I've seen this too, so marking confirmed. It seems to be something to do with the way the curves are drawn, possibly made worse by using compiz and nvidia.
** Changed in: gnome-system-monitor (Ubuntu) Status: New => Confirmed -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to gnome-system-monitor in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/706073 Title: Exeptionally high CPU consumption -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs