High CPU usage with Android emulator (qemu-system-i386.exe)

Windows Problem Overview

The emulator qemu-system-i386.exe cpu usage almost constantly running between 7~9

Android studio 2.1 Android SDK Tools: 25.1.3 Host Operating System: Windows 7 - i7 2630QM - 8GB Ram Intel x86 Atom System Image installed

No matter what setting i change in the emulator like: emulated performance, multi-core CPU, x86-64 image, always the same thing

It is really annoying fan always on

Anyone had a fix for this issue?

Windows Solutions

Solution 1 - Windows

The cause of the constant CPU usage could be the sound. If you do not need sound in your emulator you can disable it by editing the AVD's config file.

Change/add those two lines

hw.audioInput=no
hw.audioOutput=no

Update: As buncis commented you can also try to disable GPS if not needed:

hw.GPS = no

On Linux/Mac the file is located at ~/.android/avd/<AVD_Name>.avd/config.ini
On Windows the file is located at C:\Users<username>\.android\avd<AVD_Name>.avd\config.ini

Solution 2 - Windows

On Mac I noticed that the emulator was using over 100% CPU after my laptop went to sleep. Turning the audio off as Benjamin suggested didn't fix that problem.

Restarting the simulated device by long-pressing the power button on the emulator works for me.

Solution 3 - Windows

Using the x86_64 (Or the 64 bit) emulator solved it for me. They recommend the x86 version, but it was acting up for me.

Solution 4 - Windows

To find out what on the virtual device is using the most CPU:

adb shell

$ top

This will show you a list of processes with the highest CPU usage atop.

This will help you determine whether it's a process (such as your app) inside the emulator, another process inside the emulator, or just the emulation itself using a lot of CPU.

In the latter case, try optimizing the emulator by installing HAX (Native intel instructions) or perhaps enable hardware acceleration using the AVD profile editor.

Solution 5 - Windows

I had that problem on the start of November 2018.

Virtual device was contently trying to connect to the mobile network data, so I turned it off inside of the device itself. Work great now.

Solution 6 - Windows

The same problem with qemu on Win7, HAXM 7.2.0. I've tried switch off audio, it didn't help, qemu consumes about 20% of CPU anytime, Android works very slow on both x86 and x64 images.

I've found solutions in HAXM's Release Notes file:

On Windows, Avast Antivirus may interfere with HAXM and cause Android Emulator or QEMU to run very slowly. A workaround is to uncheck "Use nested virtualization where available" in Avast Settings > Troubleshooting.

I have Avast Pro Antivirus 18.5. I've unchecked this param, rebooted PC and now qemu consumes 0% in idle, Android works fine.

UPDATE: if QEMU started consume CPU again, first check Avast's update status. After background update Avast may start to interfere to HAXM again. Just reboot Windows to solve it.

Solution 7 - Windows

my case, coz I choose software for graphics rendering in adv. so after a change to the hardware reduce CPU usage from 60 to 10, and CPU temp from 70 to 40.

Solution 8 - Windows

In my case using hardware graphic solved my problem.

Solution 9 - Windows

I am on macOS Catalina(Version 10.15.2) with Intel Core i9 and 16 GB RAM and Radeon Pro 560X 4GB Graphics.

I solved high CPU usage by qemu by restarting the emulated device using the emulated power button.

Also, while creating the AVD, I chose Hardware Graphics Renderer instead of Auto.

Solution 10 - Windows

I reduced the CPU usage of my emulator by setting the framerate of the monitor to 60hz. It was on 144hz and my CPU was running at 60% - 70%. By only changing the framerate of the monitor, it's now sitting at 3% usage.

Solution 11 - Windows

Using kind of old Android version I used Lollipop Galaxy Nexus API 22 dropped CPU usage from 220% to around 30% ! ...

I also switched: Emulated Performance > Graphics > Hardware

Using Android Api 25 ... Hardware for graphics and turning off AVD audio and GPS didn't work for me...

