ONE WORD: Turn off Efficiency mode

wholesum

I have struggled with this for a freaking WHOLE YEAR until today I finally figured out what the issue was and how to fix it.

If you use your browser for audio/video (most of us), efficiency mode is not enough for a smooth experience, even on the latest processors. This efficiency mode sets some Vivaldi related processes to use the Efficiency cores instead of the Performance ones (AFAIK, 11th gen and earlier don't have P/E processor core system, but they still have some type of efficiency mode which can also be turned off by using this flag. So YMMV on older processors, but pls post your experiences here.)

In the shortcut that you use to start Vivaldi, append --disable-features=UseEcoQoSForBackgroundProcess
to the path, after ...\vivaldi.exe

*Read this if you need help modifying the shortcut (example for Chrome)

Now I can finally use Vivaldi without dropped frames and high DPC latency for audio (skips and scratches). Even the slow results/sorting from stuff you type in the address bar is orders of magnitude faster.

BTW, none of this is not Vivaldi's fault, the same thing applies to Chrome.

PS: More details on this feature on Microsoft's website. Also note I am all for saving energy (not the bill as much as the planet in general), but not at the expense of terrible performance!

jorgefilho

@wholesum does this only happen on intel cpu?

mib2berlin

@jorgefilho
Hi, search a bit for:
--disable-features=UseEcoQoSForBackgroundProcess
It seems this is a Windows feature, it is shown in the task manager as green leaves.

@wholesum
Hi, it appear on my old i5 too, a good hint for everybody.

Cheers, mib

wholesum

@jorgefilho said in ONE WORD: Turn off Efficiency mode:

@wholesum does this only happen on intel cpu?

AFAIK the separate P/E CPU structure is only present on Intel 12th gen and up. It's originally a feature ARM CPUs, but that's irrelevant for Vivaldi

Tuexss

My i5-4690 CPU 4th generation was also affected. I don't think efficiency mode makes sense on desktop at all.

AllanH

Since my OS is Windows 10 (most recent build), this feature is called Eco Mode.
I do not see it in the context menu of the Task Manager.
Is it only available for newer CPUs? My computer is from 2014.

Hadden89

@AllanH It could be. I didn't found too many infos on this mode but only seems to be on latest arm/intel cpu and spotted also on newer amd ryzen cpu (my guess is likely nothing before 2020 is affected).

@Tuexss Same on ryzen 5 5600x. I don't see why a desktop platform would need this.

Pesanur

@AllanH
I don't think that is only for newer CPUs, as my "old" Ryzen 1700 is also affected by this, an it causes a terrible performance

AllanH

@Pesanur said in ONE WORD: Turn off Efficiency mode:

@AllanH
I don't think that is only for newer CPUs, as my "old" Ryzen 1700 is also affected by this, an it causes a terrible performance

You may be correct, but the fact remains that I do not see an "Eco Mode" option in the Task Manager context menu for any process.
From what I've read on MajorGeeks, it was supposed to be available to everyone in a Feature Update a couple of years ago.
If it wasn't included in one of the Cumulative Updates for Win10 (the only Update I really care about), that would explain my not seeing it.

uhh

@wholesum
thanks. worked. microsoft need a way for us to disable this feature on desktops. its not needed.

kraligor

Just dropping in to say that this really slowed down my browsing as well, on a Ryzen 5 2600. In retrospect I now know that it started back when it was introduced on W10 and was the main reason for upgrading to W11, because I thought my installation was just too old and full. But of course it was just as laggy with W11.... until I disabled this anti-feature. I was about to change browsers, seriously.

Might want to give new users a heads-up during install, or even give the option to permanently disable it without having to tinker with shortcuts.

Tuexss

Now I need a solution for macOS. It's getting really annoying, always missing 2-3 keystrokes if I forget to wait.

DoctorG

@Tuexss I am a Linux and Windows user.
I do not know for MacOS how to create a app short and edit its property.
The command for Vivaldi to start would be
open -a "Vivaldi" --args -disable-features=UseEcoQoSForBackgroundProcess

linguaoccultus

I can confirm too, that this solved my issues mostly.

Especially after the last major released 6.5 and 6.6, the performance on some website was extremely bad; starting with Amazon.de, which also is mentioned in other threads here, and later GMail. Maybe because they are more or less complex pages, don't know.

However, I also do see the broken website »dead bird« page myself also as reported in other threads and this is still occurring; also started around the last two majors.

When I followed the instructions here, the corresponding »green leaf« icon was removed from the Vivaldi threads in Windows Task Manager and the performance was immediately better at least.

Why is such an option not reflected in the settings to turn it off when it can have such drastic drawbacks? I know that this is a Windows feature and maybe Microsoft is trying to »optimize« Chromium here for their own browser, don't know. But since we know what »experts« in optimization and performance they are, it would fit ...

Please make this an officially settings so no parameter is needed to switch it.

Thanks to @wholesum for bringing in the missing link here! Vivaldi has by far enough issues even without this.

pbwoody79

@wholesum - I just want to say a big thank you to the OP.

I use a Creative USB DAC in W11, and each time I opened multiple tabs in Vivaldi, the audio from my music player (Plexamp) would start stuttering. So, I simply stopped using Plexamp.

In HWiNFO64, I could see that the E-Cores of my Intel CPU (an i5-12600K) were being pegged to 100% when this happened, with the P-Cores underutilized. A quick Google search led me to this thread, and after adding this flag to my Vivaldi shortcut, the stutters are gone - thanks.