Firefox uses way too much CPU with Javascript enabled...

I've been suffering from choppy video playback in firefox for years and I finally tracked down the cause of it. I sat down and reviewed all the info I had the problem manifested in firefox but not IE or Chrome. After a few hours of investigating I discovered that the reason for choppy video playback was because of CPU usage spikes.

I tried many steps to resolve the issue I disabled Javascript and the CPU usage immediately dropped by over 90%! I was excited I felt reborn! I tested it out by watching the rest of the video I was looking at on YouTube. But when I went to refresh the page YouTube stopped playing videos and I couldn't navigate from that page. So I turned on Javascript again and sure enough YouTube started working again.

So my question is is there anything I can replace Javascript with? So I don't have to use it? Because Javascript is clearly causing Firefox to suffer from choppy video playback.

 

A vast majority of websites are using JavaScript, and if you turn it off, they will not work 100% any more.

While this is not a big deal with most sites, if they cannot perform their main function any more (like Youtube), then that's a bit of a problem.

Maybe you need something that allows you to enable/disable JS on a selective basis, like NoScript? I have never used it, so I do not know exactly how it works.

 

I have NoScript installed and when I go to YouTube I have to allow the YT site in NoScript to play videos.

@outlawstar: did you try in Firefox: Options>Advanced: untick hardware acceleration when available? That's the only thing I can think of.

 

@Pwillener: I already have NoScript and I love it. I've been using it for several months and I'll never uninstall it. You can't imagine how much joy that plug in brought me.

@Oma: That actually seemed to make it worse when I tried it earlier.

@Major Attitude: I used CCleaner earlier that's what made me return to Firefox to track down the problem, I was also motivated by the fact Firefox had the same problem on my old PC.

I am doing a defrag now, I've been lazy it's almost done but nothing spectacular.

As for the specs I attached them in a .txt file generated by AIDA64 it's a full readout.

 

If it's only Firefox that's giving you the problem and you have the Flash plugin v. 11.3, right-click the Flash video player in FX and select Settings, uncheck Use hardware acceleration.

 

Tried it it had no effect. Do I need to restart Firefox for the change to take effect?

 

I just looked at your specs you posted earlier, and I am wondering: how high is that CPU usage actually from Firefox with JS enabled?

One problem you have: Firefox is a 32-bit browser, and it can only run in the bottom of your 16GB RAM. Not only run, also only use storage from that bottom area.

My suggestion: try Waterfox, the highly optimized 64-bit version of Firefox. I have the feeling that the performance will improve considerably if you use a 64-bit browser.

 

P.S. what is your display adapter, device driver version & date?

If you have the latest drivers installed, you should again check 'Enable hardware acceleration' in Flash Player settings. This way Flash Player will use the GPU instead of software rendering.

 

Did you see this article? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_CPU_usage

 

Ok the thing i found out about this kinda issue is.

I know a file that is linked with this issue i am able to disable it.

It is the plugin-container.exe it has all ways had issues with fire fox this has some thing to do with videos.

plugin-container.exe has been a issue with firefox since 4.0 version or later.And this is true.

To Disable plugin-container.exe

Ok here we go.

Open Firefox

Type about:config in address bar.

In the filter bar Type this below

dom.ipc

A list should pop up.

There should be a total of 8 in the list 6 boolean and 2 integer

You will have to add the missing Boolean manually

Right click any where in the white area.

Go to new in the little list then boolean

Enter each one of these Preference names separately.
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.nptest.dll

Make sure each one is False .


dom.ipc.plugins.
Should be in there all ready if it is make this false as well.

plugin-container.exe
Is most likely the issue a lot of times it is.It seems it will keep flash player videos in to memory till firefox closes.

 

Check this out:
http://www.technospot.net/blogs/control-reduce-firefox-memory-consumption-with-firemin/

I use it, works well. Note the tradeoff in RAM vs. CPU and make a setting you can live with. Also, having this load on startup is not a good idea, from my experience...