General high CPU usage when idle or navigating menus on Ozone UI

Is there an existing issue for this?

• This is a bug in RetroArch frontend
• I have searched the existing issues

Description

I have noticed RA using a high amount of CPU whilst idle. On my M4 iPad Pro, the device gets noticeable hot when it's sitting on the Main Menu (not sure I can pull the actual usage from iPadOS). In comparison, the Music.app on macOS consumes 6% whilst playing music.

I have tested the macOS client and it sits at 18% CPU on the Main Menu using the Ozone menu. Whilst playing a game through FBNeo (Aliens vs Predator running with a RetroCrisis shader), the CPU usage peaks around 35%, relatively low all things considered. This peak CPU usage stayed consistent through both Metal and Vulkan cores. The game ran identical with no loss in FPS.

When RA's screensave is active, the CPU usage drops to ~12%, which is still exceptionally high for showing a black box.

I have disabled (set to null) the following drivers: Microphone, Record, MIDI, Camera and Location.

Expected behavior

RA shouldn't need so much CPU for essentially doing nothing.

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Load RA.
2. Do nothing.

Version/Commit

1.22.2

Bisect Results

No response

Present in the nightly version

Yes, this is reproduced in the nightly build

Platform & operating system

macOS Sequoia, Tahoe, GG, iPadOS26/27

Affected Cores

No response

Environment information

Running on macOS Sequoia 15.7.8, Tahoe 26.6, GG beta 4. iPadOS26.6, 27 beta 4.

macOS runs on an M1 Max Studio (10/32core), M4 iPad Pro.

Relevant log output

Start by reproducing the report from the Ozone Main Menu on macOS and iPadOS, then compare CPU usage while idle, navigating menus, playing a game, and showing the screensaver. The issue names no source file or test, so the relevant Ozone rendering or update path must first be located. Done means idle and menu CPU usage is reduced without changing gameplay performance, with checks on the reported Apple platforms.