Firefox 103 Includes Performance Boost for Macs With 120Hz+ Displays

[MacRumors]

Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox that promises improved browsing performance on displays running at 120Hz and higher refresh rates, which should appeal to owners of 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with ProMotion displays.

Launched last October, Apple's redesigned MacBook Pro models with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips feature Liquid Retina XDR displays with ProMotion technology for adaptive refresh rates ranging from 24Hz to 120Hz.

When viewing a static webpage that doesn't require a high refresh rate, the MacBook Pro's display adopts the lower refresh rate to preserve battery life, but when gaming, scrolling, or doing other activities where a higher refresh rate will result in smoother content, the higher frame rates will kick in.

According to Mozilla's release notes, the latest Firefox 103 update brings improved performance on displays capable of refresh rates upwards of 120Hz, suggesting the 14-inch and 16-inch Macs with ProMotion stand to benefit.

As some readers will recall, soon after Apple launched 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with Apple silicon last October, many users began reporting issues with stuttering, janky scrolling when browsing in Apple's Safari.

While some users reported noticing smoother Safari scrolling and performance on these Macs after upgrading to macOS Monterey 12.2, Apple has never officially confirmed that ProMotion is functional in its native browser for Mac. Therefore, anyone still unconvinced that they are seeing optimal refresh rates in Safari now at least has an alternative option to use a browser that should be capable of running ProMotion at full tilt.

In addition to the above, Firefox 103 also offers improved responsiveness on macOS during periods of high CPU load, which it achieves by switching to a modern lock API, according to the release notes.

Also new in this update is the ability to change the subtitles font size directly from within a Picture-in-Picture window, as well as support for subtitles on platforms including Funimation, Dailymotion, Tubi, Hotstar, and SonyLIV.

In other tweaks, required fields in PDFs are now highlighted, and there are a number of bugs and security vulnerabilities that have also been fixed. Firefox 103 for macOS is available now from the Mozilla website, where users can find a full list of changes.

Article Link: Firefox 103 Includes Performance Boost for Macs With 120Hz+ Displays

 

[contacos]

I might be the only person on the planet that cannot notice a 120 Hz display 🤷🏼‍♂️

Had it on my iPad Pro before moving to the iPad Air 4 and didn’t notice.
Went from first retina MBP 2012 to 14inch MBP and don’t notice

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Wonder if it'll also include a Big Sur-style icon... it's one of the last apps I use to migrate to it.

Edit: just checked, it doesn't have an updated icon.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

I might be the only person on the planet that cannot notice a 120 Hz display 🤷🏼‍♂️

Had it on my iPad Pro before moving to the iPad Air 4 and didn’t notice.
Went from first retina MBP 2012 to 14inch MBP and don’t notice

Yeah I'm the same, I don't really see the difference unless I'm actually looking for it.

 

[cambric]

Wonder if it'll also include a Big Sur-style icon... it's one of the last apps I use to migrate to it.

Edit: just checked, it doesn't have an updated icon.

That’s disappointing!

I saw a comment in their forums where someone made an icon with a purple background and some parts of the fox sticking outside the frame. Looked really good.

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

"Apple has never officially confirmed that ProMotion is functional in its native browser for Mac."

It's curious why Apple haven't confirmed this support for Pro motion on their own safari browser. I would have thought that they would have jumped all over this.

Maybe it's a compatibility issue with non Pro motion apple devices? I'm just wondering why?

 

[MacsRgr8]

I might be the only person on the planet that cannot notice a 120 Hz display 🤷🏼‍♂️

Had it on my iPad Pro before moving to the iPad Air 4 and didn’t notice.
Went from first retina MBP 2012 to 14inch MBP and don’t notice

I understand what you mean…
I have 49” UWD screen connected to my Mac Studio, and can choose 60 Hz, 100 Hz, 120 Hz… and TBH…. I cannot see any difference either… have it set to 120 Hz, simply so I can brag about it 😁

 

[xxray]

My favorite browser. I love Firefox for being privacy focused but still powerful, and Firefox Containers is a fantastic feature. I just wish their iOS apps had better UI so I could use the browser across all my devices.

I'm glad to see some performance and battery improvements on the Mac.

 

[wbeasley]

I've been watching Activity Monitor on my M2 MBA and been surprised how much of a resource hog (Memory and CPU) that Firefox is. two tabs open and over 1G memory. What the?

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

That’s disappointing!

I saw a comment in their forums where someone made an icon with a purple background and some parts of the fox sticking outside the frame. Looked really good.

Yeah there's a Bugzilla file for it: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1648386

Just likely political nonsense that's preventing it from being implemented.

 

[Captain Trips]

I've been watching Activity Monitor on my M2 MBA and been surprised how much of a resource hog (Memory and CPU) that Firefox is. two tabs open and over 1G memory. What the?

I have noticed the same (high percentage of memory being used) on some my older ThinkPads with Linux, GhostBSD and Windows installed. Doesn't take much to use up a lot of the free memory with a few tabs open for the ones with 4 GB of memory. Even the ones with 6 GB or 8 GB drop to around 40 - 50% free memory.

I like Firefox and I use it a lot, and I usually don't have a lot of tabs open, but I definitely noticed it on those older laptops since I was running apps (like psensor) to track temperatures and so I also got some insight into free memory and CPU usage.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Let's goooooooooooooo!

 

[IllinoisCorn]

"Apple has never officially confirmed that ProMotion is functional in its native browser for Mac."

It's curious why Apple haven't confirmed this support for Pro motion on their own safari browser. I would have thought that they would have jumped all over this.

Maybe it's a compatibility issue with non Pro motion apple devices? I'm just wondering why?

