High CPU load with Compiz on Ubuntu 14

The most recent update to 14.04 has caused high compiz CPU usage. Running top, I can see that it goes up when hovering over the dock, and if I give focus to Sublime, Emacs, or Gedit, it heads to 50% or more. Once I give focus back to a shell, it drops to a few %.

Resetting unity like this:

unity-tweak-tool --reset-unity

did not help.

I was running 14.04 LTS on Parallels 10 for months without this problem, and it started right after the last update.

I also had to turn off Parallels 3D acceleration to get the main tool bar to work, and to get any windows to open up at all. There seems to be some interaction that might be Parallels related.

Any ideas how to figure out what the problem is?

Solution 1:

I had difficulties with this problem on Ubuntu 14.04. The CPU Usage was charged by compiz over 60 %...I followed the instructions from a Bug-report:

1. Download the "Compiz Config Settings Manager" from Ubuntu Apps

2. Run the Compiz Config Settings Manager and select the section OpenGL

3. Turn the option Sync to VBlank off
4. Reboot or log out and in.

After this procedure the CPU Usage of compiz is at 10%..

I hope this helps others as well.