NTP is causing higher CPU / GPU usage

[petemill]

Description

Multiple reports from users that the New Tab Page is causing persistently higher CPU usage either in

• The Tab's process
• The Browser's GPU process
• (macOS) WindowServer process

This seems to be as a result of introducing Brave Today and more specifically the "hint" arrow pointing down to scroll, since turning the feature off immediately removes the extra CPU usage.

Steps to Reproduce

on macOS

1. Open NTP
2. Enable Brave Today if not enabled
3. Open Brave's Task Manager

Actual result:

High CPU (relative to normal, percentage is different for everyone, depending on hardware)

Expected result:

Same CPU usage as without Brave Today enabled.

Reproduces how often:

100%

Brave version (brave://version info)

1.18.70

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current release? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the beta channel? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the nightly channel? Yes

Other Additional Information:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields?
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards?
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome?

Miscellaneous Information:

[FutureLearnSole]

Ungrateful Brave End User 2020 here, just saying that if not for that scroll down arrow, NF given. Ciao.

Paying last respects to its jiggly,

[FutureLearnSole]

#13196 (comment)

[LaurenWags]

Verified passed on macOS using

Brave | 1.18.74 Chromium: 87.0.4280.101 (Official Build) (x86_64)
-- | --
Revision | 9407c80213cda69c2b7abcb4fa8e3f74488f4956-refs/branch-heads/4280@{#1807}
OS | macOS Version 10.15.7 (Build 19H15)

• ensured that the "arrow down" animation was removed from NTP
• ensured that scrolling through Brave Today works without any issues
• ensured that there's an improvement in performance once the animation was removed

With Animation using 1.18.70	Without Animation using 1.18.74

---

Verification passed on

Brave	1.18.74 Chromium: 87.0.4280.101 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision	9407c80213cda69c2b7abcb4fa8e3f74488f4956-refs/branch-heads/4280@{#1807}
OS	Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

• ensured that the "arrow down" animation was removed from NTP
• ensured that scrolling through Brave Today works without any issues
• ensured that there's an improvement in performance once the animation was removed

With Animation using 1.18.70	Without Animation using 1.18.74

---

Verification passed on

Brave	1.18.75 Chromium: 87.0.4280.101 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision	9407c80213cda69c2b7abcb4fa8e3f74488f4956-refs/branch-heads/4280@{#1807}
OS	Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (Build 7601.24544)

• ensured that the "arrow down" animation was removed from NTP
• ensured that scrolling through Brave Today works without any issues
• ensured that there's an improvement in performance once the animation was removed

With Animation using 1.18.70	Without Animation using 1.18.75