Very, very strange. Of all the applications optimized, you'd think Safari would be right up there and you'd think Apple would talk about it.

 

[EnigmaticZee]

I might be the only person on the planet that cannot notice a 120 Hz display 🤷🏼‍♂️

Had it on my iPad Pro before moving to the iPad Air 4 and didn’t notice.
Went from first retina MBP 2012 to 14inch MBP and don’t notice

Same. I use iPad 60hz, Android 60Hz, MacBook Pro 13 60Hz side by side and notice no difference at all.

 

[VictorTango777]

Does this performance boost only apply to ProMotion displays on MacBooks? How about Macs running external monitors that support high refresh rate?

Also, can someone comment on the compatibility of Nvidia G-Sync, AMD FreeSync, and MacOS “adaptive sync” support:
1. Can PCs with Nvidia GPU use FreeSync monitors?
2. Can PCs with AMD GPU use G-Sync monitors?
3. Can MacOS with “adaptive sync” use either FreeSync or G-Sync monitors?

 

[Konigi]

Extensive release notes: that's how you keep people more interested into updates. Not like the 3-4 lines on Apple's OS updates.

And yeah, regarding the Firefox icon, I decided to manually update mine because it is taking them too long: https://macosicons.com/#/

 

[Mr. Heckles]

I might be the only person on the planet that cannot notice a 120 Hz display 🤷🏼‍♂️

Had it on my iPad Pro before moving to the iPad Air 4 and didn’t notice.
Went from first retina MBP 2012 to 14inch MBP and don’t notice

I can’t tell either, so you’re not 😂

I just updated my work computer (Windows), and I can tell it’s faster than it was before.

As for the icon on Mac’s, I couldn’t care less. I have a bunch of apps that look different and it doesn’t bother me.

 

[saudor]

I've been watching Activity Monitor on my M2 MBA and been surprised how much of a resource hog (Memory and CPU) that Firefox is. two tabs open and over 1G memory. What the?

i want to love firefox but it’s so inefficient and always has been. even something like downloading a file, it chews through CPU like crazy while chrome, safari and edge don’t.

 

[Sasparilla]

Nice to see Firefox still able to do stuff like this for the Mac.

Am still running it (one of the few left it seems) as my main browser on my Mac with Safari and Vivaldi as backups.

I've been watching Activity Monitor on my M2 MBA and been surprised how much of a resource hog (Memory and CPU) that Firefox is. two tabs open and over 1G memory. What the?

That's interesting its so large. I have 3 tabs open (Mac Rumors and 2 The Verge tabs so normally big pages) and its probably about ~650mb in size. Seems much of it is in the individual tabs, specific sites.

Checking on Chrome and those 3 tabs are about twice as large on that with both programs using uBlock Origin. Definitely use uBlock Origin on Firefox if you are not, as it will save alot of memory blocking most of the tracking embedded in web pages.

 

[ericg301]

Extensive release notes: that's how you keep people more interested into updates. Not like the 3-4 lines on Apple's OS updates.

And yeah, regarding the Firefox icon, I decided to manually update mine because it is taking them too long: https://macosicons.com/#/

It’s not too long. They’ve said it’s a deliberate branding decision.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

Nice to see Firefox still able to do stuff like this for the Mac.

Am still running it (one of the few left it seems) as my main browser on my Mac with Safari and Vivaldi as backups.



That's interesting its so large. I have 3 tabs open (Mac Rumors and 2 The Verge tabs so normally big pages) and its probably about ~650mb in size. Seems much of it is in the individual tabs, specific sites.

Checking on Chrome and those 3 tabs are about twice as large on that with both programs using uBlock Origin. Definitely use uBlock Origin on Firefox if you are not, as it will save alot of memory blocking most of the tracking embedded in web pages.

I just checked my Windows computer and I have 2 Firefox windows open with 3 tabs on one and 1 on the other, I’m using about 377.7 MB. I also have Chrome open for 1 web page (I do this so I don’t accidentally close out a window. Seeing it’s different, chrome, I won’t close it as easily) and I’m getting 392.4 MB user and that’s just 1 tab.

I’ll check out my MacBook when I get home just to see.

 

[contacos]

Extensive release notes: that's how you keep people more interested into updates. Not like the 3-4 lines on Apple's OS updates.

And yeah, regarding the Firefox icon, I decided to manually update mine because it is taking them too long: https://macosicons.com/#/

Out of curiosity, how did you apply the new icon? I changed the "AppIcon.icns" file in the "resources" folder within the app package but it did not update the icon.

 

[wbeasley]

I just checked my Windows computer and I have 2 Firefox windows open with 3 tabs on one and 1 on the other, I’m using about 377.7 MB. I also have Chrome open for 1 web page (I do this so I don’t accidentally close out a window. Seeing it’s different, chrome, I won’t close it as easily) and I’m getting 392.4 MB user and that’s just 1 tab.

I’ll check out my MacBook when I get home just to see.

Chrome 8 tabs open ... 88M
Safari 2 tabs open 71 M
Firefox 10 tabs open 816M + 200M for other related processes!

I like Firefox a lot but geez that's a memory load I wasn't expecting.
I've noticed this 2017 iMac slows down a lot lately. Unresponsive. I Force Kill Firefox and restart it and things go back to normal.

 

[grouch]

a+ firefox

 

[MauiPa]

Firefox is still one of the slowest browsers out there. I don't have a 120hz display (probably wouldn't see the difference anyway, but these are current results as of a few minutes ago:

You notice Firefox is kind pathetically in last place? Motionmark is is within range of the other (non-safari) browsers, but jet stream is really bad and speedometer is last but really close to edge. All browsers are the ARM version, run on an M1 MBP with no other browser open, plenty of unused ram, and no other program running