743009 - Consider limiting WebGL memory usage to less than GPU RAM

Status: NEW

(Core :: Graphics: CanvasWebGL, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Kelsey Gilbert [:jgilbert]]

From bug 643651, we know that there are websites that have massive GL texture usage in the many hundreds of MB. 

Should we limit WebGL buffer/texture allocation if the allocation would take them above, say, 90% of GPU RAM? This is hard to know for sure, but we can make fairly good guesses about WebGL's usage, and we know the reported adapter RAM size.

bjacob pointed out that this is not a complete solution, as normal layers acceleration can also fill GPU RAM, and other things can exhaust non-virtual RAM on systems with less available RAM.

I think it could be a good step, though, since exhausting GPU RAM should cause a much worse experience than normal memory swapping.