Firefox 17 scrolling is much slower than Firefox 16 on Windows 8
I upgraded a few weeks ago to Windows 8 and that time I was mainly using Aurora. After updating to 8, the scrolling was much laggier than Windows 7. At that time Firefox 15 or 16 was out. I then switched to Firefox 16 later and found that there was no lag in the scrolling. FPS was probably higher. Then Firefox 17 came out and it started to have the same affect as Aurora, sluggish and slow.
I have no idea what happened because I had the same addons, just switch between Aurora and Firefox 16 and I can tell the difference. However FPS are better in Aurora and Firefox 17 if you make the browser window smaller (so not maximize).
Initially you will not see lag, but if you use them sequentially, then you can tell the difference. Lag appears on heavier websites and the addons page.
All Replies (4)
Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.
- Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
I've messed around with various settings and seem to have solved the problem (Win 7x64, FF 18, NVidia v307 gfx drivers for a pretty old NVS 160m chipset). I used to have extremely slow scrolling and tab switching, while various graphics tests were quick.
Basically, I had to force FF to enable all the acceleration options. It should have been working out of the box, but it wasn't (maybe some kind of old settings?). So you need to set the following three options in about:config (type it into the address bar) to "true":
- gfx.direct2d.force-enabled
- layers.acceleration.force-enabled
- webgl.force-enabled
Restart and it all seems to be fine, at least on my machine. It's worth looking at about:support in the Graphics table to see if things are enabled.
Hope it helps!
Modified by wigster
Even with all the addons off, scrolling is slow. I found out that when enabling smooth scrolling, it slows down however once I turn it off, scrolling is still slightly slower than firefox 16. Also, when maximizing the window, most of the animations (new tab, scrolling etc) is slower than the window when not maximized.
I gave up and I am staying on Firefox 16.
Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.
- Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes