Extremely high processor load when processing images using `ipx`

Environment

• Operating System: Linux
• Node Version: v22.19.0
• Nuxt Version: 3.17.7
• Nitro Version: 2.12.5
• Package Manager: npm

Version

1.11.0

Description

When processing images using ipx on the server, the processor is subjected to an extremely high load.

Additional context

I attempted to utilize @nuxt/image to optimize image loading. I retained ipx as the provider. When I deploy my application to the server, the processor becomes heavily loaded when loading pages and sending requests for images. If I specify the format [“avif”, ‘webp’] in nuxt.config.ts, the wait time from the server can be around 10-15 seconds. If I leave only [“webp”], the time is reduced to 2-4 seconds (which is still a lot).

nuxt.config.ts:

  image: {
    domains: ['cdn.name.io'],
    format: ['avif', 'webp'],
    provider: 'ipx',
    ipx: {
      maxAge: 60 * 60 * 24 * 365,
    },
    screens: {
      xxs: 360,
      s: 391,
      xs: 528,
      sm: 768,
      md: 920,
      l: 1160,
      lm: 1280,
      lg: 1440,
      xl: 1617,
      xxl: 1833,
      xxxl: 2264,
    },
  }

If i switch to a custom provider (just take the image from the original link), the problem disappears.

providers/selfhost.ts:

import { joinURL } from 'ufo';
import type { ProviderGetImage } from '@nuxt/image';
import { createOperationsGenerator } from '#image';

const operationsGenerator = createOperationsGenerator();

export const getImage: ProviderGetImage = (
  src,
  { modifiers = {} } = {},
) => {
  const baseUrl = '';
  const operations = operationsGenerator(modifiers);
  return {
    url: joinURL(baseUrl, src + (operations ? '?' + operations : '')),
  };
};

In a locally running application, when requesting a page and processing images, the processor load increases from 7% to 15-20% (MacBook M3 Pro), but this is enough for the images to load instantly.

Start with nuxt.config.ts and providers/selfhost.ts, then reproduce image requests through the ipx provider using the reported AVIF and WebP configurations. Compare the server load and response times with the custom provider behavior. Done means identifying and addressing the excessive processor usage and long image response times under these scenarios.