5 hours ago
Those aren’t spinners (also called numeric updowns, see [1]). Those are throbbers (also called loading icons, see [2]).
4 hours ago
> [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing)
Hah, I did not expect that. I can't imagine any end users will be able to name that one.
3 hours ago
That’s not how language works.
3 hours ago
To be fair, those do spin, while "spinners" don't.
6 hours ago
Your claimed GPU usage seems really high for a simple spinner, even considering the CPU is pretty old. I wonder if there's some other problem going on with your setup.
5 hours ago
I don't think so. This is just what happens when you redraw the screen.
Doing it 30x more frequent than needed costs more, no matter if it's only 1 pixel.
This problem is not isolated to me or to just one machine. Check out the chromium bug about the tab loading spinner, for example. It is a "simple" spinner as well.
Or the Zed editor, which spams screen redraws even when nothing changes at all, so it has high GPU usage for still picture.
3 hours ago
It should not cost a visible fraction of CPU/GPU to update a little sprite even at 30fps.
an hour ago
But it does. The GPU rerenders your entire screen with all its pixels, even if you change only one. The only thing you can do to avoid that is to not ask the GPU to render a frame. For that you need to reduce FPS.
4 hours ago
I'm on mobile so I'm not able to check, but can the will-change and contain attributes reduce the cost?
an hour ago
Avoiding unnecessary browser repaint of the rest of the page is a basic technique and often already done correctly. If people don't do that, it's just ultra-bad.
But do really have the CPU/GPU go idle, you need to not use them; the only solution to that is to show still images, aka reduce FPS.
6 hours ago
I truly wish i could get everything to use the ticking clock one at 1Hz (or maybe 0.5) for spinners, animation in user interfaces causes me anguish in general, so i have to go around filtering them on webapps.