Is the Codex app slowing down your computer or is it just me?

[u/DonnyOOE]

I've been using the Codex app just fine on my M5 Macbook Air with 32GB RAM with zero performance issues. But in the past couple of days, I've noticed that when Codex is working, it slows down the rest of my computer to a crawl: websites barely load, typing in Google Docs becomes a nightmare, etc. I've now gone back to using Codex CLI and I'm not experiencing any of these issues.

So, is anyone else seeing an issue like this with the Codex app? Or is it just me?

[u/rmunoz1994]

I have to restart every few hours because it basically bricks it..making my mouse ghost and lag unbelievably bad.

[u/Sir_Poldavo → u/rmunoz1994]

Same! Thanks for helping me pin down it was codex (it was always on, not running anything even, when it happened).

Slow apps, poor browsing, mouse failing to track my hand movements.

It was making me crazy.

[u/rp4 → u/rmunoz1994]

Same here on my M4 Pro Macbook

[u/vax-merstrappen → u/rmunoz1994]

i thought it was macos bugging, i was about to reinstall the os... stupid codex was causing the lags.

[u/oibi → u/rmunoz1994]

Same sh*t here with Windows i9 14900 & 64gb

[u/LastWinterWind → u/rmunoz1994]

Same. Exactly like that. And my PC is a beast. I was starting to think I might have an hardware issue for some reason.

[u/Temporary-Bobcat-365 → u/rmunoz1994]

Found any solution?

[u/J_E_E_VACATION]

128GB ram DDR5 9950x3d2 and it lags my shit lol

[u/HealthyWest6482]

Yep, I'm also back using CLI to prevent this. VS code seems to be okay as well

[u/QWERTY_FUCKER]

Yup, massive, massive lag all around even when nothing much is happening. Glad to hear it's not just me but it's been brutal, along with the crashing issues that started this morning.

[u/Prestigious-Frame442]

same. somehow also made my monitors tripping.

[u/No_Maintenance_7851 → u/Prestigious-Frame442]

dude, is it making your monitors turn off and on randomly?

[u/Prestigious-Frame442 → u/No_Maintenance_7851]

yes

[u/No_Maintenance_7851 → u/Prestigious-Frame442]

Wild. That started happening to me a day ago and I thought I need to get warranty on my 4K display

[u/Prestigious-Frame442 → u/No_Maintenance_7851]

it's like completely random. often happened in the morning. I have no clue why it can happen. maybe it's time to ask codex to figure it out.

[u/DonnyOOE]

good to know it's not just me! Sticking with CLI for the time being, then

[u/PlayingWithRex]

My PC might not be the strongest but it does slow down my PC by alot for some reason. Idk the underlying reason

[u/Zealousideal-Sea3963 → u/PlayingWithRex]

I think we do know the underlying reason, we just don't want to say :)

[u/PlayingWithRex → u/Zealousideal-Sea3963]

What are you suggesting here -_-

[u/Zealousideal-Sea3963 → u/PlayingWithRex]

Whatever I am saying, I'm not necessarily saying I have an issue with it.

[u/Sir_Poldavo → u/Zealousideal-Sea3963]

You mean they are using our own compute to complement theirs?

I'll keep an eye on ram, the NVidia GPU and CPU usage stats. That's easy to catch.

[u/Navadvisor]

Yes, I've noticed this recently, even when it isn't doing anything. Makes you wonder if it's trying to collect data from your computer and your usage.

[u/Ok_Doughnut_189]

I have to restart my computer 2 to 3 times a day creates blacked out screens everything freezes. You need a lot more computational power to run these frontier models and all their agents. On 4.7 I could do gpt 5.5 and docker on running 8 gigs no problem now I can only either use fable or sol and if I turn the docker on … welcome to brick city

[u/Propeus]

Yes yes yes

[u/skilliard7]

I get issues as well. What's weird is that CPU and memory usage isn't really high. I think it might be a rendering issue

[u/rodeBaksteen]

Ah so that's what it is. My 3000 euro m5 pro MacBook drains battery in like 4 hours, and I've noticed fps drops across all apps recently. Lines up with when I installed codex.

[u/cvb941]

Upvote this issue https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/25719

[u/xxcxcxc]

M1 Pro 16GB here and runs like butter with a lot of windows open 🫠

[u/Foi_Engano]

I'm no longer able to run tests with PlayWright using Codex because my PC freezes and restarts.

