• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

The GPU clocks issue with some browsers

spirits247

spirits247

spirits247

Associate
Joined
29 Jan 2007
Posts
731
For a long time now, I've been annoyed by the fact simply scrolling a webpage in a browser is causing GPU clocks to spike to maximum values, meaning constant voltage spikes, increased energy usage and temps. I'm currently running a Win 7 64bit and a MSI HAWK 6870.

This is not flash acceleration, but simply webpage scrolling even a simple forum page. It doesn't even go to UVD mid clocks, which wouldn't be as bad, but jumps straight to max 3D.

A quick Google search turns up a lot of examples, and here are a few affecting ATI and nVidia:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2119709
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1775755&start=1320
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=155885&enterthread=y
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/803525
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=59830
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18276242
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18219493
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1223925
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=185531
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?268574-Firefox-4-and-GPU-utilization
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18219933
http://boardreader.com/thread/P150HM_W_6970_jittery_GPU_clocks_b0f41Xd4ez.html
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33971978

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=firefox+gpu+clocks
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=browser+gpu+clocks

It seems to be a bug in how browsers interact with GPUs. This thread is for investigating the issue.

In the past, IE8 suffered from the problem but in IE9 it seems to be fixed. I see some minor spikes now and again, but I think that's flash acceleration.

Latest Firefox still suffers from this rather annoying problem, with huge long spikes at max clocks and voltages. It can increase idle GPU temps by 7C!

To test, just fire up GPU-Z or another monitoring app and scroll these forum pages, surf the web for a while (obviously not flash video/youtube however).

Here are my results - exact same webpages visited in each browser. My usual idle temp on my 6870 is 36C.

First up problematic Firefox:

firefoxt.gif


IE8 had a similar problem, but it seems to be better, almost cured, in IE9:

ie9.gif


Notice minimal GPU load in both browsers, yet max core speed spikes appear when scrolling and rendering webpages for long periods in Firefox, dramatically increasing GPU temps. Now that can't be very power efficient or correct usage?
 
Last edited:
Hi thefreeman0001, if it's only on Youtube that will be flash acceleration where your GPU accelerates flash content and videos. That's normal and is a good thing! :)

This is an issue with scrolling webpages.
 
Thanks for the extra info the freeman0001, but again that sounds like UVD or Purevideo kicking in which is normal.

Some of the temp rise in Firefox could be the issue I'm mentioning here - simply webpage scrolling or even basic rendering pushes GPU clocks up to max.
 
Hi twist3d0n3, it is an issue that needs fixing.

I'm not sure if disabling hardware acceleration in options actually disables Direct2D (Win 7 Vista only), which is perhaps why you get the clock problem too. Direct2D can be disabled in about:config from the address bar, so I'll have to give that a try.

Now, I have been digging around for more info. Bugzilla link above says it's Firefox rendering too quickly without limits using Direct2D.

The Firefox discussion below however has some great detail, and says for nVidia it's a bug in the drivers that is or is about to be fixed:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1775755&start=1275

his is a quote from ManuelG, a Nvidia's developer:

"BTW, I don't need any more information on the P-State changes at this point as I've already passed along the following complaints from end users and they have already taken action on this:

1) Fan spinning up and down as a result of the constant P-State changes
2) Basic tasks causing spikes in GPU clock and voltages such as simple scrolling of the page
3) Graphics card running slightly higher temperature as a result of clocking up and down more frequently"
Click to expand...

So will ATI release a fix?

I just want to get to the bottom of this, it's been going on now for over a year!
 
Last edited:
Thanks yashiro. Perhaps Chrome is fine now then, plus the 275.33 is mentioned as having the first fix for the issue but it was fully implimented in the 285.27.

Definitely happens in Firefox and Catalyst 11.9 for me. I'll try running Firefox without any addons or plugins, to see if they are causing any issues.
 
Last edited:
Hi Dave, that's perhaps normal for IE9 - a little strange I agree - see the pics in the opening post. I guess moving the page quickly is too much for the low clocks to render. Still, high clocks seems overkill when UVD clocks can accelerate video! Notice however it happens very rarely and GPU temps remain low for most of the time during normal browsing.

In Firefox however, well, the opening post pics show the difference! Compare the clock spikes to GPU load - they shouldn't be revving up so high on such low loads.
 
Last edited:
Hi Salsa, I think IE8 had a smooth scroll problem that ramped up the clocks, I remember people discussing it in the past, but IE9 seems fine now.

Firefox doesn't have smooth scrolling enabled by default, but even with it disabled it still causes high heat and temps problems on my PC.
 
Seems this issue will never be fixed - however it also seems an issue with Chrome as well as Firefox according to this thread:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=367905

IE9 (not tested 10 yet) does not have this problem. The easy work around is to have some 2D profiles set to limit clocks while browsing with Firefox, and normal profiles set when you need some GPU power. It works great, but really don't know why this is taking so long to resolve. It causes fans to jump - my APU on my netbook will come on and off with Firefox but not IE9, unless I limit clocks.

Also, we still have the situation where disabling hardware and flash acceleration in Firefox does not change the behaviour - scrolling and viewing flash free websites still causing max clock spikes and temp rises, therefore fan speed change (some cards fan profiles are much worse than others).

This has been reported to AMD and Mozilla multiple times over the last few years by several people (including myself), but no changes or solutions.

It seems a bug with Windows 7 Direct2D (perhaps Windows 8) and certain browsers, as no acceleration at all according to the browser settings still causes the spikes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom