Server Version#: 1.32.2.7100
Player Version#: 1.69.1.3755-e00242c8 (and all other versions for the past year or so)
Firstly I’m not sure if this is actually an issue, but it doesn’t seem right.
For at least a year now I’ve noticed rather high CPU utilisation when using the Plex for Mac player for the QtWebEngineProcess, specifically when the app is minimised and not in use (ie not playing anything).
This issue is persistent, survives re-install of client and is present across multiple machines.
This has also been confirmed by several other users, and I can reproduce without any additional steps on three of my personal machines (MacPro M1 Max, Mac Air M2 & MacStudio M1 Pro).
That’s because Plex has yet to figure out how to get a version of QT that is native to Apple Silicon. Right now QT is using Rosetta and being translated from x86 to ARM, that’s why its process is so high
Yes indeed, I’ve been watching the various discussion points, however that doesn’t quite explain the constant hit, seems to be more an implementation issue?
No one at Plex seems interested in confirming if this is by design, or if they have an underlying issue with the current QT intel process implementation. Note no media playback or other activity within the Plex client when I grabbed these screen shots:
PS - My current work around (it isn’t perfect, things are getting better, but good enough) is to run the iOS beta client via TestFlight on my M2 MacBook Air.
This means the following:
100% reduction of idle CPU usage, a reduction of the equivalent of a single high performance core in my MacBook
~50% reduction of CPU when playing back media (across all relevant processes)
~23% reduction of GPU when playing back media (across all relevant processes)
~55% reduction in overall Energy impact
Granted the above stats are from Activity Monitor and iStat Menus and my test setup wasn’t entirely extensive or standardised, but they are reasonable and repeatable.
Just in case you missed it, the latest update makes Plex Player on Mac native, addressing my highest issue of rather excessive CPU utilisation on idle for QtWebEngineProcess.