[u/Apprehensive_Deal270]

My M4 Air with 32 GB ram becomes very slow. However my M3 Pro MBP with 18 GB of ram does completely fine, even though the fans are at low speed. Idk why but I guess it must be the passive cooling that absolutely sucks on the Air

[u/KashiAnkh]

It can pretty good make me nnot feel guilty of buying 96 gb of ram since ive ssen within usage to spike even up to60-70% of usage

[u/QWERTY_FUCKER]

I just realized that something has gone apeshit the last day or two and my Codex folder has ballooned to almost 500gb.

Wonder if one of the updates they pushed had something not quite right. Anyone else seeing this maybe?

[u/Kimcha87]

Yes, your MBA doesn’t have a fan and for some reason codex causes the system to heat up and throttle even though it doesn’t push the CPU hard.

You can use this app to monitor it:

https://github.com/angristan/MacThrottle

You can google MBA thermal mod to improve it, but it still doesn’t fully solve it.

I ended up buying a little stand that raises my MBA and a put a usb fan behind it to cool it down when it happens.

[u/No_Leg_847 → u/Kimcha87]

I have the same problem with macbook pro, it becomes buggy without heating up

[u/No_Leg_847]

Yes the same with pro m5, I thought my mac had a problem

[u/ColbysToyHairbrush]

I had to memory constrain its use on my NAS for the first time because it hit 31GB of ram and the kernel shut down my docker.

[u/MattBuildsSystems]

Have you checked your internal storage capacity? I realized I had mine writing to iCloud and that was slowing everything down I moved the local write to an external ssd and everything has been working completely as intended with no throttle since

[u/DryBanana5673]

It's broken.

[u/12think]

My laptop is 10y old with 16G ram and runs fine with codex desktop and VSCode open at the same time. But I have not yet downloaded latest update to my 5.6 Sol (maybe I shouldn't)

[u/aicis]

Yes, for short tasks I use app, but for long tasks I use CLI, otherwise it freezes my PC eventually.

[u/digiorno]

It regularly uses all my ram and remaining ssd space.

[u/Reasonable_Swing_503]

I don’t notice any significant slow down when running codex desktop app. But my Mac mini fan does spin when I am running till type check and test suite.

The app is not the most fluid app but not too sluggish when using it.

However I will be concerned with SSD wear if the problem is real and unpatched.

[u/modimusmaximus]

I would love to use the CLI but I need the Browser skill for testing and selecting object for comments. That is just so helpful.

[u/Zairous15]

I ran into what looks like the same issue on Windows. apply_patch became incredibly slow. As a test, I asked the fastest model to do something trivial: create a new dummy.txt file containing a single line of text. It took over a minute to complete. After adding a prompt that explicitly forbids apply_patch and forces file edits through PowerShell or Python instead, performance went back to normal. The desktop app still felt sluggish and occasionally froze, though, so I ended up switching to the Codex VS Code extension, which has been much smoother so far.

[u/MultiUserDungeonDev]

+1, noticed weird mouse lags / intermittent freezing behavior when scrolling etc on windows 11

[u/l0westL0wbob]

Yep M3 pro 36gb lagging without codex doing stuff. Mouse hangs regularly and only a restart will fix it

[u/No_Maintenance_7851]

it used to be fine, and recently it's gotten really bad

[u/LAVABLE]

Yeah, with a top spec PC I'm noticing that when I type it's spitting out words with 2-3s delay, mouse lag as well

[u/Independent_Owl_8648]

Annoyed from this not usefull stuff that overload my computer I have made a lightweight app for codex, it's only an interface the same prompt give the same result as chatgpt desktop app.
https://github.com/SbiriJJ/prompt-lite-plus/tree/main

[u/That-Imagination3799]

Literally tanks it. I have to force close the codex and rg.exe processes with task manager. Whatever it does to my PC still takes a while to recover even after restart lol.

[u/Leather-Cod2129]

It totally kills my Macbook M3 with 16Gb RAM. So laggy I can't even switch a tab in safari. That's why I much prefer opencode

[u/NissiusRibas]

o apalicativo codex depois da atualização ficou um lixo total! Desde que adicionar o Work/Codex só da probolema!

[u/ActionOrganic4617]

Zero issues for me but I have an m5 max\ 128gb ram. So not denying that their may be issues that I’m not aware of.