[Tracking Requested - why for this release]: Access and Performance regression

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1625857 +++

Patch from bug #1625857 should be only applied for Windows 10 or only when WebRender is used. Now, under Windows 7, Mozilla Firefox is using "Basic" rendering instead of "Direct3D 11 (Advanced Layers)", because of this, I have lost sharp subpixel antialiasing, and nearly all of text fonts are rendered with blurry and fuzzy grayscale antialiasing, not to mention awful performance of scrolling.

I'm not seeing a significant overall difference between the two image attachments when not zoomed in.

When I zoom in on the two image attachments I see a change in kerning but not an overall change in how blurry each character is.

In some cases the "bug" version is clearer. For example, look the the initial "1" in the bug ID column. The "no bug" version has blurry sides, but the "bug" version has a clear break on the sides of the digit.

Looking at individual words, in some cases the kerning of the new version looks better and in some cases the old version looks better

I'm very sensitive to text font rendering and I'm seeing difference. Difference is that, in no bugged version of image, text font rendering is sharp, because of subpixel antialiasing rendering usage, but in bugged version of image, text font rendering is blurry and fuzzy, because of grayscale antialiasing text font rendering.

This driver version breaks "Direct3D 11 (Advanced Layers)" on Win10 as well (bug 1626730). Total breakage appears after some minutes.
It's unclear whether Win7 is affected in the same manner, but should that risk really be taken?

There is also visible awful performance when playing videos, especially HD and 60 FPS ones, nearly all frames are dropped, making watching most videos unwatchable.

(In reply to Jan Andre Ikenmeyer [:darkspirit] from comment #7)

This driver version breaks "Direct3D 11 (Advanced Layers)" on Win10 as well (bug 1626730). Total breakage appears after some minutes.
It's unclear whether Win7 is affected in the same manner, but should that risk really be taken?

Thank you very much for additional information!
I'm using Windows 7 operating system with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti GPU, and I'm fortunately not affected by these issues, so either it's operating system or GPU specific issue. I will try to find some more information, as I'm seeing that most (if not all) of affected users are using NVIDIA GPUs with Pascal and newer microarchitecture.

Has anyone contacted Nvidia that their GeForce Game Ready Driver Version: 445.75 (26.21.14.4575, 3-17-2020) are causing massive issues on Firefox Nightly? If they don't know about it they won't fix it.

I contacted Nvidia support and they told me to install the latest Hotfix driver located here:
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5009/track/AvMiwwriDv8S~eRBGvoe~yJl1Msq3y75Mv8S~zj~PP~b

So far I haven't had any problems with this hotfix version. This is not to say that there still are problems. I just haven't encountered any yet.

(In reply to Gary [:streetwolf] from comment #10)

I contacted Nvidia support and they told me to install the latest Hotfix driver located here:
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5009/track/AvMiwwriDv8S~eRBGvoe~yJl1Msq3y75Mv8S~zj~PP~b

So far I haven't had any problems with this hotfix version. This is not to say that there still are problems. I just haven't encountered any yet.

Are you sure that 445.78 hotfix version of NVIDIA GPU drivers are unaffected by these issues? I was told and read that they're unfortunately still affected. That's why I created bug #1627428 about adding this version too to Mozilla Firefox driver blocklisk.

As I said so far no problems. But then again I really didn't have problems with the prior release until Mozilla blocked them. That's when I had scrolling and visual glitches. Of interest is that I did have some issues with a few other apps with the prior drivers that I no longer seems to have. So fingers crossed that this hotfix is the fix we are looking for. Time will tell.

Perhaps it's the drivers along with a particular model of card that causes the problems and not just the drivers themselves.

As mentioned I had my problems when the drivers were blocked not before. What were the problems before they were blocked? If you have the STR an issue please post them here and I'll check it out with the hotfix drivers.

I still haven't seen any problems. Maybe it's the model of card that needs to be blocked and not the driver. Has anyone got stats on which model of card are being affected with which driver? Perhaps my 2080 Ti is not an affected card.

nVidia is aware of the issue and are investigating. It seems like dual gpu systems might be affected differently, which could explain why you're not seeing the issues?

nVidia comment here:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1625857#c19

There is a hotfix up from Nvidia: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5009/track/AvMiwwriDv8S~eRBGvoe~yJl1Msq3y75Mv8S~zj~PP~b - not sure, though if Nvidia is supporting Win7 still though.

You mentioned:

I was told and read that they're unfortunately still affected.

Can you let me know where you heard that? We haven't had any reports of issues come in there yet.

(In reply to Jessie [:jbonisteel] pls NI from comment #17)

There is a hotfix up from Nvidia: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5009/track/AvMiwwriDv8S~eRBGvoe~yJl1Msq3y75Mv8S~zj~PP~b - not sure, though if Nvidia is supporting Win7 still though.

Yes, hotfix version of NVIDIA GPU driver is only available for Windows 10.
So I'm hoping that NVIDIA only released hotfix for affected systems, so Windows 10 only, not dropped Windows 7 completely,
as Windows 7 will still receive critical and important security updates till January 2023
and Windows Embedded POSReady 7 will receive critical and important security updates till October 2024.

(In reply to Jessie [:jbonisteel] pls NI from comment #17)

You mentioned:

I was told and read that they're unfortunately still affected.

Can you let me know where you heard that? We haven't had any reports of issues come in there yet.

Unfortunately, NVIDIA new "forum" is complete mess for me (https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/game-ready-drivers/13/) and I'm not able to track it back fast. But some people were still saying there that issue is still reproducible with 445.78 version. That's also why I created bug #1627428, to add also this version to Mozilla Firefox driver blocklist.

Rares - do you (or anyone else in QA) have access to a Win7 machine right now? I'd like to ensure that the issues we had with the bad Nvidia driver that we saw here: bug 1625857 only happen on Win10

Unfortunately we do no have a Windows 7 machine with these GPUs, when Operating Systems were installed on these laptops Windows 7 could not be installed because it was not supported by the hardware, i think.

Virtual_ManPL - just to keep you in the loop I have sent more info to Nvidia to help them repro the original issue (on Win10) and get more info from them so we can make an informed decision about Win7.

Yey! Awesome. I'm waiting patiently. \o/