YouTube + Flash Plugin + Firefox = CPU Cook

[Bloodwych]

I've managed to get the CPU usage back to a reasonable level, so I apologise for wasting time on this without properly testing.

I re-installed flash and restarted the computer - it's gone back to 14-30%, spiking up to 40%, on media content and video playback. Strange, since I did re-install flash before I posted this thread (but didn't feel the need to restart the computer, only the browser).

Some update must have caused the issue.

I agree with you Harrision about flash's cross platform nature and lack of dedicated and optimized hardware acceleration, I did mention it a few times above.

I still find it strange however how it uses the same CPU power to play a compressed flv file as it does to move around and scale a few images (about 3000MIPS!!! on peak average). It could really do with being optimized better since it's now a standard internet format.

Many emulators take less resources than flash!

[Harrison]

Very true. But Flash is quite a complex beast these days. The size of it's final FLV or SWF files is always down to the person creating the original file, or the code used (in the case of YouTube) to do the job for you. Only first hand optimisation can get a file to it's optimum size, compression ratio and quality. This is true of any video format. Optimise or encode any video format badly and the CPU hit will grind a computer to a halt.

The huge advantage with the format as far as streaming formats like YouTube are concerned is that it can do that conversion and encoding on the fly without human intervention. This is a huge step forward from using most other video codec technology where they have to be rendered before uploading.

[Bloodwych]

Flash is getting very close to being uninstalled because as complex as it likes to think it is, there is no excuse for this behavior that is reproducible on three different systems, one with a fresh install.

I thought the problem was fixed, but it's simply random. Sometimes flash will use less CPU time, others it will decide to double it's CPU usage. It looks like it has a stupidly high priority set but this really is an annoying issue, even more so for Laptops.

No programs should require 90% of my CPU, or some 9000 MIPS, for moving round an animated banner. The graph spikes start once I hit the YouTube homepage and move the cursor over the animated banner. Without the cursor movement, it spikes up to 60% when refreshing the images, 0% when stationary. Playback of one video can decide to use 60-80%, making the system sluggish and unresponsive:

[Bloodwych]

As well as the high CPU usage on animated banners, here is the usage when playing one video, then showing the flash video list at the end.

Playing a video uses between 60-70%
Showing a stationary flash list 30-40%

Definitely some issue going on here. Hardware acceleration is fine in other software (although I doubt flash uses it), so it's not the video drivers.

All I can do is wait for a flash/browser update.

[Demon Cleaner]

I just tested, I have the same version of flash and firefox, but I don't get such high cpu usage.

[Bloodwych]

What kind of numbers are you getting and what's your CPU?

This might be a conflict specific to certain hardware setups and drivers I suppose. But as I said above, googling shows many others have this high CPU issue with flash content.

The above graphs are from a 2Ghz Barton CPU, 1GB 400Mhz DDR. Not exactly cutting edge, but this issue has just popped up recently with Flash 9.

My parents have a similar speed laptop, Pentium M 1.6Ghz, that has the same issue. That of course results in poor battery performance and a loud cooling fan when surfing flash rich sites, such as YouTube.

[Demon Cleaner]

This is on my PC at work, which is a Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz and 2Gb of RAM running XP SP2.