desktop shortcut. In Q2 2017, there should be an update that allows you to opt out which will mean you don't have to set the flag, but for now you'll just have to use a shortcut.
Cool, thanks!
 

loki3404

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Probably a really dumb question but I have chrome pinned to my taskbar and properties wasn't on my right-click list. I went and found it another way but you said i have to use the shortcut I changed. Is there any way to figure out if it worked for the pinned to taskbar icon?
I closed chrome, unpinned it from the taskbar, then dragged the fixed shortcut to the taskbar and pinned that. I renamed the shortcut to "chromefix" and it shows up as that when I hover over it on the taskbar.
 

Jaded

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I closed chrome, unpinned it from the taskbar, then dragged the fixed shortcut to the taskbar and pinned that. I renamed the shortcut to "chromefix" and it shows up as that when I hover over it on the taskbar.
Oh, nice I'll do that. THanks
 

Wadarbr549

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Step 2 of the opt-out. --disable-background-timer-throttling
Thank you, so is this exactly what i should have ? "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-background-timer-throttling
 

Kadauchi

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Would running tabs tiled instead of stacked prevent this issue for the time being?
Doubtful since they would still be tied to the same window.
Thank you, so is this exactly what i should have ? "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-background-timer-throttling
Yes, then just hit apply, go to chrome and Ctrl+Shift+Q, then launch from that shortcut.
 

optipfrog

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Thank you for all you do.

I run UbuntuMate 16.04 64 bit, as far as I know Chrome is only up to ver. 56. And my internet is so slow I don't think it will matter but will look into it on the Win 10 machine.

Edit- Did a manual software update and have Version 57.0.2987.98 (64-bit) now. :optipfrog:
 
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Not A Robot

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Damn, thanks for the heads up. That is a serious potential issue. Maybe this should be pinned at the top of today's thread?