Genshin Impact High CPU Usage: Causes & How to Lower it

Disable the fullscreen optimizations or tweak the graphics settings

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Key notes

  • Genshin Impact is a pretty resource-intensive game; you should give it a breather to run properly.
  • Your PC should match at least the minimum requirements for it to play without any issues.
  • To reduce the high CPU usage problem, you can try to close all the unwanted background tasks.

Genshin Impact is a popular game that lets you play different characters in an open world. Unfortunately, the game requires a bit of a powerful CPU in order for you to run it. However, there are several users that have reported that they are facing Genshin Impact’s high CPU usage problem.

Well, there are many reasons for triggering the Genshin Impact high CPU usage problem. In this guide, we will show you how to quickly fix this issue and play Genshin Impact without any problems. So let us get right into it.

What is causing Genshin Impact’s high CPU usage issue?

Here are a few reasons we have found out the most common reasons why the Genshin Impact high CPU usage is triggered.

  • Your PC does not meet the min requirements: Chances are that the PC that you are running the Genshin Impact game on does not meet the min system requirements, because of which the PC is struggling to run the game.
  • There are multiple background tasks: If you have a bunch of background tasks running then not only this game but you will also come across high CPU usage issues with other apps.
  • Fullscreen optimizations aren’t working: Often, the fullscreen optimizations don’t work well with everyone, which could be the reason that is triggering the issue.
  • The game is running on integrated graphics: You might not have selected the dedicated graphics card to run the Genshin Impact game.
  • The Power Plan isn’t correct: You might have selected the power plan that stresses more on saving the battery.

How can I fix the Genshin Impact high CPU usage issue?

1. Stop overclocking your PC

If you are using overclocking software, you should ensure that your PC isn’t being overclocked. While overclocking pushes your PC to improve the performance of resource-intensive apps and games such as Genshin Impact, it could also lead to high CPU usage.

Disable any overclocking application you have on your PC and run the game to see if this resolves the Genshin Impact high CPU usage issue.

2. Update the GPU driver

  1. Open the Start menu by pressing the Win key.
  2. Open Device Manager.
  3. Expand the Display adapter section.
  4. Open your GPU driver.
  5. Switch to the Driver tab.
  6. Click on the Update driver option.
  7. Select Search automatically for drivers option.
  8. Follow the on-screen prompts to update the driver.

You can update the driver on your PC using the above method from the Device Manager. But this method isn’t feasible when you have to update multiple drivers.

In such a case, we suggest you rely on a dedicated driver updater called Outbyte Driver Updater. With the tool, you can easily update multiple drivers, perform scheduled driver scans, create driver backups, and much more.

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3. Change display settings

  1. Press the Win + I keys to open the Settings menu.
  2. Click on Display.
  3. Select Graphics.
  4. Choose Desktop app from the Choose an app to set preference drop-down.
  5. Select the Genshin Impact EXE file.
  6. Tap on Options for the game.
  7. Select the dedicated GPU.
  8. Click on Save.
  9. Restart your PC and check if this fixes the issue or not.

4. Change the power plan

  1. Press the Win key to open the Start menu.
  2. Open Control Panel.
  3. Select Power Options.
  4. Choose High performance power plan.

When you select the high performance battery plan, you are making sure that all the resources are optimally utilized to run the Genshin Impact game, reducing the high CPU usage issue.

5. Change in-game graphics settings

  1. Launch the Genshin Impact game.
  2. Click on Settings.
  3. Select Graphics.
  4. Tweak the below settings as mentioned:
    • Graphics Quality: Low
    • Display Mode: Fullscreen or the native resolution
    • FPS: 60
    • V-Sync: Open
    • Render Resolution: 1.1 or 0.8
    • Shadow Quality: Low
    • Visual Effects: Low
    • SFX Quality: Low
    • Overall Settings: Low
    • Anti-Aliasing: SMAA
    • Motion Blur: Close

The above settings will help you run the game using meager resources allowing the CPU to have some pause and, in turn, get rid of the high CPU usage issue.

6. Disable fullscreen optimizations

  1. Right-click on the Genshin Impact desktop icon.
  2. Select Properties.
  3. Switch to the Compatibility tab.
  4. Check the Disable fullscreen optimization option.
  5. Click Apply and OK.
  6. Restart your PC.

Sometimes the fullscreen optimization may not improve the gameplay but instead worsen it for you and result in high CPU usage, which could also happen with the Genshin Impact game. Try disabling the fullscreen optimizations and check whether this resolves the issue.

7. Close all unnecessary background tasks

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc buttons to open the Task Manager.
  2. Switch to the Processes tab.
  3. Select the unwanted processes, one by one, and hit the End task button at the top.

You should also ensure that not many background tasks or processes are running, as this will impact gaming performance and increase CPU usage.

That is it from us in this guide. You could also try installing the latest Windows update or updating the game to fix the issue, as this Genshin Impact high CPU usage issue could be because of a bug.

Our guide properly explains how you can uninstall Genshin Impact from your PC. In addition, if the Genshin Impact game is laggy on your PC, we have some tweaks that can improve the performance.

If the game fails to check for updates, you should check out our guide that gives ten effective solutions to resolve the problem.

Feel free to let us know in the comments below which one of the above solutions resolved the Genshin Impact high CPU usage issue for you.