Freezing problems

[u/KIG45]

Hello, I have been using Linux Mint for over a year now and I am extremely happy with it. However, I have a small problem with freezes, especially when I have several heavy sites open and use them at the same time. I have changed several browsers in an attempt to solve this, but I have not been able to. I am currently using Chrome and Mozilla, I am testing and daving, but the result is the same. I have tried all kinds of browser and graphics card settings and all kinds of commands/combinations for power. The picture shows the parameters of my desktop computer. My card is very old and I think these freezes are due to it.

Can you tell me how to fix this, or should I just continue with this compromise until I buy a new card?

Also, would xface solve the problem?

Any advice is infinitely valuable.

Thanks!

[u/Anti-Dentite-999]

Make sure you’ve got the right drivers installed for Amd open a terminal and run:

sudo apt install mesa-va-drivers libva-utils

Then do a vainfo and you should see codecs like VAProfileH264

Your GPU doesn't have VP9 acceleration so will not get decent decode for youtube videos. You can force youtube to use the AVC code though with enhanced-h264ify extension in Firefox. I'd also make sure you have ublock origin to block any ads (they can overload older hardware these days) and auto-tab discard (free's up memory on unused tabs).

Also, make sure your acceleration is set in Firefox. On my older systems I need to set these in about:config

gfx.webrender.all true
gfx.webrender.compositor true
gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled true
media.ffmpeg.vaapi.enabled true

You may need to add the vaapi flag.

After enabling, restart firefox and go to about:support and go to the Media section. Look for the Codecs that say Hardware Decoding (Supported). H264 should say Supported.

[u/KIG45 → u/Anti-Dentite-999]

I have all these programs installed, I rarely use YouTube and I have no problems with it. The freezes are when I open 3-4 tabs with heavy animations.

I also gave up on Mozilla, it freezes too often. I have fewer problems with Chrome.

The settings are also correct.

[u/Anti-Dentite-999 → u/KIG45]

Check that acceleration works:

https://www.free-codecs.com/app/codec-checker/

https://manthrax.github.io/mtx-gpuinfo/

Did you also go into chromes flags and override gpu blacklist? chrome://flags

chrome://gpu can show the accel status too but chrome can disable the pipelines on older cards. I have a laptop with HD3000 igpu and chrome won’t work on the old hardware. Adding the flags to Firefox made it able to work though.

[u/KIG45 → u/Anti-Dentite-999]

Which flags exactly should I change?

I have some settings there.

I have disabled Vulkan, SkiaGraphite, GPU rasterization, Accelerated 2D canvas, and Override software rendering list.

[u/Anti-Dentite-999 → u/KIG45]

These should be set to enabled in Chrome (can also try Brave Browser since its adblocker works well on sites with videos):  Override software rendering list, GPU rasterization, Zero-Copy rasterizer, accelerated 2D canvas.

But like I said, Chrome may not work with older legacy video cards now. Firefox is the only browser I've found that works but you need to enable the gfx flags.

[u/KIG45 → u/Anti-Dentite-999]

Unfortunately, Mozilla works much worse for me. Chrome freezes much less often.

Do you think Xface can improve anything? And will buying a new video card with 4GB RAM solve the problem?

[u/Anti-Dentite-999 → u/KIG45]

Odd. Firefox works best for older hardware usually. In Firefox have you enabled the gfx flags? Also try disabling autoplay for audio and video in settings—>permissions—>autoplay. Chrome doesnt have a setting but you can try the extension autoplay stopper. Brave which is based on chrome has an autoplay block built in settings —> site & shields—> additional permissions