[SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

ethre · 2021-06-08 12:32:41

Hello!

I'm currently running 2 monitors, my main one is 144hz and my secondary monitor is 60hz.

On my Arch install, I am running GNOME 40 on Wayland on an AMD R9 380 4GB graphics card. Wayland is working great, and I am able to get my monitors working properly.

However, I've ran into an issue where I can't get Firefox to render at 144 fps. I've checked the Wayland settings in about:config and they all look correct.

I'm currently using Firefox with the WebRender compositor enabled, and layout.frame_rate set to 144 in about:config.

Using those settings, I managed to get firefox rendering above 60fps, however it dips down at around 120fps and never reaches 144, resulting in a pretty janky browsing experience.

I've used other distros, which use Wayland by default, and Firefox rendered properly, with minimal or no configuration needed.

Am I missing something? Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: I have solved this issue. Apparently Firefox was running on XWayland this entire time. Using the MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 ev will force Firefox to run under Wayland.

Last edited by ethre (2021-06-08 16:04:55)

Durden · 2021-06-08 14:11:27

Isnt Mutter capped at 60fps? Would that be affecting Firefox?

seth · 2021-06-08 14:15:36

around 120fps […] a pretty janky browsing experience

I assume that's not about the refresh rate per se, because 120Hz is 8.3ms per frame - and no, your brain isn't "just that fast" (unless you're some insect)

What probably does happen though is that the output is synced to the 60Hz monitor (you'll very most likely have only one crt and that can only align to one vblank interval - this would also explain 120Hz as twice in an interval)

=> Do you get those problems w/ only the 144Hz output attached?

ethre · 2021-06-08 15:00:47

seth wrote:

around 120fps […] a pretty janky browsing experience
I assume that's not about the refresh rate per se, because 120Hz is 8.3ms per frame - and no, your brain isn't "just that fast" (unless you're some insect)
What probably does happen though is that the output is synced to the 60Hz monitor (you'll very most likely have only one crt and that can only align to one vblank interval - this would also explain 120Hz as twice in an interval)
=> Do you get those problems w/ only the 144Hz output attached?

Yeah, I do. But only on Firefox.

Gnome has recently added the support for multiple monitors, with different refresh rates under Wayland. My main monitor is rendering everything at 144hz, even if I have a 60Hz monitor connected.

But I can't get Firefox to behave in the same way on Arch, as it did on Fedora. Fedora just rendered Firefox at 144hz, so clearly I'm just missing something.

seth · 2021-06-08 15:10:40

How exactly do you measure the fps?
Do yuo have similar issues w/ chromium?

progandy · 2021-06-08 15:26:18

fedora has a patched firefox build, so you could try to run that on arch. Maybe one of them improves performance on high-refreshrate monitors. There is an outdated aur package you could use as a base: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?K=f … ayland-bin

Last edited by progandy (2021-06-08 15:27:14)

ethre · 2021-06-08 15:46:56

seth wrote:

How exactly do you measure the fps?
Do yuo have similar issues w/ chromium?

I am measuring the FPS running an UFO test, that can be found here https://www.testufo.com/

seth · 2021-06-08 15:52:41

testufo wrote:

This screen compares multiple framerates. If using a 120Hz monitor, then 120fps is automatically added to this test (30fps vs 60fps vs 120fps) in supported browsers.

Also

testufo wrote:

UNSUPPORTED:
VSYNC is not available on the Linux platform.

Does that test do 144Hz anywhere?
Tried https://www.vsynctester.com/ ?

ethre · 2021-06-08 15:56:12

progandy wrote:

fedora has a patched firefox build, so you could try to run that on arch. Maybe one of them improves performance on high-refreshrate monitors. There is an outdated aur package you could use as a base: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?K=f … ayland-bin

It does make sense, that I would need something like that. Thanks for suggesting this, I will check it out.

seth wrote:

testufo wrote:
This screen compares multiple framerates. If using a 120Hz monitor, then 120fps is automatically added to this test (30fps vs 60fps vs 120fps) in supported browsers.
Also
testufo wrote:
UNSUPPORTED:
VSYNC is not available on the Linux platform.
Does that test do 144Hz anywhere?
Tried https://www.vsynctester.com/ ?

It's doing 60fps @ 60hz.

Last edited by ethre (2021-06-08 15:57:25)

Arch Linux

#1 2021-06-08 12:32:41

[SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

#2 2021-06-08 14:11:27

Re: [SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

#3 2021-06-08 14:15:36

Re: [SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

#4 2021-06-08 15:00:47

Re: [SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

#5 2021-06-08 15:10:40

Re: [SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

#6 2021-06-08 15:26:18

Re: [SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

#7 2021-06-08 15:46:56

Re: [SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

#8 2021-06-08 15:52:41

Re: [SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

#9 2021-06-08 15:56:12

Re: [SOLVED] Firefox on a high refresh rate monitor

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