6 ms·

Firefox scroll lags like 500ms behind my input, on my mbp. How does anyone live like that?

by dustingetz 7y ago

simfoo 7y ago
By disabling smooth scrolling (available in settings). Feels much snappier to me
- fauigerzigerk 7y ago
  Exactly. This is what fixed this issue for me as well. What I haven't been able to fix is that new windows open rather slowly.
- dictum 7y ago
  I'm so used to scrolling by keypress (i.e. any of the vim-like extensions), with smooth scrolling disabled and a higher scroll step, that I just recently noticed that this reduces resource usage/heat.
- Filligree 7y ago
  But then you don't have smooth scrolling. Enabling apz kinetic scrolling is another approach. That cuts the lag by about 90%, getting it much closer to chrome.
swiley 7y ago
I usually scroll with the spacebar which doesn't appear to have any lag to me.
_Microft 7y ago
"I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard statements like the following. Firefox crashes ten times a day for me. I don’t understand how anyone can use it. There’s a simple answer: for most people it doesn’t crash ten times a day. But the person making the statement hasn’t realized that what links the first sentence to the second is an assumption — that other people’s experiences are the same.", quoted from https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2014/01/02/yeinu-your-experience-is-not-universal/ https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2014/01/02/yeinu-your-e...
- ahbyb 7y ago
  I feel exactly the same when I read people saying that Firefox is faster than Chrome. It's been exactly the opposite for me and for everybody else I know on all kinds of computers and mobile phones. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox69-chrome77-tests&num=2 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox6... https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox69-chrome77-tests&num=3 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox6... Personally, I'm working towards moving to Vivaldi...
- zrobotics 7y ago
  I have some sympathy for those complaints: I've been using Firefox since 2004, but for whatever reason I can't use it on my lab computer. It's a ThinkPad t430 running windows 10, and on that machine Firefox will slow the machine to an absolute crawl even with only 3 tabs open. I spent an hour trying to diagnose it to no avail (I can't just install Linux, I have some serial hardware that is windows-only) before just giving up and switching to chrome. However, this is the only time I've encountered this issue, and I tend to think it's more likely an issue with the windows installation than Firefox. I'm just too lazy to reinstall, this isn't my main computer after all.
  - yoasif_ 7y ago
    > It's a ThinkPad t430 running windows 10, and on that machine Firefox will slow the machine to an absolute crawl even with only 3 tabs open. You can try taking a profile and reporting it -- developers may have some ideas: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/Performance/Reporting_a_Performance_Problem https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/Performance/Repor...
SimeVidas 7y ago
My setup: 1. Firefox Nightly 2. WebRender enabled 3. Tracking Protection set to Strict + DuckDuckGo extension
sharms 7y ago
Not sure if its representative, but I am extremely picky about framerates and jitter. On Ubuntu 19.10 Beta with Firefox 69.0.3 it feels noticeably faster than my Macbook.
adrianN 7y ago
Something must be weird with your machine. My mbp is from 2009 and Firefox scrolls smoothly.
- catalogia 7y ago
  It's smooth as butter on my early 2015 macbook air too. I suspect the issue is related to "retina" screens, which I don't have. (a 2009 mbp doesn't either iirc, right?)
  - genghizkhan 7y ago
    Smooth on my mbp early 2015 as well. It's not related to Retina.
    - pault 7y ago
      I believe some people have narrowed it down to retina screens set to a non integer scaling.

Firefox scroll lags like 500ms behind my input, on my mbp. How does anyone live like that?

simfoo 7y ago

By disabling smooth scrolling (available in settings). Feels much snappier to me

fauigerzigerk 7y ago
Exactly. This is what fixed this issue for me as well. What I haven't been able to fix is that new windows open rather slowly.
dictum 7y ago
I'm so used to scrolling by keypress (i.e. any of the vim-like extensions), with smooth scrolling disabled and a higher scroll step, that I just recently noticed that this reduces resource usage/heat.
Filligree 7y ago
But then you don't have smooth scrolling. Enabling apz kinetic scrolling is another approach. That cuts the lag by about 90%, getting it much closer to chrome.

swiley 7y ago

I usually scroll with the spacebar which doesn't appear to have any lag to me.

_Microft 7y ago

"I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard statements like the following. Firefox crashes ten times a day for me. I don’t understand how anyone can use it. There’s a simple answer: for most people it doesn’t crash ten times a day. But the person making the statement hasn’t realized that what links the first sentence to the second is an assumption — that other people’s experiences are the same.", quoted from https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2014/01/02/yeinu-your-experience-is-not-universal/ https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2014/01/02/yeinu-your-e...

ahbyb 7y ago
I feel exactly the same when I read people saying that Firefox is faster than Chrome. It's been exactly the opposite for me and for everybody else I know on all kinds of computers and mobile phones. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox69-chrome77-tests&num=2 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox6... https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox69-chrome77-tests&num=3 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=firefox6... Personally, I'm working towards moving to Vivaldi...
zrobotics 7y ago
I have some sympathy for those complaints: I've been using Firefox since 2004, but for whatever reason I can't use it on my lab computer. It's a ThinkPad t430 running windows 10, and on that machine Firefox will slow the machine to an absolute crawl even with only 3 tabs open. I spent an hour trying to diagnose it to no avail (I can't just install Linux, I have some serial hardware that is windows-only) before just giving up and switching to chrome. However, this is the only time I've encountered this issue, and I tend to think it's more likely an issue with the windows installation than Firefox. I'm just too lazy to reinstall, this isn't my main computer after all.
- yoasif_ 7y ago
  > It's a ThinkPad t430 running windows 10, and on that machine Firefox will slow the machine to an absolute crawl even with only 3 tabs open. You can try taking a profile and reporting it -- developers may have some ideas: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/Performance/Reporting_a_Performance_Problem https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Mozilla/Performance/Repor...

SimeVidas 7y ago

My setup: 1. Firefox Nightly 2. WebRender enabled 3. Tracking Protection set to Strict + DuckDuckGo extension

sharms 7y ago

Not sure if its representative, but I am extremely picky about framerates and jitter. On Ubuntu 19.10 Beta with Firefox 69.0.3 it feels noticeably faster than my Macbook.

adrianN 7y ago

Something must be weird with your machine. My mbp is from 2009 and Firefox scrolls smoothly.

catalogia 7y ago
It's smooth as butter on my early 2015 macbook air too. I suspect the issue is related to "retina" screens, which I don't have. (a 2009 mbp doesn't either iirc, right?)
- genghizkhan 7y ago
  Smooth on my mbp early 2015 as well. It's not related to Retina.
  - pault 7y ago
    I believe some people have narrowed it down to retina screens set to a non integer scaling.