I ran several benchmarks : single char spinner at 100fps, full page refresh, and other. Same window size, no other apps running.
Example results
Xterm on chrome renders 300fps / 26% GPU
vscode 240fps / 30% GPU
cursor 150fps / 99% GPU
My guess is there is a problem in the way cursor displays xterm. Some overlay (please try without the “Ctrl+K to generate command” overlay), rescale or other.
Many users report that Cursor makes their computer sluggish.
The high GPU usage is not obvious to diagnose; it took me a while to track it down to:
Slow CPU → Overheating → GPU → Cursor → integrated terminal. Many users complain online even with high end desktop GPU. I guess many more are still searching why their computer is sluggish.
High GPU usage causes several problems, especially on laptops:
Very high power consumption (battery drains quickly).
Increased heat of shared thermal dissipator → CPU thermal throttling → slow, unresponsive, jerky UI.
Steps to Reproduce
Open a terminal and launch anything that output stuff continously. Even a single char spinner.
Expected Behavior
Operating System
Windows 10/11
Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)
Hey, thanks for the detailed report and benchmarks - this looks like a known terminal rendering issue. Please try these temporary workarounds and share diagnostics:
Launch Cursor with GPU disabled: cursor --disable-gpu
Disable all extensions: cursor --disable-extensions
Enable hardware acceleration disable: Ctrl+Shift+P → Preferences: Configure Runtime Arguments → in argv.json uncomment "disable-hardware-acceleration": true, then restart
Open Ctrl+Shift+P → Developer: Open Process Explorer and send a screenshot of GPU usage (especially ptyHost); add percentages from Task Manager
Let me know: how many terminals are open, does closing the AI panel help, and what’s your monitor refresh rate (60/144 Hz)
I’ll escalate this to the team. Let me know if the workarounds help.
The workaround is to launch live rebuild app in a standalone terminal. But it would be more convenient to use the integrated one.
Is there anything cursor add to the way the terminal is displayed compared to vscode ? Please ask the dev team to check if there’s any overlay or unintentionnal rescale (it could even be a forgotten space in html).
the previous benchmark were already done with --disable-extensions
--disable-gpu makes cursor slow, it’s not a solution, but I tested it anyways
50fps ~70%CPU ~20%GPU
but visually the real refresh is more like 2-3fps
please notice that in order to make --disable-gpu effective we must close all instances (if one instance stays open the other will always have GPU enabled)
idem for disabling hardware acceleration using json
Here are the screenshots while disabling both extensions and GPU :
Thanks for the screenshots - very helpful. From them, the main load is in gpu-process (rendering), ptyHost barely uses CPU, so this is exactly a terminal/overlays rendering issue. I’ll escalate it as a bug.
We need a bit more data so the team can reproduce:
Exact repro (script/repo for “spinner” and “full page refresh”) - so we can measure the same fps
Task Manager with “GPU” and “GPU Engine” columns enabled for Cursor processes
Terminal settings: font, size, lineHeight; what’s the window zoom (Ctrl+0 for 100%); does fully closing the AI panel help
Temporary workarounds for now: 60 Hz on the monitor for long log streams, external terminal for “noisy” tasks, hide AI panel. Once you send the details, I’ll attach them to the bug and get back with an update.
I must tell you I really appreciate that you’re acting that fast. I also think it’s a very common problem and people often complain that cursor is slow. I always thought it was normal until now. It’s only because I’m now using a laptop that share the thermal dissipator between CPU and GPU that I had to investigate this far. Thank you
@saomalu Did you tried my script ? Can you post screenshot (you can add column GPU in task manager). Unfortunately I do not have access to the same computer again.
