Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

mcsaba77 · 2010-03-18 08:21:48

For the past week or so Firefox has slowed down considerably on my laptop. When I scroll through a page CPU usage jumps to 100% and scrolling is quite jerky.

I suspected one of my extensions, so I moved my firefox folder to see how it goes with a clean setup, but the problem remains. Then I thought it might be kgtk (and kgtk-wrapper) I use for better integration with KDE. I removed it, but problem remained. I'm running out of ideas. Has anyone else seen this?

My laptop is an Intel core 2 duo (T9300), with nvidia graphics (GS 8400) using proprietary drivers.

EDIT - one more thing... in top I see the CPU usage of X (not firefox, which increases slightly) jump to 50-70% when I scroll through some pages.

Last edited by mcsaba77 (2010-03-18 08:25:48)

MadTux · 2010-03-18 17:59:13

I am not sure if that helps, but here are some suggestions:
1) about:config -> search for network.dns.disableIPv6 and doubleclick to disable.
2) Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> General: Disable Use smooth scrolling and Check my spelling as I type

mcsaba77 · 2010-03-19 07:29:53

Thank you MadTux - I tried those, still sluggish, especially on my google home page. For now I've switched to Opera, which doesn't exhibit the same problems. Still no clue what causing the problem But thanks for your kind reply

m7d1 · 2010-04-18 14:24:27

i have the same problem with both firefox and chrome (i am using kde 4.4), i install firefox-opensuse for better kde integration, i think this is a kde bug.

mcsaba77 · 2010-04-18 17:38:28

Wow, a reply after so long... Yes, the problem still persists for me, switched to opera, I use Firefox only on a few sites now... Tried both stock version and opensuse version. Both exhibited the same symptoms. At this point I'm completely clueless. If it's a KDE bug, how come only a few people are complaining? I mean if firefox, even the stock version, has this issue when run on KDE, I'd expect more replies...

karabaja4 · 2010-04-18 17:54:34

I have ~50% CPU usage while scrolling on Arch forums with Firefox (and this is pretty damn lightweight website) which is way to much. It goes as high on 100% on sites with rich contents.

Scrolling has lagged for me on Firefox, Chromium, etc. on linux machines since forever. In my experience there are a few factors that affect scrolling speed:

- available CPU power (for example while compiling something that consumes whole CPU scrolling becomes very laggy).
- GPU and GPU drivers - scrolling seems better on more powerful GPU as well as better drivers, also lower resolutions seem to have smoother scrolling (my 1024x768 laptop with integrated intel gpu scrolls better than my 1680x1080 desktop computer with nvidia GPU).
- Window manager - scrolling seems faster on openbox than it is, for example on compiz
- The browser itself - I have dual boot on this system and Firefox on Windows 7 scrolls much better. It seems Firefox is not optimized enough on linux systems, even the -pgo version.

I don't know why noone seems to care, I guess people are used to certain level of performance and don't expect any improvement. I hope one day I will consider linux browsers fast.

m7d1 · 2010-04-19 05:50:51

Today i have notice firefox will eat CPU usage when i use gmail and will go down dramatically to the normal usage (2-6%) when i logout from my account in gmail.
Any body have the same issue?

karol · 2010-04-23 16:25:51

> Any body have the same issue?
Nope.
I'm logged to Gmail and Google Reader non-stop. I have another firefox window opened with a bunch of tabs I'm currently browsing.
On a P4 2GHz 1 GB RAM I get about 2-5% cpu use and 250MB mem used + another 250MB for buffers/cache.

polymetr · 2010-04-23 20:22:53

m7d1 wrote:

Today i have notice firefox will eat CPU usage when i use gmail and will go down dramatically to the normal usage (2-6%) when i logout from my account in gmail.
Any body have the same issue?

Yes. I can confirm. But I see it happen when I just start to use Firefox on any site
from my SpeedDial. Just am seeing that frequency and % of CPU is growing up
when I use Firefox.
I used to use Opera or Chromium then I was not seeing this issue before.
Strange.

karol · 2010-04-23 20:31:02

@karabaja4
Scrolling w/ firefox through gamespot website is simply painful - I use chromium for that.
I can confirm that scrolling gets choppy even of lightweight sites when system is under load. Using PgUp/Down helps.

Maybe you can open a bug report for that, but please provide more info: 32-bit or 64-bit etc.

theapodan · 2010-04-27 02:17:57

This was an nvidia issue in my case.

Smooth scrolling with the latest 195.* nvidia driver was slow and choppy.

I downgraded to 190.53 and it works fine. You might try that.

You can use the PKGBUILDs, etc from:

nvidia 190.53
nvidia-utils 190.53

youthforlinux · 2010-04-29 12:33:18

I had this problem too, something with my kde profile or my FF profile, I backed up my bookmarks and such, and deleted my profiles and I haven't had the problem since...of course I'm not sure I'd recognize it anymore now that I have a quad core i5

m7d1 · 2010-05-01 06:48:03

I remove Better Gmail extension from my ff profile, after then everything is going perfect with CPU 3-7% usage.
i dont know is it a bug from better gmail extension or something else
any body have the same experience?

spidernik84 · 2010-05-01 14:37:02

mcsaba77 wrote:

EDIT - one more thing... in top I see the CPU usage of X (not firefox, which increases slightly) jump to 50-70% when I scroll through some pages.

Just a thought:
did you enable native smoothscrool? or advanced smoothscroll via an external add-on?

To be sure, check this:
1- type about:config in your address bar, hit enter, confirm the warranty thing
2- in the second textbox (search), type smoothscrool to refine the list, and check this line:
general.smoothScroll
3- put this on "false", in case it's on "true"

Apart from this, i do agree with all the folks here suggesting you to check your video drivers and to disable compiz (if you use it, of course).

Arch Linux

#1 2010-03-18 08:21:48

Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#2 2010-03-18 17:59:13

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#3 2010-03-19 07:29:53

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#4 2010-04-18 14:24:27

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#5 2010-04-18 17:38:28

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#6 2010-04-18 17:54:34

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#7 2010-04-19 05:50:51

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#8 2010-04-23 16:25:51

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#9 2010-04-23 20:22:53

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#10 2010-04-23 20:31:02

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#11 2010-04-27 02:17:57

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#12 2010-04-29 12:33:18

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#13 2010-05-01 06:48:03

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

#14 2010-05-01 14:37:02

Re: Firefox slowed down (scrolling through a page eats 100% CPU)

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