These two tweaks should improve Firefox's performance on YouTube significantly

As a user of the open source Firefox web browser, you may have noticed that some services and websites do not perform as good as on a Chromium-based browser. This is not always the fault of Mozilla or the Firefox web browser, as some sites may not test the performance or stability on Firefox, while others may introduce changes that knowingly reduce the performance.

Google-owned YouTube appears to fall in the latter category, which I have revealed time and time again here on this website.

If you do use Firefox and feel that the performance of YouTube is lacking, you may be interested in two upcoming changes that might change that for the better.

Good to known: While the changes are not yet finalized, good news is that you can make them in the latest stable version of the browser already.

The first change enables WebRender Layer Compositor. Put simply, this technology limits what needs updating on the screen when something moves or changes. The effect should be improved scrolling, less or no stuttering for animations or videos, better battery life, and improved performance on heavy sites that tax the device.

Here is how you enable the feature:

1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
2. Confirm that you will be careful and understand the risks.
3. Search for WebRender Layer Compositor.
4. Toggle the feature to True.
5. Restart Firefox.

This enables the technology in Firefox. You could head over to YouTube right after the restart to start testing the change.

However, if your PC uses an AMD graphics processor, you might want to make a second change that could have an impact. This one improves CPU usage on AMD systems.

1. Go back to about:config.
2. Search for media.wmf.zero-copy-nv12-textures-force-enabled.
3. Toggle the feature to True.
4. Restart Firefox.

Last but not least, if your device does not support the AV1 codec, you could consider disabling it in Firefox. This forces YouTube to fall back to using VP9 instead, which may improve performance. If you still run into performance issues after making the two tweaks mentioned above, try the following:

• Set media.av1.enabled to False on about:config.
• Restart the Firefox web browser.

Test the change on YouTube to see if you notice an improvement.

Now You: Do you open YouTube regularly in a web browser? Did you notice performance issues, especially in Firefox? Did the changes mentioned above improve your experience? Feel free to leave a comment down below. (via Reddit)

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