8 ms·

Unfortunately, looks like the CPU spikes are still a problem on OS X for me. I check this every time a new version is released as I'd love to make the switch f

Unfortunately, looks like the CPU spikes are still a problem on OS X for me. I check this every time a new version is released as I'd love to make the switch from Chrome, but Firefox with one blank tab and no extensions uses more CPU than Chrome with 15 actual tabs. When I actually throw activity at Firefox it hogs the CPU even more. Here's hoping v61 addresses it.

butz 8y ago
Have you reported this bug? It's all fine on the old OS X Mavericks.
- spiderfarmer 8y ago
  I reported it and they know what the problem is but it got marked as no-priority. Everytime there’s a new release I check if it’s solved and move back to Safari. Every release there are people complaining about it. I know I have been for 2 years now, but it falls on deaf ears.
  - cat199 8y ago
    issue ref?
    - spiderfarmer 8y ago
      See above.
  - sayhello 8y ago
    Might be hardware related. Did you provide your HW profile in the bug report?
    - spiderfarmer 8y ago
      Yes, twice.
Kpourdeilami 8y ago
It is borderline unusable on the most recent Macbook Pro and most recent version of OS X. Weird that it only seems to affect some people
- stouset 8y ago
  Strangely, none of my coworkers seem to have problems. But every release seems to get worse; first it was terrible performance, then fonts in pages and the UI became blurry. This happens even on newly-installed MBPs, so it’s doesn’t seem like it could be related to anything I’ve done. And yet… coworkers don’t have problems.
  - dralley 8y ago
    Try a profile refresh
    - stouset 8y ago
      Tried. No success. I've also fully-uninstalled it with CleanMyMac, also to no success.
      - jhatax 8y ago
        have you changed the resolution of your display to be "scaled" in system preferences? does setting it to "default for display" make FF usable again?
        stouset 8y ago
        I keep it at scaled to max resolution, but I reverted to default and it made no difference.
      - zaphirplane 8y ago
        Why do you think a piece of software running on your laptop would behave differently from millions running on the same hardware. Profile, addon, custom install location, weird env variables
diggan 8y ago
I'm unsure if this is actually Firefox fault. I'm running Linux (arch and Ubuntu), Windows and macOS, and Firefox is only slow on macOS, while my macOS machine is the second most powerful machine I have. Running Firefox in a Ubuntu VM on macOS is faster than running it natively on macOS.
- lwansbrough 8y ago
  Of course it's Firefox's fault. Chrome works fine.
- CyberDildonics 8y ago
  If other web browsers don't do it, how is it not firefox's fault?
- Paul-ish 8y ago
  Regardless who is technically at fault, the Firefox team is best placed to resolve the issue. It kind of surprises me that this is an issue at all. I was under the impression a large number of FF devs use Macbooks.
  - spiderfarmer 8y ago
    Yeah, well they know what the problem is but it fails to get a high enough priority to get solved: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1407536 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1407536
    - vanderZwan 8y ago
      I find this confusing: there is tons of discussion in the thread, and yet: > UNCONFIRMED > Votes: 0 votes
      - spiderfarmer 8y ago
        Yeah plus I find it strange that their telemetry isn’t picking this up.
mccr8 8y ago
That sounds kind of like a known issue with scaled resolution on OSX. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any progress has been made on it. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404042 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404042
- cimmanom 8y ago
  Aha! That detail (that it's specific to scaled resolution) explains so much!
- apazzolini 8y ago
  I unfortunately notice this behavior even when my MBP (2013, Retina) is in clamshell mode hooked up to a 1440p monitor rendering at native resolution. :(
  - derekdahmer 8y ago
    My hackintosh with a dedicated GPU has no problem at all because it has the rendering power to handle it. But my 2014 MBP Retina with integrated graphics gets destroyed and ends up spiking the CPU as well.
    - apazzolini 8y ago
      I have the top of the line model from 2013 with 16GB RAM and discrete graphics (forced to always be used in energy saver prefs). Firefox feels very fast and doesn't lag while being used, but the unnecessary CPU spikes kill my battery. We're talking about one page open at about:blank with no extensions and a completely fresh profile spiking to 20% CPU usage every 10 or so seconds.
