Firefox 4 GPU Acceleration - Does it work on AMD 3xxx/4xxx cards?

Apr 20, 2008
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I ask this as my 6870 shows huge performance gains from it, and my older brother uses my old cards to game with, such as 3850CF, a 4830 and a 3450.

Does GPU acceleration work on 3xxx/4xxx cards?
 

GaiaHunter

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2008
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Go to the Help Menu and troubleshooting.

In the bottom you will find a Graphics table.

Firefox-4-using-hardware-acceleration-hardware-acceleration-is-enabled_thumb.png


If it says "GPU accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10" it is working. If it says "GPU accelerated Windows: 0/1 Direct3D 10" it isn't.

Here is the image of a 4850.



So It seems that the 4xxx series are supported.
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
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yeah it just uses the UVD portion so i think any card 2000 series and up should have it.

i have the radeon 4200 IGP on my system and it says enabled there.
 

Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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On a separate note, I've found that Firefox 4 is bugged with AMD 5000-series cards - don't know if it's a FF4 or AMD Catalyst problem, but the system will at a certain point just get stuck at 3D clocks/voltages until I restart. I've switched to IE9 on that system - still using FF4 on my nVidia system.
 

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
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I haven't seen this on the 6000 series i'm going to my boys place later will check on his 5870.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Interesting. I'm running Win7 32-bit HP SP1, with a Radeon 2600 Pro AGP, and it says that Direct2D and DirectWrite are not enabled, thus Windows Acceleration is 0/1.

Here, all this time, I thought that it was accelerated. It certainly doesn't seem slow to me. Running on a P4 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM.
 

cusideabelincoln

Diamond Member
Aug 3, 2008
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Appears to be on and working with my 3850. I do notice the window blink all black when it's loading something - happens randomly. My clocks are at their idle state. I use Afterburner to keep my memory clocks down so perhaps that is what is causing the black screen.
 

GaiaHunter

Diamond Member
Jul 13, 2008
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One thing I've noticed though is that Fraps is able to display a number on firefox in my 6850+win7 64, but not on the 4850+win7 32.
 

timma

Member
Oct 21, 2010
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4870@11.2 with FireFox 4 and Google Chrome GPU acceleration works good @ xp pro 32bit SP3~
 

LiuKangBakinPie

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
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Appears to be on and working with my 3850. I do notice the window blink all black when it's loading something - happens randomly. My clocks are at their idle state. I use Afterburner to keep my memory clocks down so perhaps that is what is causing the black screen.

disable windows aero. Its got a bug
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
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If it says "GPU accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10" it is working. If it says "GPU accelerated Windows: 0/1 Direct3D 10" it isn't.

mine says 6/6... Are you using 4.0 final? Could it be because I am using an nvidia adapter (GTX260)?
 

DeathReborn

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 2005
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It works on a HD3850 & HD4670 here but it makes the text look like garbage (tried 10.10e, 11.2 & 11.4 drivers) so i've turned it off. Looks just fine on the GTX570 though.

Will try it on a HD2900 Pro later to see if it does work on HD2k.
 

Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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Using final. I've not used FF4 betas.

Guess we need to find more people with NVIDIA cards to chime in.

1/1 on GTX460.

By the way, I've figured out a bit more about the AMD/FF4 bug. Exploring identical sites on IE9 and FF4, simply clicking on links and scrolling would shoot clocks/voltages to 3D on FF4, whereas it would only hit "blu-ray" clocks/voltages on IE9. Also, as I've noted before, after browing for a while in FF4, the clocks will just get stuck at 3D levels and will require a reboot to get them down again.

Edit: On my Nvidia system, the card's clocks react differently than on the Radeon system. It seems that the card is less likely to hit full 3D clocks while browing in either browser, but when it does, it stays there much longer, on the order of 10 seconds, while the Radeon cycles back down more quickly. Also, as for IE9 vs. FF4 on Nvidia, it appears that FF4 does trigger more ramping up of clocks, but not to the same degree as on the Radeon, and it's certainly never become stuck at 3D clocks on my Nvidia system.
 
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Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
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Interesting.. my home PC has an 8800GT and it says 1/1.

This is funny, I figured it out. The "GPU Accelerated Windows 1/1" or 2/2 or 3/3 whatever means exactly what it says, in the literal sense.

I restarted Firefox and it says 1/1. I open another window and it's 2/2. I'm sure if you open 10 windows you will see it say 10/10. So it's nothing to be concerned or worried about.
 

Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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This is funny, I figured it out. The "GPU Accelerated Windows 1/1" or 2/2 or 3/3 whatever means exactly what it says, in the literal sense.

I restarted Firefox and it says 1/1. I open another window and it's 2/2. I'm sure if you open 10 windows you will see it say 10/10. So it's nothing to be concerned or worried about.

Funny. I notice that it only does that with new windows, not new tabs. Kind of makes sense - with multiple windows, it's accelerating both at the same time. With tabs, by definition, you can't be looking at two at the same time, so it doesn't accelerate both simultaneously.
 

formulav8

Diamond Member
Sep 18, 2000
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A good way to know if there is rendering help from the gpu is to install Afterburner, and in the settings select to show GPU Usage in the system tray as a icon.

Then play your videos, scroll through a webpage with lots of images or whatever and see if the gpu usage increases. Anything at/above 2-3% should mean the gpu is helping rendering.
 
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