Is there a way to swtich active/rendering GPU??
I have an unusual, but very nice rig. i'm running an Nvidia 8400GS overclocked on my t.v. and an Nvidia 7950GT on my monitor. I typically use the 8400GS overclocked to run CUDA on media player classic, and the 7950GT to do the rendering. makes for fast videos.
I also normally use the 8400GS to render firefox, but i want my 7950GT to be my primary screen through windows, cuz the card is extremely fast compared to the 8400GS, but I want firefox to run on the 8400GS.
unlike media player classic and some apps, i can't find a way to switch the active GPU on firefox except by using the windows resolution settings, and selecting the 8400GS as my primary.
is there a way to simply select the active GPU on firefox?? -if not i'd like to put this into the suggestion box, because there's a lot of people asking this same question, but i can't find an answer.
this isn't like those laptops with 2 GPU's. Both my GPU's are active on the desktop, and each one has monitors hooked up to them. -I fiddled with nvidia inspector, but i don't see a way to assign a certain GPU to a certain app.
as far as i can tell nvidia inspector simply applies to the active GPU via desktop settings. i don't see shim rendering options being the solution, but if it is. please do tell.
for those wondering how the hell i got an nvidia 8400GS to coexist with an nvidia 7950GT-hehe-it took some driver/registry tampering. the hardest part was turning off flicker filter on the 8400GS-so i exported the registry settings for video while the 8400GS was installed and working, then installed the 7950GT, then i imported the registry settings to turn off flicker filter. if you've tried running an 8 and 7 series GeForce you know exactly what im talking about. it's a difficult setup, because the cards share drivers and install directories. just throwing that in there for anyone interested.
sure would be nice if there was simply a drop down in the advanced options menu where i could select the active GPU by name.
-i'm also willing to experiment, but as for now the only way to choose the active GPU on firefox on a desktop with 2 active GPU's is by setting the primary display through windows desktop resolution settings to the card you want to render firefox.
media player classic is a great example of a flexible app with it's built in LAV codecs. I simply select 7950GT under output, and CUVID or copyback with the 8400GS under the LAV settings, and boom, i got full hardware acceleration and rendering going on 2 GPU's at the same time. I got so much CPU left i can literally do what ever I want without clogging up or slowing down the movie.
anways from the photo you can see my 7950GT is active, and my 8400GS is not. I want the 8400GS to be active, but i don't want to switch to the Nvidia 8400GS through windows desktop resolution settings. 8(
All Replies (5)
Hi MTRX2010:
Your question: "Is there a way to simply select the active GPU on firefox??"
My answer after asking Firefox devs and QA:
- Try selecting the GPU using Windows 7 and then restarting Firefox
- If that doesn't work maybe NVIDIA has software for switching GPUs (in their latest drivers?)? If so try that and then restart Firefox! Apologies if you have tried this already!
Hope that helps a wee bit!
Cheers!
...Roland
Modified by Roland Tanglao
haha. i wrote in there that i already did that, and that wasn't what i wanted to do for certain reasons. if i set the 8400GS as the main GPU in windows(which doesn't require a restart), then window will arbitrarily make that the default GPU for everything. I wanted the 7950GT to be the default device, and manually tell firefox to use the 8400GS in much the same way media player classic let's me choose which GPU i want to render with, and which GPU i want to decode with.
-and i mentioned i already used nvidia software and tools to try and figure it out. including their control panel software, and nvidia inspector.
i tried using the "integrated shim render settings", but that didn't let me assign apps to the nvidia. I think that only works if it's an alternating GPU scenario. Like only one GPU is active at a time, but in this case, both GPU's are active at the same time with individual displays for each GPU.
Seeing a lot of people asking how do to this, but haven't found an answer yet.
would be nice if someone were to put in a variable in the about:config settings. something to where you just type in the hexcode for the GPU you want to be the active display for firefox as they're listed in the troubleshooting information window which indicated which GPU is active, and what their hexcode identifier is.
something like:
GFX.Active_GPU = 0x06e4
which would indicate that the nvidia GPU should be the active GPU.
I strongly suspected this was possible through some environment variables perhaps the developers would have used to select an active GPU, but i guess they've never done this before which strikes me as odd.
any got a clue where i can find a complete list of all the mozilla firefox environment variables to see if there's something in there??
If looking further please open account here or sign in here as this is the appropriate place to be asking for that kind of information. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Projects/NSS/Reference/NSS_environment_variables
A google search using your words " complete list of all the mozilla firefox environment variables " you may want to take a look at the other links found : https://www.google.ca/search?q=complete+list+of+all+the+mozilla+firefox+environment+variables&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=y15sWaK4NYfsjwP6ubHoDA
Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.
no dice. i checked both those links and i can't find a list a variables that pertain the to the graphics engine.
there was no mention of any of the moz_gfx variables. i know there's a few out there, and i found a few of the gfx spoofing variables, but only a few.
i found
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_WINDOWS_VERSION SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_VENDOR_ID SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_DEVICE_ID SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_DRIVER_VERSION
these are just for spoofing apparently. and none of which allow for the arbitrary selection of an active GPU.
are there any more lists out there?? perhaps a complete list of the GOZ_GFX variables and anything that has to do with the graphics??
Hello MTRX2010
You have exceeded the support team's skill level :-)
I asked QA and they suggested posting your question on this mailing list:
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-gfx
Cheers!
...Roland