Severe video stuttering in Firefox with hardware video decoding enabled on AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, persists after clean reinstall
Hello Firefox Support, I would like to report a reproducible video playback problem in Firefox on Windows 11. I have already spent considerable time troubleshooting it, i… (lexoni më tepër)
Hello Firefox Support,
I would like to report a reproducible video playback problem in Firefox on Windows 11. I have already spent considerable time troubleshooting it, including testing Firefox graphics and video related settings and ultimately performing a completely clean reinstall of Firefox. The problem persists after the clean installation.
My system configuration is: Device name: Mephisto PC Operating system: Windows 11 Pro for Workstations, 64 bit Windows version: 25H2 OS build: 26200.9457 Windows Feature Experience Pack: 1000.26100.360.0 Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8 Core Processor, 3.80 GHz Installed RAM: 32.0 GB, 31.1 GB usable Graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, 16 GB VRAM Integrated graphics: AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics, 486 MB System type: 64 bit operating system, x64 based processor The primary discrete GPU used by the system is the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT
The problem appeared suddenly. Firefox had been playing videos normally the previous day. As far as I am aware, neither Firefox nor the AMD graphics driver had been updated immediately before the problem appeared.
The symptom is severe video stuttering during playback in Firefox. The video is not merely dropping an occasional frame. Playback becomes visibly and consistently jerky rather than smooth. The most important finding is that I have been able to isolate the problem specifically to Firefox's hardware video decoding.
In about:config, I changed: media.hardware-video-decoding.enabled from: true to: false With hardware video decoding disabled, video playback immediately becomes smooth and continuous. If hardware video decoding is enabled again, the stuttering returns. This is currently the only workaround I have found that reliably eliminates the problem.
I also tested Firefox's DirectComposition hardware video overlay setting: gfx.webrender.dcomp-video-hw-overlay-win Setting this to false did NOT solve the problem. Video playback continued to stutter.
I investigated the related DirectComposition/WebRender video overlay preferences as part of the troubleshooting process as well, but disabling the hardware video overlay did not reproduce the improvement obtained by disabling hardware video decoding itself.
I then decided to rule out corruption of the Firefox installation or profile. I performed a complete, clean Firefox reinstallation. After reinstalling Firefox from scratch, the exact same problem remains. Therefore, the behaviour is reproducible on a clean Firefox installation.
The important observations can be summarized as follows: Firefox with hardware video decoding enabled: video stutters severely. Firefox with media.hardware-video-decoding.enabled = false: video playback is smooth. Firefox with gfx.webrender.dcomp-video-hw-overlay-win = false: video still stutters. Completely clean Firefox reinstall: problem still occurs.
The PC itself has not changed hardware, and the problem appeared despite Firefox having worked correctly on the same machine previously.
Given these results, this appears to involve Firefox's hardware accelerated video decoding path and its interaction with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, the AMD graphics driver, Windows 11 video acceleration, or some combination of these components, rather than ordinary Firefox profile corruption.
Disabling hardware video decoding is a functional workaround, but I do not consider it an ideal permanent solution on a modern GPU which is specifically designed to provide hardware accelerated video decoding. I would therefore appreciate assistance in determining why Firefox's hardware video decoder has suddenly begun producing severe stuttering on this system.
If useful for diagnosis, I can provide additional technical information from about:support, including Graphics, Media, WebRender, hardware video decoding, codec and driver information. I can also perform specific diagnostic tests if you tell me exactly what information is required.
Thank you.