Epic patches bug that caused CPU temps to spike while the Games Store was running

[Polycount]

In brief: Despite great holiday sales and free game giveaways, many PC users still (somewhat understandably) dislike the Epic Games Store. Today, it seems Epic has given its detractors yet another piece of ammunition: a recent bug was causing those with select CPUs to see significant temperature spikes when the Epic Games Store app was open.

Closing the app reduced temperatures by as much as 20C for some, whereas others -- such as Redditor Neoncarbon -- regained a more modest 13C.

Temperature and usage spikes wouldn't be surprising if an Epic Games Store game was running, but here, the app itself is causing problems, which is unacceptable. A game launcher running in the background should not be impacting CPU performance in any noticeable way.

Fortunately, Epic's director of publishing strategy, Sergiy Galyonkin, says the team is aware of the issue. Indeed, as of writing, a hotfix has already been released. It's not a "full solution," but Galyonkin says things "should improve."

The hotfix is live now (11.0.2). It's not a full solution, but things should improve.

— Sergiy Galyonkin (@galyonkin) December 29, 2020

Galyonkin is perhaps being a bit conservative with that statement, though, as the issue seems to be fixed for most. Some speculate that the high CPU usage/temperature bug is related to the Epic Games Store app thinking the main store page is in use even when the app is minimized, or when a different page is in focus.

Regardless, if you're still encountering the bug even with the Epic Games Store app minimized, either sit tight or close the program for a few days: more fixes are undoubtedly on the way.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/88128-epic-patches-bug-caused-cpu-temps-spike-while.html

 

[Irata]

Hotfix...quite literally.

 

[Lionvibez]

I'm just checking this on my ryzen system now.

If I have the launcher open it sits at about 2.8% cpu usage and cpu temps are 38c

if I send it back to the tray usage drops to 0.2% and cpu temps are 33c for me.

Not really noticeable for me but not gonna say no to whatever fix they are going to add.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

It was using over 10% of my laptop’s i7 CPU before. I kept the app closed permanently because it caused my fan to run 24/7... I just updated it and now it takes up less than 1% of my CPU when minimized, so a 20-40x improvement in that regard.

 

[Uncle Al]

Yeah, gives a whole new meaning to the term "hot swappable" ......

 

[Raytrace3D]

I wonder if the "bug" had anything to do with crypto mining. hehehe

 

[Irata]

I'm just checking this on my ryzen system now.

If I have the launcher open it sits at about 2.8% cpu usage and cpu temps are 38c

if I send it back to the tray usage drops to 0.2% and cpu temps are 33c for me.

Not really noticeable for me but not gonna say no to whatever fix they are going to add.

Maybe the update is already installed ?

I am curious: What are your power plan‘s minimum CPU power settings (in %)?

 

[Lionvibez]

Maybe the update is already installed ?

I am curious: What are your power plan‘s minimum CPU power settings (in %)?

 

[JamesBlond]

Epic secretly mining XMR for free on your PC.... I think

 

[nnguy2]

I'm just checking this on my ryzen system now.

If I have the launcher open it sits at about 2.8% cpu usage and cpu temps are 38c

if I send it back to the tray usage drops to 0.2% and cpu temps are 33c for me.

Not really noticeable for me but not gonna say no to whatever fix they are going to add.

On my 5900x my cpu runs at 70C if I don't kill the EGS app.

 

[Lionvibez]

On my 5900x my cpu runs at 70C if I don't kill the EGS app.

I'm on a 3800X and using a H150i AIO for cooling on windows 20H2

Have you verified the version number you need 11.0.2 for the hotfix which is the version I'm using.

 

[nnguy2]

I'm on a 3800X and using a H150i AIO for cooling on windows 20H2

Have you verified the version number you need 11.0.2 for the hotfix which is the version I'm using.

I haven't applied hotfix yet from epic. Just reporting what it was doing to my cpu pre hotfix. Using D15 for hsf.

 

[nnguy2]

I'm on a 3800X and using a H150i AIO for cooling on windows 20H2

Have you verified the version number you need 11.0.2 for the hotfix which is the version I'm using.

Just applied hotfix and temps are low 40's.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I wonder if the "bug" had anything to do with crypto mining. hehehe

That's *always* my assumption. These shenanigans are most easily noticeable in a laptop or NUC type machine as the fans are more noticeable than on a decent gaming desktop. Anandtech and Tom's Hardware do this on occasion with my NUC and I did notice the Epic Games Store CPU use problem a week or so ago but I haven't been on my NUC since then.

 

[m4a4]

I've always had to close the EGS when not using it (and it no longer opens on startup) because of the ridiculous CPU usage while idle. Hopefully this (long overdue) fix means I don't have to anymore...

 

[Irata]

View attachment 87331

View attachment 87329

Thanks. My settings were minimum 90%, maximum 100% (2700x, Ryzen power plan).
Changing the minimum to 40 % reduced my idle temps considerably. Before, the CPU would run at 4 Ghz if there was even minimal CPU usage and I suspect this is one of the reasons why the Epic launcher increases idle temps by so much for some.

Tbh, I have no idea why the minimum is that high. Did not notice any performance issues lowering it.

 

[loki1944]

Chinese still ironing out those bugs.

 

[duckofdeath]

It's very nice to have a store that actually offers competitive prices on games, but it does have a few weird (suspect) designs. Like, it's impossible to disable the overlay unless you go in an delete the files on the drive. The overlay is apparently automagically re-installed/enabled at next restart.
I sort of suspect this overlay is messing up my HDR stability. It could also be the Origin, Xbox or Steam launchers messing that up. It's not easy to troubleshoot things like this when these launcher won't let you control what they're doing on the PC.

 

[SG736F6]

Epic secretly mining XMR for free on your PC.... I think

It would not surprise me to catch a developer mining cryptocurrency. I discovered some websites that attempted to run JavaScript that mined coins everytime you visited the site. Can you imagine if something with a HUGE install base like Steam just used .1% of all those systems combined to mine cryptocurrency? Holy moly.

 

[erickmendes]

"Hotfix"... sure... I bet they just made the data collecting a tud slower....