YouTube videos lagging in Vivaldi and other browsers [SOLVED]

[aldQueiroz]

Hi, it's been a long a time…
Recently, whenever I try to watch YouTube videos, they are always lagging and buffering, no matter the video quality I choose. The same annoyance happens with Opera, MS Edge, and even Chromium browsers!
So far, the only browser I succeeded to solve the 'stuttering' issue of video reproduction was Firefox, where I installed an add-on to "force" YouTube to use H264 video format instead of VP8 / VP9 formats and (mainly!) changed some configuration parameters, as per the following instructions (as seen in https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/commen ... _auto=true:

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For clarification, do you mean that the videos are glitching? or that they don't buffer fast enough?

I would try to create a new profile and see if it works smoothly there (enter about:profiles in the address bar > click on Create a New Profile)

if it doesn't work in a new profile I would try changing these settings-

    Enter about:config in the address bar (accept the warning if needed)

    Set network.buffer.cache.size to 262144 (256KB). You can also try 524288 (512KB) to see if it helps even more

    Set network.buffer.cache.count to 128.

    You can restart Firefox to make sure that the changes are applied, though they should get applied immediately.

    Sources for reference: source 1 / source 2

    Additionally, make sure that all the media.mediasource settings are on their default (to reset a setting click on the arrow button to the right)

    You can also try to enable/disable Hardware Acceleration and see if that helps (to disable it set layers.acceleration.disabled to true)

If that doesn't help, you can try changing the following settings. The values are what I use based on past recommendations and trial and error but you can try different values and see what works best for you.

    network.http.max-connections = 1800. Default=900

    network.http.max-connections-per-server = 32. This setting might not be used anymore - there's no result for it in https://searchfox.com (the last default might have been 15 as per https://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.max-connections-per-server)

    network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server = 12. Default=6

    network.http.max-urgent-start-excessive-connections-per-host = 10. Default=3. "Number of connections that we can open beyond the standard parallelism limit defined by max-persistent-connections-per-server/-proxy to handle urgent-start marked requests"

    network.http.pacing.requests.burst = 32. Default=10. Controls how many HTTP requests are sent at once

    network.http.pacing.requests.min-parallelism = 10. Default=6. "Min-Parallelism is the amount of active connections that have to be in use in order for the rate limiter to be used" (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=819734#c1)

    network.websocket.max-connections = 400. Default=200. "Most communication between web browsers and web sites uses HTTP. With HTTP, the client sends a request and the server returns a response. Typically, the response occurs immediately, and the transaction is complete. Even if the network connection stays open, this will be used for a separate transaction of a request and a response. Some modern web sites use WebSockets. WebSocket connections are initiated over HTTP and are typically long-lived. Messages can be sent in either direction at any time and are not transactional in nature. The connection will normally stay open and idle until either the client or the server is ready to send a message." (https://portswigger.net/web-security/websockets/what-are-websockets)

I made network.buffer.cache.size set to 262144 bytes (256 KB) and network.buffer.cache.count to 128, and then the lag in stuttering on YouTube seemed to be solved.

I wish I could do the same in Vivaldi, but, unfortunately, that browser doesn't have such configuration options as Firefox…

The trouble seems to be related to my graphic card AMD Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series], for which there are some issues, as I read; browsers cannot recognize it correctly (therefore, the 'hardware acceleration' feature is useless…)
My whole system:

