Hardware Acceleration.

[LoudNoise]

Eather, since your question wasn't HA specific I split it off to here: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2561627

Please check out the title and make sure it makes sense.

[earther]

Eather, since your question wasn't HA specific I split it off to here: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2561627

Please check out the title and make sure it makes sense.

Good idea. No prob . . .

There are undoubtedly folks who aren't aware that this is happening. Wonder if it also does it on Windoze but I have no way to check.

[Chrysalis]

I dont use it, funyn enough unticking the option in the main options didnt fully disable it I also had to change an extra hidden setting as well.

My reasons are as follows.

1 - I got driver crashes, granted this is probably likely related to an nvidia driver bug it was still annoying.
2 - One reason I got my current graphics card is in idle mode it uses a lot less power than my previous card, I only want it at full power when I am gaming. When a browser is in hardware mode the clocks ramp up, the voltages ramp up and the temperatures sky rocket, not so bad if it only does it when I am doing intense stuff in the browser but it actually stays in full power mode with just the browser idle in background. Note this doesnt happen with IE which makes me believe this issue is an issue FF side how it handles displaying graphics. IE will relieve load of the GPU as soon as the page in question is no longer in the foreground. However where FF gains over IE massively is that FF works perfectly fine in software mode, it actually only makes a difference on those html5 benchmark sites, every normal website I use FF works just as well in software mode that it does in hardware mode.
3 - It used up GPU vram, in software mode I Can leave browser open whilst playing a game eg. without worrying about vram usage, not the case in hardware mode.
4 - Fonts were changed with antialiasing stuff.

A workaround for #2 by the way I have since discovered is an app called nvidia inspector which can force your nvidia card to stay in 2d idle mode, I use it for IE (as IE sucks in software mode) but my FF is still in software mode since it runs fine in that mode, but this may help others who dont like the card switching modes and I believe it will also make driver crashes much less likely. Also is a workaround for firefox related driver crashes where the driver timeout can be bumped up which should stop them dead as well. ggogle "nvidia TdrDelay" mine is set to 5 and it defaults lower. 0 I believe disables that feature.

[Omega X]

I dont use it, funyn enough unticking the option in the main options didnt fully disable it I also had to change an extra hidden setting as well.

Which hidden settings?

[Chrysalis]

cant remember but I do know in troubleshooting both of these were not false just changing in the option box.

Direct2D Enabled false
DirectWrite Enabled false (6.1.7601.17789)

might be one of these
gfx.direct2d.disabled true
layers.acceleration.disabled true

[Omega X]

The checkbox is supposed to turn off those. Sounds profile related. Maybe an addon was blocking the change.

[Chrysalis]

on a new machine I installed with ff15, I see they are turned off, this may have been a bug in an earlier version when hardware acceleration was first introduced.

[StinDaWg]

I also do not detect any difference in speed on all the sites I visit with HA off.

You won't. Other than the fact that they tied fonts into it (thanks MicroSoft!) you won't notice any difference unless you hang out all day on "HTML5" test sites... which aren't really about HTML5 in general as much as animations in Canvas or SVG.

Personally, Firefox is much more responsive when I have HA turned on. Scrolling in particular is much more fluid/smooth with HA on, it can become laggy after awhile with it off. I have a 2GHz Athlon X2 and ATI 5450.

[patrickjdempsey]

Good for you? Congratulations for being in the 30%.

[StinDaWg]

OK?

[mightyglydd]

OK?

Did you bother to read Frank's first post and the link he provided ?

[StinDaWg]

OK?

Did you bother to read Frank's first post and the link he provided ?

Ya, I'm replying to the people that are saying there is no difference with HA on or off, because for those who have compatible systems there is an improvement, and it's noticeable.

[patrickjdempsey]

No you aren't. You are replying to someone who was replying to someone else who described it as a "nightmare feature" which caused freezes, beeping sounds, and scrambled bookmarks. Someone in the 70% of users who don't have compatible hardware/drivers.

[StinDaWg]

Read the quoted post again.

[DanRaisch]

OK, folks. Keep it civil and we'll all be able to continue to explore this. If this thread gets snarky I'll be ready to lock it down.