New Firefox 4 Beta Has Direct2D GPU Acceleration

By Marcus Yam
published

Put those graphics cores to good use!

If you were waiting for the version of Firefox that takes advantage of your new ATI or Nvidia GPU. If you've got Windows 7, you'll want to check out the latest Firefox 4 beta.

While the previous release supported Direct2D features in a secret setting, this latest beta release, available for download here, has it enabled by default.

This new Firefox 4 beta also introduces a new audio API to expose the raw audio data housed within the <video> and <audio> elements in HTML5 so that developers can read and write raw audio data within the browser.

Read more about the latest beta here.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
40 Comments Comment from the forums
  • apache_lives
    what next, physx?
    Reply
  • joytech22
    Soo.. where are the sites we can test this? the ones in the pictures above.
    Reply
  • unknown_13
    WOW this 5-th beta is great i downloaded and it's faster than chrome 6! Can't wait for the final release!:D
    Reply
  • nguyentruc85
    How about game online integrated within new version?
    Reply
  • Porn online, it will revise porn industry!
    Reply
  • doped
    if this new api does integrate seamlessly with the linux kernel or the nv and ati drivers, then we can finally let that horrible flash go to hell! that is, if they can get their act together and chose a viable open video and sound codec.
    Reply
  • Can we use this advance in description many problems
    of physic, math...and education
    Reply
  • Sweet, Crysis, coming to a browser near you!!!
    Reply
  • xyzionz
    The HTML5 audio really reminds me a lot about Winamp AVS, I wish is more or less the same coding with those, hehe so I can make some cool visual out of it
    Reply
  • Stifle
    Looks like this is the end of the desktop, Dang.
    Reply