Platform: MacOS

Solution 12 - Windows

In my case, I only encountered this issue when running multiple instances of the emulator.

Re-run the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM) installer provided in the Android SDK (<Android SDK path>\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager\intelhaxm-android.exe), select Change, and see how much memory is allocated to HAXM. If it's 2 GB or less, you probably want to raise it to at least 4 GB. Then restart your emulator and see if the CPU usage drops.

Solution 13 - Windows

I wasn't able to shut the audio off with the config.ini file, but only with the -noaudio cmd line argument to qemu. However, with Android Studio 3.2, you can't add custom arguments to the emulator, so I made this:

In the emulator dir of the Android SDK, in my case ~/Android/Sdk/emulator/

mv emulator emulator.orig

Make a bash script called emulator with the content:

#!/bin/bash

DIR=`dirname "$0"`

$DIR/emulator.orig -noaudio $*

Then:

chmod +x emulator

Now, the argument -noaudio will be added to all invocations of emulator from Android Studio and will save you a lot of CPU cycles.

Solution 14 - Windows

Disable location in settings and also disable touch sounds.

Solution 15 - Windows

I solved it by cancelling "Auto-save current state to Quickboot"

Snapshots -> Settings -> Auto-save current state to Quickboot - NO

Solution 16 - Windows

In my case it was the fast boot that was causing the problem, to force into normal boot open the text file in C:\Users\<username>\.android\avd\<AVD name>\config.ini and change at least one of the values.

for example change the line

hw.battery=yes

hw.battery=no

Solution 17 - Windows

In my case it was Airplane mode, when turned ON the CPU usage jumped to 99%:

adb shell

$ top

The issue was noticed on Android 10.0 x86. If you turn Airplane Mode OFF then the CPU usage should return to normal.

Solution 18 - Windows

I had the same issue recently on Windows 10 (18363): the AVD used all of the host's 16 Threads at 100%, it seems the [email protected] process on the AVD was to blame.

What helped in my case: going to AVD settings - Advanced - change the OpenGL ES renderer to Desktop native OpenGL and restart the AVD. Now it uses like 2-3% of my CPU resources. Hope this helps someone.

Solution 19 - Windows

Update:

I have installed Genymotion plugin at genymotion.com/plugins, and it has an amazing performance

Solution 20 - Windows

Changing the resolution worked form me. I was using 1440 x 2560 560 dpi Oreo 8.1. Now im using M-DPI Oreo 8.1

Solution 21 - Windows

For me I turned WIFI off and I dropped from 112% usage to 10%. I would recommend doing this

Solution 22 - Windows

Just do

$adb shell
$top

Look the PID which high CPU

$kill -9 <PID>

Solution 23 - Windows

on api31&32: do EDIT each AVD config with Show Advanced Settings and be sure to:

Multi-Core CPU > max (<=> hw.cpu.ncore=8, 4/cores is not enough and may overheat cpu strongly)
Graphics > Hardware (GLES 2.0)
No-SDCard (<=> hw.sdCard=no)

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	skystar7	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Windows	Benjamin Mesing	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Windows	antoine	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Windows	Bri6ko	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Windows	jorisw	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Windows	s.lg	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Windows	Nexus7fm	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Windows	Baltschun Ali	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Windows	AlirezA Barakati	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Windows	Shashwat Kaundinya	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Windows	soniiic	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - Windows	Hend El-Sahli	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 12 - Windows	Austin B	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 13 - Windows	Magnus Berg	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 14 - Windows	Waqas Shah	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 15 - Windows	Osman Yılmaz	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 16 - Windows	Bereket Kassahun	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 17 - Windows	vovahost	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 18 - Windows	Droidman	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 19 - Windows	skystar7	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 20 - Windows	Siphamandla Ngwenya	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 21 - Windows	dijipiji	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 22 - Windows	Hà Mã Tím	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 23 - Windows	ltlDroid	View Answer on Stackoverflow