100% CPU usage while using PHPStorm with Zoom call simultaneously

[maoraverbuch]

To Zoom Support Team,

I'm writing on behalf of my entire development team to report a critical and widespread performance issue we consistently experience when using Zoom's screen sharing feature concurrently with PHPStorm (an IDE by JetBrains). This problem significantly impacts our collective productivity and renders our development environment almost unusable during Zoom calls.

The Problem: Excessive CPU Usage and System Lag

When any member of our team is in a Zoom meeting and/or shares their entire screen, their system's CPU usage spikes dramatically. 

Specific Symptoms:

• Extreme Sluggishness in PHPStorm: The IDE becomes incredibly unresponsive. Simple actions like right-clicking to open a context menu can take 2-5 seconds, terminal commands execute with significant delay, and scrolling or typing within the code editor experiences severe lag.

• Overall System Slowdown: Beyond PHPStorm, the entire system feels sluggish, impacting other applications and general user experience for our developers.

• Consistent with Screen Sharing: This issue is directly tied to active screen sharing in Zoom. The moment a team member stops sharing their screen, PHPStorm's performance immediately returns to normal, and the high KernelTask CPU usage drops.

• Reproducible Across the Team: This is not an isolated incident. It consistently happens every time any team member shares their screen via Zoom while PHPStorm is open.

Our Team's Setup:

• Zoom Version: 6.4.12(64384)

• PHPStorm Version: 25.1.3

• Operating System: Windows 11

What We've Already Tried:

Our team has collectively attempted various troubleshooting steps, including:

• We've already escalated this to the official JetBrains + PHPStorm support team, and while they tried to help, their efforts were unsuccessful.

• Updating both Zoom and PHPStorm to the latest versions.

• Disabling plugins in PHPStorm.

• Resetting PHPStorm's settings.

• Adjusting Zoom's screen sharing preferences (e.g., enabling/disabling "Optimize for video clip").

None of these actions have resolved the issue for any team member.

Our Request:

This problem has also been documented by other users in the JetBrains YouTrack system as WI-81625, indicating that it might be a broader compatibility or interaction issue between Zoom's screen sharing mechanism and JetBrains IDEs.

Given that the problem immediately resolves when screen sharing is stopped in Zoom, it strongly suggests an interaction issue on Zoom's side with how it handles screen rendering or resource allocation when other demanding applications like PHPStorm are open.

Could you please investigate this issue from your end? It would be highly beneficial if your team could collaborate with JetBrains to find a definitive solution. This is a significant pain point for our developers who rely on both Zoom for communication and PHPStorm for coding.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

[maoraverbuch]

UP

[KaneZhu]

Hi @maoraverbuch,

Thanks for reporting this issue! 

We suspect that these computers have been throttled. Please upgrade to version 6.5.0 or later, then enable Zoom’s efficiency mode to see if there is any improvement.

In this mode, Zoom reduces the performance of various features to lower CPU usage.

If the issue persists, please contact support and submit a ticket for better tracking of the problem.

Thanks!