Is it normal for compiz to consume 40% of my CPU with no other programs running?

I had the same problem that the CPU load went up to 70%~80% and that upset me for a long time after upgrading to 12.04 from 10.04.

And reset compiz settings to default or remove the ~/.compiz-1 & ~/.config/compiz-1 folders didn't work.

But after I uncheck the "Sync to VBlank" box under OpenGL in ccsm (CompizConfig Settings Manager), the CPU load drop to 1% immediately.

Hope this will help you and other guys...

Sorry for my poor expression (I'm a student from china).

Edit: As of Ubuntu 12.10 this is no longer an option, as Unity-2D was dropped with quantal.

I have the same issues with cpu usage because of compiz. My workaround was to switch session from Ubuntu to Ubuntu 2D.

Had the same problem. Compiz constantly at around 40% (AMD CPU, ATI 58xx, 12.04). Then i followed this post https://askubuntu.com/a/127310/26508 and CPU utilization dropped below 10%. Hope it helps.

EDIT with instuctions:

Just backup (rename) ~/.compiz-1 and ~/.config/compiz-1 directories and let them to be created again with the default settings (you'll need to logout and login back again).

mv ~/.compiz-1 ~/.compiz-1.BACKUP
mv ~/.config/compiz-1 ~/config/.compiz-1.BACKUP

After having restarted and confirmed that everything works as expected, you can simply remove these backups (unless you have a use for them).

rm -Rfv ~/.compiz-1.BACKUP
rm -Rfv ~/config/.compiz-1.BACKUP

It helps to do a unity --reset also