1902566 - (gfx-mem-leaks) [meta] Graphics memory leaks (system and/or gpu)

Status: NEW

(Core :: Graphics, task, P2)

Description

[Ashley Hale [:ahale]]

This meta bug is for memory leak bugs in the Graphics component, individual bugs can be filed against this but should be moved to one of the category meta bugs that block this meta bug during triage.

User troubleshooting guide for reporting a memory leak bug in this component:

• Use the browser in a way you are okay with repeating (e.g. open a tab, make a web search of your choice, close the tab), check memory usage (e.g. take a screenshot of Task Manager if on Windows, especially the Performance tab in Task Manager which shows total memory usage and GPU memory usage), do this more than once, take a screenshot again each time. Using an OS-level tool like this shows whether the browser has increased memory usage even if it is not being tracked properly in the about:memory page (for example much of the browser's GPU memory usage is actually attributed to dwm.exe which is the desktop compositor).
  • Note: Continuous memory growth in a single tab without much interaction is also interesting, in which case you would take the screenshots at different times with the tab open.
• The first screenshot of a memory metric is usually not very useful, compare the second and third (or later) screenshots to see if memory usage has really grown which shows it's likely a memory leak, please report the bug and explain what you were doing that triggered it, so we can look into it.
  • Comparing the first and second screenshot is not very useful because the OS may have cached some files after loading the first time, the second and later screenshots show what repeating the action did.
• It is very useful to attach to your bug the text from the URL about:support (it has buttons at the top to copy to clipboard, which you can paste in an attachment using Attach New File), this shows what OS version, GPU model and driver version you are using.
• It is also useful to save a memory report from the URL about:memory (you may wish to check the Anonymize button there) each time you take a screenshot of Task Manager, these reports can be compared (again using about:memory) to see the differences in each part of the browser which makes it quicker to find the issue as we know at least what the browser thinks it is using memory for (GPU memory is not tracked in great detail there however - it is reported as summary values like gpu-dedicated).

Some notes on memory leaks in general:

• Scrolling on an infinite-scrolling web page may continuously use more memory if the web page is not written well, which is a site issue and not necessarily a memory leak in the browser.
• Memory leaks occurring from repeated actions are the most interesting and most actionable, it's vitally important to know the repro steps and what OS version and GPU driver version is involved.
• Memory leaks can also occur within the lifetime of a tab when using an adblocker extension, depending on how the site works, but that is JS memory usage, which is not Graphics related.

Comment 1

[Nicolas Silva [:nical]]

Prefs that can be useful to diagnose GPU memory usage:

• Set "webrender.debug.profiler" to true and "webrender.debug.profiler-ui" to "Memory".
• Set "webrender.debug.texture-cache" to "true" and "webrender.debug.texture-cache.clear-evicted" to true.