Nv_queue High CPU Usage on Ubuntu 22.04.05 with nvidia-driver-565

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

Hello,

I am encountering a persistent issue with high CPU usage caused by the nv_queue process on my system when the GPU is idle. I want to resolve it and below are the details of my setup and what I’ve tried so far:

System Information:

  • OS: Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
  • Kernel: 5.15.0-126-generic
  • GPU: NVIDIA TITAN V (connected via Thunderbolt in an eGPU box)
  • Driver: nvidia-driver-565

Problem Description:

When the GPU is idle, the nv_queue process consumes approximately 10% of my CPU time. Upon investigating /proc/interrupts, I observed that there are a significant number of IRQs from the GPU during idle times. However, when a process actively uses the GPU (e.g., a CUDA workload), the IRQ behavior and CPU usage normalize.

What I’ve Tried:

  1. Modify Xorg Options:
    I followed the solution in this post:
    What is nv_queue and why is it the top process on my system?.
  • I added the suggested options to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia.conf (found via locate nvidia.conf):
Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On, ForceFullCompositionPipeline=On}"  
Option "UseNvKmsCompositionPipeline" "Off"  
Option "TripleBuffer" "On"

Unfortunately, this did not resolve the issue.

  1. Remove xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-565:

Since I only use the GPU for CUDA and do not require any display output. I tried to remove xserver nvidia driver. However, if I removed this package, I could no longer start the X server.

  1. Switch to intel with prime-select:

If I were to setprime-select intel, CUDA would be unavailable (no nvidia-driver is loaded at all). I currently use the “on-demand” mode.

Additional Notes:

  • The issue seems to stem from IRQ handling when the GPU is idle.
  • It seems it is related to xserver
  • There is no graphic process for xserver when I run nvidia-smi

Any idea?

Thank you for your help.