Heavy GPU use when SSH disconnects

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1

If remote SSH disconnects and it prompts for the password again, cursor consumes a constant 31% of my GPU making my laptop get very hot. Is it stuck in a tight redraw loop when it should be idle?

Once I enter and submit the password cursor stops burning the planet.

Cursor IDE
Windows 11

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2

Hi there!

We detected that this may be a bug report, so we’ve moved your post to the Bug Reports category.

To help us investigate and fix this faster, could you edit your original post to include the details from the template below?

Bug Report Template - Click to expand

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

  • Cursor IDE
  • Cursor CLI
  • Background Agent (GitHub, Slack, Web, Linear)
  • BugBot
  • Somewhere else…

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Steps to Reproduce
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Expected Behavior
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Operating System

  • Windows 10/11
  • MacOS
  • Linux

Version Information

  • For Cursor IDE: Menu → About Cursor → Copy
  • For Cursor CLI: Run agent about in your terminal
IDE:
Version: 2.xx.x
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: ......

CLI:
CLI Version 2026.01.17-d239e66

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Additional Information
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Does this stop you from using Cursor?

  • Yes - Cursor is unusable
  • Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor
  • No - Cursor works, but with this issue

The more details you provide, the easier it is for us to reproduce and fix the issue. Thanks!

7

Hey there!
While the SSH reconnect/password prompt is showing, Cursor sits in a “reconnecting” state and keeps repainting the spinner, which pegs the GPU until you reconnect or dismiss the prompt (that’s why entering the password stops it). We’ve seen this before, and I’ll get it back in front of the team.

A couple of things that help right now:

  1. Dismiss or cancel the reconnect prompt (or just reconnect) as soon as it appears. GPU drops right back to normal.
  2. If it keeps happening and the heat is the main issue, open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P), run Preferences: Configure Runtime Arguments, set "disable-hardware-acceleration": true, and restart Cursor. That switches to software rendering, so only keep it on while you need it.

One thing that’d help us reproduce: what usually triggers the disconnect for you (laptop sleep/wake, VPN, or a network change)?

9

I VPN to a datacentre. The drop can be due to VPN drop (rare) or network glitch in the DC, which is more frequent (once every few days) due to the 100G DC network being heavily saturated.

My laptop is permanently on to maintain various connections. If the SSH cursor is using glitches and disconnects then the laptop becomes busy with fans running, possibly unattended and while the screen is locked so could potentially continue to remain in this state for a weekend.

I have attempted to work around this situation by configuring SSH keys.