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System:    Kernel: 6.4.12-1-liquorix-amd64 [6.4-16~mx21+1] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: audit=0 intel_pstate=disable hpet=disable rcupdate.rcu_expedited=1 
           BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.4.12-1-liquorix-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.3_x64 Wildflower September 18  2022 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M5A78L-M/USB3 v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> 
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: 2101 date: 12/02/2014 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: AMD FX-4300 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Bulldozer family: 15 (21) 
           model-id: 2 stepping: 0 microcode: 6000852 cache: L2: 2 MiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 30536 
           Speed: 3917 MHz min/max: 1400/3800 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3918 
           2: 3917 3: 3918 4: 3918 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected 
           Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected 
           Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB 
           filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] 
           vendor: Hightech Information System driver: radeon v: kernel alternate: amdgpu 
           bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:68f9 class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: Logitech OrbiCam type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 8-2:3 
           chip-ID: 046d:0892 class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter> 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver: 
           loaded: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
           s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
           Monitor-1: HDMI-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 94 size: 521x293mm (20.5x11.5") 
           diag: 598mm (23.5") 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD CEDAR (DRM 2.50.0 / 6.4.12-1-liquorix-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1) 
           v: 3.3 Mesa 20.3.5 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: ASUSTeK M4A785TD driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1002:4383 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: AMD Cedar HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5400/6300/7300 Series] 
           vendor: Hightech Information System driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1 
           chip-ID: 1002:aa68 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-3: Logitech OrbiCam type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 8-2:3 
           chip-ID: 046d:0892 class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter> 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.4.12-1-liquorix-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
           vendor: ASUSTeK P8 series driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e800 bus-ID: 03:00.0 
           chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.02 TiB used: 251.79 GiB (24.1%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Kingston model: SA400S37120G size: 111.79 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> 
           rev: B1E2 scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-00RKKA0 
           size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: N/A 
           serial: <filter> rev: 0A80 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 55.89 GiB size: 54.71 GiB (97.89%) used: 32.36 GiB (59.1%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
           ID-2: /home raw-size: 435.66 GiB size: 427.75 GiB (98.19%) used: 219.43 GiB (51.3%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb3 maj-min: 8:19 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 15.62 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sdb5 maj-min: 8:21 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 68.0 C mobo: 41.0 C gpu: radeon temp: 61.5 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2102 case-1: 0 
           Power: 12v: 12.18 5v: N/A 3.3v: 3.25 vbat: N/A 
Repos:     Packages: 2987 note: see --pkg apt: 2946 lib: 1394 flatpak: 41 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-edge.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirror.ufam.edu.br/mx/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list 
           1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free #Opera Browser (final releases)
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/softmaker.list 
           1: deb http://shop.softmaker.com/repo/apt stable non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teams.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:      Processes: 386 Uptime: 1d 4h 52m wakeups: 15 Memory: 23.46 GiB used: 10.65 GiB (45.4%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

I hope I can ge some help on how to solve that trouble why reproducing videos at all browsers.
Thanks in advance!

[CharlesV]

I assume since you know that hardware acceleration is bad on that gpu, you have it all turned off ?

And your CPU temp is too high. The max temp for that processor is listed at 61c, ( your QSI shows 68 ) . And the normal at load temp is between 45 to 55 c .. so it might be time to repaste the cpu, clean your fans etc .

On one of my FX machines, I have a bad time with the GPU fans, and this caused all kinds of video issues, you might check your video card fans and verify all is good there too.

[aldQueiroz]

I tried to turn off hardware acceleration on both Firefox and Vivaldi, to no results. Videos kept stuttering. But, as said, in Firefox those network cache configurations tweaks seemed to solve the problem.
Yes, CPU temperatures are higher than normal because I'm running with a little overclock (2%+ to each core). So far, I didn't notice any trouble, although the risks… Anyway, I'll notice your advice, and will reserve a time to make a preventive maintenance (despite the 'pain in the a…s', which is to take the CPU Cooler off and on its place!)
My GPU is a very simple one (actually, I bought that only to have an HDMI port, not built-in at the former motherboard…), and it doesn't have fans, only heat dissipaters. I think about to replace it for a better graphic card, but I don't have resources to that by now…

Nevertheless, I thank you for your interest, and look forward to having further advices about how to improve the performance of my current system!
Regards!

[aldQueiroz]

Just an update on the issue: I realized that my motherboard ASUSTeK model: M5A78L-M/USB3 has built-in HDMI port and its onboard GPU AMD RS780L [Radeon 3000]; then, I decided to give a try to that, and took off the 'legacy' offboard graphics card (AMD Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series]) I was using, which was meant only to provide a HDMI port to the prior motherboard, but it is, indeed, a very simple graphic card with only 2 GB GDDR3… Surprisingly, the stuttering issues in YouTube videos played in Vivaldi and other browsers (except Firefox*) seem to be solved!

* As already commented, I had already resolved the issue with Firefox by tweaking Firefox's own configurations, changing its network.buffer.cache.size set to 262144 bytes (256 KB) and network.buffer.cache.count to 128, but I couldn't find a way to do the same with Vivaldi…

I think it's noteworthy to inform, and mark this Topic as SOLVED, so others can have it as reference in case they face similar troubles.

Regards to all!