Firefox Enhances Performance: Vulkan Video Decoding Support for Nvidia GPUs
Firefox is set to incorporate hardware-accelerated Vulkan Video decoding for Nvidia GPUs, improving the experience for Linux users. This update will be available in Firefox 153, which launches on July 21, but initial usage will require manual configuration in about:config.
Historically, Firefox had disabled hardware video decoding for all Nvidia devices on Linux, leading users to utilize workarounds involving the nvidia-vaapi-driver package. The addition of Vulkan Video decoding aims to eliminate this necessity. Vulkan Video, a cross-vendor specification, is built on FFmpeg’s Vulkan decode support.
The development initially targeted Arm and embedded GPUs, addressing a bug related to hardware video decoding on Aarch64 Linux. Current limitations also affect Nvidia’s DGX Spark, an Arm-based Ubuntu desktop AI computer, which lacks hardware support for decoding as its GB10 chip does not support VA-API or V4L2.
To experiment with the new functionality, users can download the Firefox 153 beta or nightly builds and ensure they have the Nvidia driver version 595.x or later. They can then enable the features by adjusting the following preferences in about:config:
media.hardware-video-decoding-vulkan.enabledmedia.hardware-video-decoding-vulkan.direct-export.enabled
After enabling these settings, users should restart Firefox and attempt playing supported video formats like H264. They can confirm the functionality with tools like nvtop or using logging commands.
For users with dual GPUs, there are reports indicating that enabling Vulkan decoding might cause unnecessary activation of the discrete GPU, potentially leading to performance hiccups. Mozilla has yet to announce when this feature will become enabled by default in newer releases, emphasizing compatibility checks to ensure only suitable hardware utilizes the feature.