Claude Desktop background CPU usage contends with foreground GPU-bound apps (games) even when minimized

Description

Claude Desktop's background CPU usage (renderer/GPU helper processes) measurably contends with other foreground applications for CPU time, even when Claude Desktop is not actively in use. This has been reported before (#32020, #32010, #22275, #19393, #60024 - all closed/locked, but the underlying issue appears unresolved), so I'm opening a fresh issue with a concrete real-world reproduction case.

Reproduction case

While troubleshooting an unrelated gaming performance issue (World of Tanks on an AMD RX 9070 XT, Windows 11), I measured live per-process CPU usage during an active game session with Claude Desktop open in the background (window not focused, no active conversation being typed):

• Combined claude.exe processes: ~130% CPU (over one full core) sampled during gameplay, on an 8-core/8-thread CPU
• This directly contended with the game process for CPU time; all 8 cores were saturated at 85-100%, and GPU engine utilization was measurably suppressed (GPU sitting at 20-30% while CPU was maxed) because the render thread couldn't get scheduled fast enough
• Minimizing the window to the system tray did not reduce this - CPU usage stayed elevated
• Fully quitting via the tray icon (right-click -> Quit) was the only action that brought CPU back down and resolved the contention

Expected behavior

Claude Desktop should not continue polling/rendering work at near-idle-but-elevated CPU levels when minimized/backgrounded with no active conversation. This is more than a battery/idle-waste annoyance - it measurably degrades other GPU/CPU-bound foreground applications (games, video/audio editors, etc.) running alongside it.

Environment

• Windows 11 (build 26200)
• Claude Desktop (current release as of September 2026)
• i7-9700K (8C/8T), 64GB RAM, RX 9070 XT

Suggested fix

Throttle or fully suspend the renderer/GPU helper's background polling (e.g. the workspace-discovery poll mentioned in #60024) when the window is minimized/backgrounded and there is no active conversation, instead of requiring a full Quit as the only workaround.