I recently got myself a new laptop and did a fresh Fedora Workstation 44 install. I noticed that Youtube is continuously dropping frames during video playback. It drops a noticeable number of frames (~5.5-10% originally, e.g. 145/2632 dropped per stats-for-nerds), and it happens with both VP9 and AV1 streams, not just at 4K but at 1080p too.
Device specs: Lenovo Thinkpad T14 gen 6 with Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 226V × 8 and Intel Arc 130v internal graphics.
I tried installing full ffmpeg, the additional codecs and the hardware accelerated codecs (intel-media-driver) from rpmfusion, but sadly the issue persists.
vainfo confirms the iHD driver is loaded and lists both VP9 and AV1 as supported hardware decode profiles, and about:support also shows VA-API/hardware decoding as enabled and active for both codecs. I also checked GPU activity while playing a video and could see the video decode engine actually being used, so it doesn’t seem to be silently falling back to software decoding.
I also tried plugging in the charger and setting the laptop to the highest power profile (performance mode), but that also changed nothing. Compositing is also showing ‘WebRender’.
I’m at a loss as to what to do now, so I hope someone with more knowledge can help.
Do you see anything in the journal while this is occuring?
Should be able to do something like journalctl --since=-2min shortly after observing the problem.
I don’t see anything of any significance in the logs. I got following logs:
mohamed@fedora:~$ journalctl --since=-2min
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora com.discordapp.Discord.desktop[82231]: 2026/09/20 21:30:35 socat[3] W exiting on signal 15
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora systemd[2575]: app-flatpak-com.discordapp.Discord-419673032.scope: Consumed 3min 53.755s CPU time over 50min 17.875s wall clock time, 1.4G memory peak.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor unnamed [Gjs_dash-to-dock_micxgx_gmail_com_docking_DashSlideContainer] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor dashtodockBox [StBoxLayout] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-backgroundgroup [MetaBackgroundGroup] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:30:35 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Can't update stage views actor bms-dash-blurred-widget [StWidget] is on because it needs an allocation.
sep 20 21:31:51 fedora org.mozilla.firefox.desktop[81024]: (as)
sep 20 21:31:51 fedora gnome-shell[2802]: Received error from D-Bus search provider org.gnome.Boxes.desktop: Gio.IOErrorEnum: Cannot invoke method; proxy is for the well-known name org.gnome.Boxes.SearchProvider>
sep 20 21:31:51 fedora systemd[2575]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Calculator.SearchProvider@29.service.
sep 20 21:31:51 fedora systemd[2575]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Characters@29.service.
sep 20 21:31:51 fedora systemd[2575]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Contacts.SearchProvider@29.service.
sep 20 21:31:51 fedora systemd[2575]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Nautilus@30.service.
sep 20 21:31:51 fedora systemd[2575]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.Settings.SearchProvider@24.service.
sep 20 21:31:51 fedora systemd[2575]: Started dbus-:1.2-org.gnome.clocks@29.service.
did you set any o the options related to hardware acceleration on firefox
by opening about:config?
type about:config in the address bar.
in the search bar type gfx.webrender.all and set it to true.
in the search bar type media.ffmpeg.vaapi.enabled and set it to true.
I set these options to true, but as I understand it `media.ffmpeg.vaapi.enabled` is already true by default. Anyway, changing these options didn’t change anything.
The frame dropping still happens. It seems to be worse when Firefox is not in focus and the video is still playing.
You’ve already tried pretty much everything reasonable. Hardware video decode is working… just not working well.
One experiment I would try is enabling vulkan video decode in Firefox - it’s meant for NVIDIA GPUs which don’t support the old API, but maybe it will work on Intel and possibly give you a better result…
Another experiment may be to test hardware video decode using another app, like mpv, just to see if it’s a GPU issue or a Firefox issue. My guess is it’s Firefox…
Otherwise, you have these options:
File a bug with Mozilla (maybe there already is a bug for this)
Disable hardware video decode (your CPU can handle it easily, but will use more battery)
Switch to a higher-performance browser, like Chrome