lwansbrough 8y ago
I was gonna submit a performance profile as a bug report, but the https://perf-html.io https://perf-html.io profiler doesn't work in FF60
- dblohm7 8y ago
  Umm, it should be working. Can you provide more details, please?
- bradknowles 8y ago
  It worked fine for me, just a few seconds ago. What specific problems are you seeing?
adpirz 8y ago
At least good to hear I'm not the only one. I want to like it for all of its speed and sleekness, but it regularly runs hot and gets the fans going full blast. Odd that it's still an issue.
grumblestumble 8y ago
Chiming in here. I would absolutely love to switch to Firefox for a host of reasons, ranging from "I don't want to use Google products" to "I love the tabs". Unfortunately, it's completely unusable for my workflow on a 2015 Macbook Pro with 16G RAM. I keep a variety of tabs pinned (JIRA, Zeplin, Gitlab, Jenkins, Invision, etc) and it seems as if they continue to hog a disproportionate amount of resources even when in the background, which is not an issue on Chrome.
- mercer 8y ago
  I really want to switch to Firefox, so every once in a while I force myself to use it 'properly' for a week or two at least. Such a two week period has just ended, and while FF does feel snappier than before, I'm running into exactly the issues you describe. When using Firefox, my four-year old MacBook Air pretty regularly slows down to the point where my music starts stuttering and even force-closing FF takes a while. I've had bluetooth devices disconnect too. Now if it was just that, I could perhaps accept that maybe my laptop just can't handle my browsing behavior anymore. Unfortunately the same thing happens on my 16GB RAM Mac Mini. Not as often, but still. I don't have these problems with Chrome, even when I clearly have too many tabs open for my memory to handle. Occasionally my music will stutter when I open multiple gmail tabs in Safari (I use Safari for stuff like email and banking), but it's rare, and nothing like what happens with Firefox.
  - xenophonf 8y ago
    I wonder what's causing that on your computer, because I'm running Firefox on a late-2011 MacBook Pro without any issues, and that's with a ton of tabs opened (including a bunch of pinned tabs running multiple instances of Office 365 in separate containers, Slack, and so forth) and the usual crowd of extensions (UBO et al). It's bouncing between 0 and 5% CPU utilization.
    - kleiba 8y ago
      I experience regular "gray outs" on Ubuntu with FF hogging so many resources that eventually the only thing that works is killing it. This happens to me both on a 5 year old desktop as well as on old Lenovo Thinkpad (X2002s). However, I believe flashplayer to be the culprit as I often have quite a few youtube tabs open -- obviously never more than one playing though.
NVRM 8y ago
The exact opposite from gnu
Rotdhizon 8y ago
Maybe related: Does anyone have the issue of a few number of FF tabs showing up as several in task manager? Say I have 2 or 3 tabs open, it'll show something like 7-10 in task manager. And yes, they are hogging a ton of RAM, upwards of half of a 16GB setup
mosselman 8y ago
I have the same issue on my MBP Late 2013, but on my MBP 2017 everything works smooth. Not as smooth as chrome, but nothing really noticeable. I always have 40+ tabs open.
jklinger410 8y ago
It feels like they just traded RAM usage for CPU usage.
thiagocmoraes 8y ago
I really want Firefox to succeed, but I got this behavior since Quantum was launched. I'm still hopeful to see it solved.
Blindedwino 8y ago
Same issue here with v60. I really, really want to move away from Chrome but I just can't, it's unusable on my MBP.
h1d 8y ago
What is the reason that you want to switch?
buu700 8y ago
Yep, regardless of whose "fault" it is — and I totally buy that it's macOS's fault, considering how much effort my startup Cyph has to spend on working around Safari/iOS bugs — at the end of the day Firefox is unusable for me if my battery won't last for any reasonable amount of time and I have to deal with a kernel panic every other day. Really hoping this gets sorted out soon, because on most other counts I prefer the current Firefox to Chrome. (The other thing keeping me on Chrome is pinch-to-zoom support.)
leandot 8y ago
Same here, still not usable on my mac
k_bx 8y ago
Also, opening Facebook is like a step-by-step strategy.

