Arch Linux

Stalafin

Member

From: Berlin, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 617

Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

On certain websites I have some big delays scrolling with firefox.

For instance on the following website it is incredibly slow:
http://hardwareluxx.de/story.php?id=7585

In Conky I can see CPU usage peeks jumping to as high as 40% (on a AMD X2 3800+ with CPU-freq running the CPU on 1 GHz).

I am on XFCE right now,  CompizFusion enabled. Chaning to XFWM or OpenBox doesn't change this though. Apart from that I have a dedicated nVidia 7600 GT with latest drivers (available from pacman), and 2 GB of RAM.

So what's up with this? I have experienced the same thing on Ubuntu already when I was still using it (i.e. as early as 2006 with firefox 2).

EDIT: It has to be said that this is not on all websites so.

Last edited by Stalafin (2008-05-26 22:47:10)

JeremyTheWicked

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 193

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

I don't know if this information will be useful: on my Ubuntu Hardy there's no such problem. (I'm preparing for Arch installation so I cannot check this in Arch yet).

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arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

I was seeing this in a big way with the FF3 betas. In fact, I can hear something on my GPU, the fan I guess, on some sites. I'm not seeing it as much with RC1.

skymt

Member

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 443

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

No problem here with that website. Openbox, Firefox 3, Flash 9.0 r124, GeForce 6200 (w/closed drivers), 512 MB RAM. There are some pauses while loading the site (likely caused by Flash loading for the banners), but after it's loaded it scrolls as fast as any other page.

Could it be an extension you're using?

FALK

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 95

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

It's a bug in firefox: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=90198 , https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=201307

Don't really know how to fix it once and for all and it has been around for a loooong time.

ozar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2005-02-18

Posts: 1,686

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

Using FF-rc1 here and having no problems at all with scrolling on that site.  In fact, it scrolls quite well.

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oz

skymt

Member

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 443

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

It's a bug in firefox: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=90198 , https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=201307

Don't really know how to fix it once and for all and it has been around for a loooong time.

This can't be that bug: the link Stalafin gave as an example doesn't have a fixed background.

Si

Member

Registered: 2006-09-11

Posts: 57

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

I also observed this problem long ago. I was hoping things would improve when FF3 comes out, but I was rather disappointed. In particular, if you have a mouse that has a "free spin" mode for the mouse wheel, try scrolling really fast on the following website.
http://jcornuz.wordpress.com/2007/11/18 … cms-linux/
What disappoints me even more is that FF3 on Windows scrolls just fine as it should. Also Konqueror scrolls fine as well.

Can anyone else confirm this?

normc

Member

From: Ottawa, Canada

Registered: 2004-06-28

Posts: 277

Website

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

Works fine for me, scrolling really fast with the wheel and the scroll feature on my mouse.

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Norm

jacko

Member

Registered: 2007-11-23

Posts: 840

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

no problems here. both links posted to websites work fine for me.

FALK

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 95

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

The nvidia driver has some problems rendering anti-aliased text fast (e.g. when scrolling). Try nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=3 -a GlyphCache=1 , it helps on some websites, but doesn't solve all scrolling problems with firefox.

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

Those sites go pretty fast here too.. I'm running FF3rc2 from unstable and an ati x600 graphics card with catalyst. It wouldn't surprise me if the issue was due to poor graphics drivers (maybe you've got a bad driver and other browsers render more on the cpu? Just a wild guess ).

Si

Member

Registered: 2006-09-11

Posts: 57

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

The nvidia driver has some problems rendering anti-aliased text fast (e.g. when scrolling). Try nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=3 -a GlyphCache=1 , it helps on some websites, but doesn't solve all scrolling problems with firefox.

How did you know I have an nVidia?
Anyway, to confirm whether this is a driver issue, I ran nvidia-settings accordingly, and firefox still scrolls really slow. I also installed xf86-video-nv to test the open source driver, firefox scrolls as slow as the binary driver. If it's a driver issue, I don't understand why Konqueror has no such problem?

I'll explain how I tested firefox, because simply dragging the scroll bar up and down real fast doesn't trigger this problem. So here's my torture test:
1) go to the site(s) posted here
2) turn your mouse up side down
3) "run" on your mouse's scroll wheel as if it's a toy car
4) "run" the mouse for 10~20cm as quickly as you can (sensibily of course), then immediately "run" in the reverse direction
5) report the latency between changing directions (just a rough estimate is good enough)

For me, it takes about 5 seconds before firefox scrolls up again, and until firefox "calms" down, I had absolutely no control over it what's so ever, it's almost as bad as a frozen app.

Before anyone says no one will practically do this when browsing, please let me remind you that some people own mice that have a "free spinning" mode of the wheel. In this mode, you can scroll as far as "running" your mouse on its wheel for a few meters.

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

From what I've read (after buying GF 9600GT and getting annoyed by its totally inferior 2D performance in Linux, compared to my old GF 6600), 7/8/9 series cards indeed show an inadequate 2D performance. Things got even worse for some with 17x drivers.

Playing with different InitialPixelPlacement values and GlyphCache might help. Downgrading drivers is also worth a shot.

jacko

Member

Registered: 2007-11-23

Posts: 840

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

I'll explain how I tested firefox, because simply dragging the scroll bar up and down real fast doesn't trigger this problem. So here's my torture test:
1) go to the site(s) posted here
2) turn your mouse up side down
3) "run" on your mouse's scroll wheel as if it's a toy car
4) "run" the mouse for 10~20cm as quickly as you can (sensibily of course), then immediately "run" in the reverse direction
5) report the latency between changing directions (just a rough estimate is good enough)

makes no difference

Last edited by jacko (2008-06-18 23:30:23)

Si

Member

Registered: 2006-09-11

Posts: 57

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

I think it's not a driver/video card issue, because I ran this same "torture" test in both Windows XP and Ubuntu 8.04 inside VirtualBox, I get the same slowness in Ubuntu as in my Arch, but in Windows firefox scrolls fast, almost in realtime.

Now the question is what made this difference? It's strange how for some people here this problem doesn't exist.

jacko

Member

Registered: 2007-11-23

Posts: 840

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

686 or x64?

Si

Member

Registered: 2006-09-11

Posts: 57

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

i686

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

What nvidia card do you have, Si?

For me 9600GT worked beautifully in Windows, crappily in Arch. I'm back on 6600 and everything flies.

Si

Member

Registered: 2006-09-11

Posts: 57

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

6800 (non-GT version)

edit: my laptop has a 8400M GS, and it's just as bad

Last edited by Si (2008-06-19 10:47:19)

Si

Member

Registered: 2006-09-11

Posts: 57

Re: Firefox (3) - slow scrolling on certain websites; CPU usage peeks

I just checked the setting, it's already disabled/unchecked.