1499537 - When WebRender allocates too much texture memory the whole OS can go down

Status: NEW

(Core :: Graphics: WebRender, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Nicolas Silva [:nical]]

See the associated issue at https://github.com/servo/webrender/issues/3207 for a more detailed description of the problem.

In gecko allocating too much memory usually either results in an OOM crash or partially rendered content. In WebRender some bad cases can freeze the computer completely. On the hardware that I have handy the only thing to do is force reboot the computer, we should at least crash before we get to this type of situation.

There are already bugs about reducing memory usage (without compromising on the experience), in this bug I propose we pursue failing more gracefully if all else fails.

Comment 1

[Jeff Muizelaar [:jrmuizel]]

We should aspire to do better here (perhaps making sure we're able to track memory gpu better), but it doesn't need to block.