High CPU Usage while watching Youtube videos

[minifjurt123]

So when Watching just a single youtube video in 720p my CPU Usage goes up to around 60-90 Percent. Even though I have a pretty strong video card (AMD Radeon R9 200 Series).

I run Windows 7 and I've had an older installation of Windows 7 probably with some old drivers and shit laying around. But now when I have a fresh install and no old drivers or anything it's still the same.

I've tried running anti virus (Microsoft Security Essentials) and CCleaner but no difference.
What is causing this high CPU Usage, Is it just that the CPU is bad or can I actually resolve it without needing to get a new one. And if I now need to get a new one. Which one should I get.
I run 4 screens on my setup, all 1920x1080, when only having my background applications like Skype, Dropbox, Logitech Gaming Software, etc. I get around 1-10 Percent CPU Usage, but it's mostly stays around 1 percent.

If I made something unclear or forget if you need any more info I'll be happy to give it. Here are my computer Specs: http://benefitcraft.me/pspecs/ (I actually have 16gb ram now though)

 

[noreaster]

You should have Task Manager open when watching the video and see what process is using all of the CPU, if it is the browser then check your add-ons/plugins to make sure there are no unnecessary ones and that they are all up to date. If it is some other process then you may want to see what the process is and if it is malicious (if it is then run malwarebytes or something to disinfect).

Edit: I just watched a youtube video with firefox to see what my CPU and GPU usage were, they didn't go above 3% on either(i have i5-3570K and Radeon HD 7970, so I wouldn't expect them to be heavily tasked by youtube)

 

[minifjurt123]

You should have Task Manager open when watching the video and see what process is using all of the CPU, if it is the browser then check your add-ons/plugins to make sure there are no unnecessary ones and that they are all up to date. If it is some other process then you may want to see what the process is and if it is malicious (if it is then run malwarebytes or something to disinfect).

Edit: I just watched a youtube video with firefox to see what my CPU and GPU usage were, they didn't go above 3% on either(i have i5-3570K and Radeon HD 7970, so I wouldn't expect them to be heavily tasked by youtube)

It's chrome.exe that is eating all the CPU when watching a video otherwice it's fine and doesnt use much. I also tried disabling all my addons, but there was no difference, I also tried using the FLASH youtube player instead of the HTML5 but still no different. I know my CPU is pretty old when i got it because i got it for a cheap price because they were selling out their old stuff. And this was 2 years ago. So I'm getting more and more sure that I'm gonna need a new CPU. So the question now is more what CPU I should get. I'm willing to spend a good amount of money on it. But my mothercard has the AMD3+ socket. Should I go with an AMD processor then or should I get a new mothercard to get an Intel Processor. I have also heard that AMD CPUs works better with AMDs GPUs. Which I have. My mothercard is also pretty old.

 

[noreaster]

There is no need to match CPU and GPU (AMD/AMD), they are all very compatible with each other (Intel/nVidia, Intel/AMD, AMD/AMD, and AMD/nVidia), it just comes down to what you have and what you prefer.
Your cheapest upgrade would be to buy an AMD CPU in the AM3+ socket, use your motherboard manufacturer's website to figure out which CPUs are compatible and choose from there the Tom's Hardware Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart is a good place to compare CPUs, as well as a number of other review sites.
However, if you do wish to get good performance and lower power consumption, Intel is currently winning that race. The Pentium G3258 is a very good value and is easy to overclock (it is very capable even at stock), or for a higher price you can get an i3 or i5 and be very satisfied there as well.

 

[Bannereus]

Here's a little data from an almost-scientific experiment

CPU- AMD FX 4300 @ 4.0 GHz
GPU-crappy, soon-to-be-replaced

Youtube video, 1080p@30fps (my standard benchmark for non-performance systems)
Background apps: 3-6% CPU utilization, 0-1% GPU; below numbers attributed directly to youtube over 1min
OS- Win 8.1 64-bit, GPU measures from GPU-Z, CPU from task manager

Firefox 33.1.1
CPU- 12%
GPU- 60%

Opera 26.0.1656.32 (based on chromium, interestingly)
CPU- 10%
GPU- 30-35%

Chrome Version 39.0.2171.71 m (using html5 player)
CPU- 25-60% (avg close to 40%)
GPU- 50%

Bit of a performance spread, I would say. Steaming videos at higher resolutions or fps will increase loads, and different players have differing performance costs too, my gpu starts stuttering at 60fps.

Solution: try other browsers, check if it is higher fps content, you might also check that hardware acceleration is enabled in your browser, which may help offload some work to your GPU if it isn't already on

 

[minifjurt123]

I found the problem. It was actually that my CPU cooling fan had stopped working. I solved it by just replacing the fan with a random one I found in my house, I also mounted another one to get more cooling. The problem was basically that the CPU were overheating (It was around 90 Degrees Celsius according to my BIOS)

 

[Bannereus]

Glad you figured it out, but depending on how long you've had it, may want to make sure the heatsink is clean too

Source: my mom's computer is running an athlon from 2009 with the stock AMD heatsink, and it got so filled with dust in five years that while the fan could cool the CPU, it couldn't blow through the heatsink to cool the motherboard, and the integrated graphics were crippled by thermal throttling when they hit 100C

Also, you may consider installing Core Temp to monitor your temperatures: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
Works for just about every processor for windows 7/8/8.1, it just sits in the notification area and it will let you know if your cooling is working in the future

 

[WesleySidney]

I know you already solved the problem, however for those who have not solved I discovered another cause, youtube changed in 2014 the video codec, the new VP9 codec when not enabled in your browser leaves a lot of work for the CPU, enter the https://www.youtube.com/html5 address and see if the codec is on ... as in the image:

if not activated should look like this:

if the plug is off the youtube video will be unpacked by the processor using a lot more work, then you can activate as follows:
1 - Open a tab in firefox and digibe in the address bar "about: config" without quotes.
2 - go ahead and search for "media.mediasource" without quotes and you will see something like this:

3 - Change all that is false and place in true
4 - Restart firefox

after that the videos seen on youtube in firefox will use less resources of the CPU cores.