Firefox 18 slow and laggy UI and scrolling

[DanRaisch]

dfoulkes, that pretty much matches the results of my testing as well. Looks like a test that was written to make IE provide the best results.

[dfoulkes]

I can't believe that you would think Microsoft would tamper with results to make themselves look better ... nobody ever does that in this world ... right?

[DanRaisch]

Yes. I'm shocked that the thought even entered my mind.

[MarkRH]

Yeah, unless you're using an independent 3rd party test suite/benchmark.. nothing made or hosted by any browser maker, including Mozilla should really be trusted.

[Robba]

dfoulkes, that pretty much matches the results of my testing as well. Looks like a test that was written to make IE provide the best results.

I'd like you to re-read my post.
I fully understand its probably biased, but I'm not comparing anything against IE. Only Fx 17, and 18 and upwards. I am using it as a simple reference point.
Again, I am not comparing anything to other browsers, just Fx 17 to Fx18. I have no idea why you should feel the need to bring other browsers into the discussion.

Fx 17 snappy, super smooth scrolling, and produced 60 fps on that test with large IE icons, all of which with low GPU usage.
Fx 18, crappy choppy scrolling, and 5 fps on that test with large IE icons. with huge GPU usage, >50% most of the time.

Even on a idle page such as this phpBB posting page, the animated gif smilies will use 25-35% of a 295GTX duel gpu card.
You can't expect me to believe that is acceptable. I should also note that the browser chrome is laggy, bookmark & context menus are slow to open and page loading is clearly dragging compared to Fx17.

I have done all the usual checks, new profile included. The only way to improve the situation (slightly) is to disable GPU acceleration.

Its clear I'm not the only one with these Issues, more posts are popping up with similar problems.

I'll do a bug I guess

[grigor1651]

In my case disabling gpu acceleration is not resolve the problem. I still use Firefox 17, because 18 is not acceptable with very slow ui and scrolling. I hope the next version will be better.

[DanRaisch]

dfoulkes, that pretty much matches the results of my testing as well. Looks like a test that was written to make IE provide the best results.

Fx 17 snappy, super smooth scrolling, and produced 60 fps on that test with large IE icons, all of which with low GPU usage.
Fx 18, crappy choppy scrolling, and 5 fps on that test with large IE icons. with huge GPU usage, >50% most of the time.
...
You can't expect me to believe that is acceptable. I should also note that the browser chrome is laggy, bookmark & context menus are slow to open and page loading is clearly dragging compared to Fx17.

You have to believe it based on what you are seeing. But we don't have to because we are not seeing it. I'm running both version 17 and 18 here. Comparing the two I can see no real difference, with idle CPU usage at 5% to 7% in version 18.0.1. And if you are seeing poor performance with Chrome as well it suggests it's not really something about Firefox at all.

[Robba]

dfoulkes, that pretty much matches the results of my testing as well. Looks like a test that was written to make IE provide the best results.

Fx 17 snappy, super smooth scrolling, and produced 60 fps on that test with large IE icons, all of which with low GPU usage.
Fx 18, crappy choppy scrolling, and 5 fps on that test with large IE icons. with huge GPU usage, >50% most of the time.
...
You can't expect me to believe that is acceptable. I should also note that the browser chrome is laggy, bookmark & context menus are slow to open and page loading is clearly dragging compared to Fx17.

You have to believe it based on what you are seeing. But we don't have to because we are not seeing it. I'm running both version 17 and 18 here. Comparing the two I can see no real difference, with idle CPU usage at 5% to 7% in version 18.0.1. And if you are seeing poor performance with Chrome as well it suggests it's not really something about Firefox at all.

browser chrome, as in, the Firefox interface. Not the browser, Chrome.

[sbond007]

I'm wondering if Flash has something to do with this. Ran some tests using http://www.greensock.com/bezier-speed-test/

Using FF 18.0.1 Flash plugin ver. 11.5.502.146

Disabling both FF and Flash hardware acceleration, pipelining enabled set to 8 gave me the most frames per sec, least scroll lag on a flash mouseover

[byoram02]

Using Windows 8 and FF 17.0.1 on a Dell XPS 15. Upgrading to 18.0.1 resulted in slow scrolling and overall feel of lagging. I am one of those that think that FF18 is just not it. any ideas?

[DanRaisch]

any ideas?

Yes. Try some of the diagnostic steps already recommended in this thread.

[byoram02]

any ideas?

Yes. Try some of the diagnostic steps already recommended in this thread.

i did read the whole thread, also wanted to add that the latest Nvidia drivers (310.90) causing severe lagging when the context menu is accessed (right click). so I have downgraded back to the original ones that come with Dell and problem went away.

Still need to find a solution for the FF issue...

[DanRaisch]

You read the whole thread. Did you try all of the suggested procedures? Mozilla Safe Mode? Evaluate security software? New profile?

[PreachJohn]

Since 18.0.1 and roll back then to 17.0.1 didn't help anymore, FF had become unworkable. My Bookmarks were rendered useless courtesy xmarks. FF would use 50% CPU at idle and freeze in short order. Many fixes tried.
Even removing the suspect xmarks, as it would freeze everything, didn't change anything.
But, unticking xmarks from Automatic instantly released FF. Go figger.

[sbond007]

OK, I've been testing for a while. Its definitely a flash issue. On some flash objects you hang trying to mouseover. Other times FF hangs as the object loads. cntrl..alt..del..kill the flash plugin container and your unfrozen. But why? Compatibility with the latest version of FF, or a bad flash plugin upgrade recently? Not sure yet, attempting to rollback a couple of flash versions and update this post