butz 8y ago

Have you reported this bug? It's all fine on the old OS X Mavericks.

spiderfarmer 8y ago
I reported it and they know what the problem is but it got marked as no-priority. Everytime there’s a new release I check if it’s solved and move back to Safari. Every release there are people complaining about it. I know I have been for 2 years now, but it falls on deaf ears.
- cat199 8y ago
  issue ref?
  - spiderfarmer 8y ago
    See above.
- sayhello 8y ago
  Might be hardware related. Did you provide your HW profile in the bug report?
  - spiderfarmer 8y ago
    Yes, twice.

Kpourdeilami 8y ago

It is borderline unusable on the most recent Macbook Pro and most recent version of OS X. Weird that it only seems to affect some people

stouset 8y ago
Strangely, none of my coworkers seem to have problems. But every release seems to get worse; first it was terrible performance, then fonts in pages and the UI became blurry. This happens even on newly-installed MBPs, so it’s doesn’t seem like it could be related to anything I’ve done. And yet… coworkers don’t have problems.
- dralley 8y ago
  Try a profile refresh
  - stouset 8y ago
    Tried. No success. I've also fully-uninstalled it with CleanMyMac, also to no success.
    - jhatax 8y ago
      have you changed the resolution of your display to be "scaled" in system preferences? does setting it to "default for display" make FF usable again?
      - stouset 8y ago
        I keep it at scaled to max resolution, but I reverted to default and it made no difference.
    - zaphirplane 8y ago
      Why do you think a piece of software running on your laptop would behave differently from millions running on the same hardware. Profile, addon, custom install location, weird env variables

diggan 8y ago

I'm unsure if this is actually Firefox fault. I'm running Linux (arch and Ubuntu), Windows and macOS, and Firefox is only slow on macOS, while my macOS machine is the second most powerful machine I have. Running Firefox in a Ubuntu VM on macOS is faster than running it natively on macOS.

lwansbrough 8y ago
Of course it's Firefox's fault. Chrome works fine.
CyberDildonics 8y ago
If other web browsers don't do it, how is it not firefox's fault?
Paul-ish 8y ago
Regardless who is technically at fault, the Firefox team is best placed to resolve the issue. It kind of surprises me that this is an issue at all. I was under the impression a large number of FF devs use Macbooks.
- spiderfarmer 8y ago
  Yeah, well they know what the problem is but it fails to get a high enough priority to get solved: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1407536 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1407536
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    I find this confusing: there is tons of discussion in the thread, and yet: > UNCONFIRMED > Votes: 0 votes
    - spiderfarmer 8y ago
      Yeah plus I find it strange that their telemetry isn’t picking this up.

mccr8 8y ago

That sounds kind of like a known issue with scaled resolution on OSX. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any progress has been made on it. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404042 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1404042

cimmanom 8y ago
Aha! That detail (that it's specific to scaled resolution) explains so much!
apazzolini 8y ago
I unfortunately notice this behavior even when my MBP (2013, Retina) is in clamshell mode hooked up to a 1440p monitor rendering at native resolution. :(
- derekdahmer 8y ago
  My hackintosh with a dedicated GPU has no problem at all because it has the rendering power to handle it. But my 2014 MBP Retina with integrated graphics gets destroyed and ends up spiking the CPU as well.
  - apazzolini 8y ago
    I have the top of the line model from 2013 with 16GB RAM and discrete graphics (forced to always be used in energy saver prefs). Firefox feels very fast and doesn't lag while being used, but the unnecessary CPU spikes kill my battery. We're talking about one page open at about:blank with no extensions and a completely fresh profile spiking to 20% CPU usage every 10 or so seconds.

