1158780 - WEBGL slows to a standstill on Win7

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Graphics: CanvasWebGL, defect)

Description

[tinyrsid]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:37.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/37.0
Build ID: 20150415140819

Steps to reproduce:

I am calling my page here using Firefox 37.0.2 on 32-bit Windows7: http://www.wothke.ch/ablaze/?hc_location=ufi#/mattgrayc64/arkanoid-remake-preview



Actual results:

When initially starting Firefox the WEBGL based graphics start almost fluidly but within seconds the refresh rate deteriorates to 1fps and worse.. (when closing the window and restarting the page in a new window but without restarting FF, the refresh rate is rather bad right from the start..)


Expected results:

When invoking the same page from the same machine (I am using an old 3Ghz Pentium4 with a Nvidia GTX460) but from my WinXP environment then it keeps running rather fluidly also in Firefox (I last checked with version 37.0.1 - eventhough there my be noticable pauses when the page is switching shaders also in that env..)

When invoking the same page from the above Win7 environment but using Chrome44 then the graphics run absolutely fluidly - much faster even than any Firefox version that I've seen so far. (i.e. there does not seem to be any problem with my Win7 GPU drivers..)

Summary: WEBGL rendering on Win7 seems to be much slower (defective?) than it is on WinXP (WEBGL rendering in Firefox generally seems to be quite a bit slower than it is in Chome - which is rather unfortunate).

Comment 1

[tinyrsid]

PS: I just ran the same Firefox 37.0.2 from my WinXP environment and there the WEBGL does not slow down.. it looks as if you need to use Win7 to reproduce the issue.

Comment 2

[Gingerbread Man]

Please type about:support into the address bar and press Enter. Copy the entire graphics section to the clipboard, then paste it in a reply here.

On my system, the frame rate vacillates between awful and acceptable. Opera 28 was even worse, with performance so bad that the sound cut off. IE11 wouldn't work; a “you need a recent browser with HTML5 audio support” alert box popped up.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:37.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/37.0
Version: 37.0.2
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:40.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/40.0
Build ID: 20150426030248

Adapter Description: NVIDIA GeForce 210
Adapter Drivers: nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Adapter RAM: 128
Device ID: 0x0a65
Direct2D Enabled: true
DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.2.9200.16571)
Driver Date: 7-2-2014
Driver Version: 9.18.13.4052
GPU #2 Active: false
GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 11 (OMTC)
Subsys ID: 34ee1458
Vendor ID: 0x10de
WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce 210 Direct3D11 vs_4_1 ps_4_1)
windowLayerManagerRemote: true
AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d 1.1
AzureContentBackend: direct2d 1.1
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

Comment 3

[tinyrsid]

Attachment: chrome://gpu output

For comparison I am here also attaching the chrome://gpu output.. maybe it helps in identifying why Chrome44 renders so much faster while the WEBGL renderer should actually be identical as in FF37....

Comment 4

[tinyrsid]

Just as a reference: On my machine the page runs in Chrome44 with anything between 28fps (initial setting) and 18fps (more complex calculations).

Here is the output I am getting from about:support.. (supposedly the WebGL Renderer is the very same one used in Chrome - see my gpu.html attachment):

Graphics
Adapter Description	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Adapter Drivers	nvd3dum nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Adapter RAM	1024
Device ID	0x0e22
Direct2D Enabled	true
DirectWrite Enabled	true (6.1.7600.16385)
Driver Date	10-15-2011
Driver Version	8.17.12.8562
GPU #2 Active	false
GPU Accelerated Windows	1/1 Direct3D 11 (OMTC)
Subsys ID	23221462
Vendor ID	0x10de
WebGL Renderer	Google Inc. -- ANGLE (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0)
windowLayerManagerRemote	true
AzureCanvasBackend	direct2d
AzureContentBackend	direct2d
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend	cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated	0

Comment 5

[Loic]

(In reply to tinyrsid from comment #4)

> Graphics
> Adapter Description	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
> Driver Date	10-15-2011

Your Nvidia drivers are really to old for this GPU still supported by Nvidia, please try to update them to the latest drivers (v350.12, 2015.4.13):
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/83818/en-us

Comment 6

[tinyrsid]

I now remember why I had avoided updating the NVIDIA drivers for so long.. 200mb zipped installer... LOL. I had to clear 700mb on my full Win7 system drive before the bloody update ran through..

BUT.. now the WEBGL speed in Firefox is actually on par with the one in Chromium.. NICE! (Eventhough I still don't understand why Chromium had no problem with the same old driver..)

The only thing that remains is the occasional pause/stutter in Firefox when switching shaders.. is it possible that shader compilation for some reason is slower in Firefox? I leave it to you wether or not you still want to keep this ticket to further investigate that effect.. if not you can close this ticket.

Thanks for the help!

Comment 7

[Milan Sreckovic [:milan] (needinfo for best results)]

We do not cache compiled shaders (see bug 918941), so that could account for a hit every time you switch shaders.