Are problems with high gpu usage and video playback being addressed by developers?
Two noticeable problems reared their heads in the last few months and I wonder whether the developers of firefox are dealing with them. 1. Google animations on www.google.com are eating up gpu memory. This demand is higher than my machines can deal with and that page freezes! This has happened with two different episodes of google produced content. Chrome, Edge, and Internet Explorer handled these sites well, but Firefox required me to turn off hardware acceleration. The aforementioned browsers use hardware acceleration and do not have the negative affect that I experienced with Firefox. 2. Fandango videos appear black, no picture just audio.
So should I be required to augment my computer for normal surfing by adding external video cards or switch to another browser when wishing to see videos on certain sites or might Firefox focus on providing delivery of content consistent with the demands being placed on it. My machines are Dells with Windows 10, 1709 and on-board video cards... I-5 and I-7 processors and 8-12 gigs of ram. I think that normal surfing and use of a very popular search engine should be managed well with Firefox; as well as the others seem to do... Were all browsers to have similar freezing problems or video playback problems, I would take issue with the content providers. But, alas it seems that in the two instances above, Firefox needs a little tweaking. This is not an indictment, just wondering with the switch from flash to html 5 happening in the next few years, whether interim problems should be allowed to plague basic usage.
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How was your FF updated or installed?
Last week I uninstalled and re-installed after deleting the appdata sections and registry entries under local and current software. Actually did this on both machines. Both machines are Dells with on-board video and the drivers are up to date. In addition, I rarely have issues with video... except for fandango, which is a known and the games on the search page www.google.com, After narrowing things down, hardware acceleration turned off cured the problem. The deal is... that if every other popular browser functioned albeit badly, but Firefox stalls then it seems logical that Firefox developers look into why it is different. If all failed then it would be wise to go after Google for errant software. So I am inclined to believe, since others have the same issue that Mozilla should look into its own issues. But I do feel fortunate that the unchecking of hardware acceleration has been a work-a-round.
Hi tsoilihoi, could you please stop creating new threads about the Google "doodle" issue? This is wasting the time of support volunteers; you already know what we know. Also, it is going to distract from the other new issue you raised.
Your Google doodle threads:
If you want to find out what the developers are working on, you can search the bug tracking system: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
Okay so lets turn to fandango and its lack of picture.
I have to turn off hardware acceleration on one of my machines too. It seems to be the combination of high multiprocessor usage by firefox and some sort of driver or bios or other low-level problem in that computer that causes a processor to be tied up trying to install or do something, that results in the high multiprocessor load in Quantum stalling and timing out and freezing.
Updating the bios and video driver seemed to help a bit but is dangerous.
Timtak... at this point with what has been gathered, the issue is Mozilla's to resolve. My machines are intermediate Dell's with adequate ram and processing. Three of the other principal browsers, Internet Explore, Chrome and Edge do not crash. Firefox does with 98% gpu usage. Hardware acceleration remains on, on the other browsers and when I turned of HA in Firefox the Gpu usage dropped to below 10%. I believe that Google will not be the only website to run this kind of high draw code, so I hope that Mozilla will have Firefox comply with the present state of affairs. I do not know if this is a flash vs html5 issue, ergo a transition problem till flash is gone or what. All I know is that at it showed up on both of my machines and only in Firefox and the result of a game that perhaps most would not give a hang about.
> I hope that Mozilla will have Firefox comply with the present state of affairs. I think could be that our computers are not complying with the current state of affairs.
>Timtak... at this point with what has been gathered, the issue is Mozilla's to resolve.
Since I get the issue on one of my (old, Win7) computers but not on three newer ones, and there is only a small minority of users experiencing this issue, I think we have to agree to disagree.
I did find an improvement with BIOS/Graphics card driver update but as I say it is dangerous (in my case at least. The newer BIOS did not work with Win7 until I had fiddle with it for a day).
Timtak, I have windows 10 1709, the latest and my memory and processor are all that they need to be. That we would have to have a gamer computer to surf the google search page is absurdity. For there own reasons Mozilla has on its own agenda. I haven't had a problem with Firefox, ever these last few years, save that fandango's movie previews don't play. My wife has a windows 7 os and she hasn't complained.... albeit that she uses chrome. I have been assured that Mozilla monitors this forum and I would hope that they will deal with the incompatibility of Firefox using hardware acceleration and current on-board Intel Video. So far however keeping hardware acceleration off has not caused any alarm bells to go off. I think now others will read these posts and know to turn off the Hardware Acceleration if a Google main search page causes Firefox to seize.
Windows 10 no less. Does that mean your GPU / Video card driver and BIOS is up to date?
It is clear that a minority of users, including me, you, and some others posting to these forums are having processor/GPU issues on firefox QUantum. You argue that this means Firefox needs to do something about this. Maybe you are right.
It seems to me on the other hand that FF Quantum is just very demanding (very multi-threaded, making the maximum use of processing power), and those of us that have some driver/BIOS issue need to solve it, stop using Quantum, or turn of hardware acceleration.
I have an intel on-board 4600 HD graphics card. Latest driver and its fine by me.
Firstly, I don't know exactly what Mozilla did to Firefox when they came out with version 57, which I gather is Quantum. But it seems that the browser needs to have a way to remain backwards compatible for those machines that are not the latest and greatest. This because requiring the world to update to the latest and greatest to meet a software browsers requirements is not realistic. Particularly because flash is transitioning to html5 and OS and Browser companies are still competing for dominance. So... to create a browser that a good number of machines and OSs can't handle would be in my view counter productive.
However, I have had very little problem with Firefox until these two ridiculous animations appeared on Google and froze my browser. In the beginning I was afraid I had contracted a virus and reformatted with a week old Acronis image to go before the freeze and I also reinstalled the FF browser... and to no avail. I went in circles until jscher2000 gave me some great tips and we simultaneously realized that the problem was the Google search page. Later I turned off Hardware Acceleration and that stopped the freezing cold. (that's a pun)
If the Google animation is to become the new bar for gpu ram guzzling and the like will appear on other sites then why is FF Quantum the only browser to freeze?
And finally if the trade off is to have a browser that is twice as fast but which craps out on intermediate computers then Mozilla would be well to let its user know this, so that people like me and you don't spin our wheels trying to find this out.
Its all good now, but I don't see the developers coming to the plate to explain this nor can I be convinced that you and I are a minority. If the other major browsers use hardware Acceleration and are not freezing up and all things being equal the side affect of the "fast" quantum browser is buggy behavior on intermediate machines, then Google's search page animation has compatibility issues with the direction that FF Quantum is heading. But for me, I'm not going to run out and buy a new video card because FF Quantum is trying to reach new heights in a rapidly changing internet that has as of yet not consolidated and to accommodate Valentine-like Games.
Sorry to be so wordy... I just needed to say my piece and I note that Mozilla was not there when I wasted two business days "beta testing" their browser and wondering what kind of "Flu" I must have picked up. I Just think that Mozilla needs to add some on-board corporate tech representation to this support forum AND that is not a criticism of the people like you and I who bring intelligent inquires and answer to this board. Unfortunately we don't write the policy or the code. PB
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