lwansbrough 8y ago

I was gonna submit a performance profile as a bug report, but the https://perf-html.io https://perf-html.io profiler doesn't work in FF60

dblohm7 8y ago
Umm, it should be working. Can you provide more details, please?
bradknowles 8y ago
It worked fine for me, just a few seconds ago. What specific problems are you seeing?

adpirz 8y ago

At least good to hear I'm not the only one. I want to like it for all of its speed and sleekness, but it regularly runs hot and gets the fans going full blast. Odd that it's still an issue.

grumblestumble 8y ago

Chiming in here. I would absolutely love to switch to Firefox for a host of reasons, ranging from "I don't want to use Google products" to "I love the tabs". Unfortunately, it's completely unusable for my workflow on a 2015 Macbook Pro with 16G RAM. I keep a variety of tabs pinned (JIRA, Zeplin, Gitlab, Jenkins, Invision, etc) and it seems as if they continue to hog a disproportionate amount of resources even when in the background, which is not an issue on Chrome.

mercer 8y ago
I really want to switch to Firefox, so every once in a while I force myself to use it 'properly' for a week or two at least. Such a two week period has just ended, and while FF does feel snappier than before, I'm running into exactly the issues you describe. When using Firefox, my four-year old MacBook Air pretty regularly slows down to the point where my music starts stuttering and even force-closing FF takes a while. I've had bluetooth devices disconnect too. Now if it was just that, I could perhaps accept that maybe my laptop just can't handle my browsing behavior anymore. Unfortunately the same thing happens on my 16GB RAM Mac Mini. Not as often, but still. I don't have these problems with Chrome, even when I clearly have too many tabs open for my memory to handle. Occasionally my music will stutter when I open multiple gmail tabs in Safari (I use Safari for stuff like email and banking), but it's rare, and nothing like what happens with Firefox.
- xenophonf 8y ago
  I wonder what's causing that on your computer, because I'm running Firefox on a late-2011 MacBook Pro without any issues, and that's with a ton of tabs opened (including a bunch of pinned tabs running multiple instances of Office 365 in separate containers, Slack, and so forth) and the usual crowd of extensions (UBO et al). It's bouncing between 0 and 5% CPU utilization.
  - kleiba 8y ago
    I experience regular "gray outs" on Ubuntu with FF hogging so many resources that eventually the only thing that works is killing it. This happens to me both on a 5 year old desktop as well as on old Lenovo Thinkpad (X2002s). However, I believe flashplayer to be the culprit as I often have quite a few youtube tabs open -- obviously never more than one playing though.

NVRM 8y ago

The exact opposite from gnu

Rotdhizon 8y ago

Maybe related: Does anyone have the issue of a few number of FF tabs showing up as several in task manager? Say I have 2 or 3 tabs open, it'll show something like 7-10 in task manager. And yes, they are hogging a ton of RAM, upwards of half of a 16GB setup

mosselman 8y ago

I have the same issue on my MBP Late 2013, but on my MBP 2017 everything works smooth. Not as smooth as chrome, but nothing really noticeable. I always have 40+ tabs open.

jklinger410 8y ago

It feels like they just traded RAM usage for CPU usage.

thiagocmoraes 8y ago

I really want Firefox to succeed, but I got this behavior since Quantum was launched. I'm still hopeful to see it solved.

Blindedwino 8y ago

Same issue here with v60. I really, really want to move away from Chrome but I just can't, it's unusable on my MBP.

h1d 8y ago

What is the reason that you want to switch?

buu700 8y ago

Yep, regardless of whose "fault" it is — and I totally buy that it's macOS's fault, considering how much effort my startup Cyph has to spend on working around Safari/iOS bugs — at the end of the day Firefox is unusable for me if my battery won't last for any reasonable amount of time and I have to deal with a kernel panic every other day. Really hoping this gets sorted out soon, because on most other counts I prefer the current Firefox to Chrome. (The other thing keeping me on Chrome is pinch-to-zoom support.)

leandot 8y ago

Same here, still not usable on my mac

k_bx 8y ago

Also, opening Facebook is like a step-by-step strategy.