Mozilla Agrees, Update Your Graphics Drivers
A few days ago, Chrome told users and developers that upgrading their graphics driver is a good idea to avoid Chrome crashes and making sure that the performance potential of the software is fully exploited. Mozilla follows suit.
As more GPU-acceleration features are made available and content that supports this feature it is increasingly beneficial even to average users to add graphics driver updates to their monthly maintenance routine.
Mozilla now also says that graphics driver updates are important to avoid browser crashes. "Firefox 4 brings many new features in the Graphics department, notably hardware acceleration and WebGL," Mozilla's Benoit Jacob wrote in a blog post. "However, when we turned these features on by default in nightly builds around September last year, and then in Beta 7, crash statistics and bug reports quickly showed that bugs in graphics drivers were often making these features misbehave."
I tend to be a bit pessimistic about graphics driver updates outside the professional and enthusiast segment of computing. There is a certain lack of education, especially in the mainstream market, that graphics drivers need to be updated on a regular basis. The mainstream user will need to receive a much better option for updated driver updates than what is available today. I wonder if browser manufacturers will, in fact, find a way to help users upgrade their graphics drivers as GPU acceleration seems to become an essential feature for web browsers.
my laptop is Asus G73JH with ATI Radeon Mobility 5870...
Most people don't go into their browser options to make changes and I would recon most of them don't update their graphics drivers either. People like me who actually do that can find the gpu acceleration option and turn it on when I'm configuring my browsers options.
There's nothing wrong with that is there? Now you don't have to ask people to update their drivers if they don't want to or don't know how to. They can simply use their browser without the fancy gpu acceleration.
I don't trust Windows Update for drivers. So much so, that the only case I'll use a driver from it is when I can't find a manufacturer's driver anywhere. Too many times, Windows Update has broken something while trying to update drivers. Using Windows Update for drivers is kind of like using the discs that come with video cards... Most of the time, they aren't an issue, but there's a good chance that something is wrong with it, and it's far better to just get the official manufacturer's driver.
Same here.
No problem keeping my GPU drivers up to date. But flash? That's another story...
I can't use a flash version newer than 10.0 without random lockups and BSoDs.
GPU is a 9600M GT. Likely a faulty, and needs to be RMA'd.
60+ with Radeon 5770 (Catalyst 11.2) and Firefox 4.0b12
27fps on a Mobility 5470. That gap is too small, yours should be much higher i think. I'm on Chrome on Linux.
17 fps on a i5 2500K and NVIDIA 8400GS with Win Vista and Firefox 3.6.
Firefox 4 beta 12 - 60+
HP Envy 15 - Mobile Radeon 5830. (1366x768)
get rid of flash
No, it gives you the newest WHQL certified driver, which might actually be pretty old.
60+ FPS in IE9 and FF 4 Beta 12 on a Q6600 and HD5870 OCed. Latest Catalyst drivers, 11.2.
But like Camikazi said, it is the last 'windows approved' version, which is usually 2-3 versions behind what is considered 'current'.
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-update-vistawindows-7-drivers-instantly/
60+ fps here on a 4550. Think a more stressful benchmark is needed since a 4550 can max that one.
I got 21 FPS on Chrome, 10 FPS on Firefox, and surprisingly, 60+ FPS on the new IE9.