Monterey VP9 hardware decoding (Chrome, YouTube)?

[benyben123]

So to the best of my knowledge Apple won't do VP9 decoding - even though starting with Intel's 7th gen Core there's hardware decoding for VP9. For some reason - Apple doesn't like it.

This has caused for some toasty YouTube playback on Chrome (since chrome defaults to VP9 codec - VP9 is Google's in-house codec) since the decoding is being done by the mac on/by Software ("software decoding").

This is the reason a 2017 Macbook Pro is going ballistic (seriously hot!) when playing YouTube at just 1080p (obscene!) while at the same time my crappy i3 laptop will not even break a sweat!

Was wondering if Monterey fix this.

Thank you!

 

[Birkan]

Google Chrome was updated to use HW decoder (if it exists) for VP9 over a year ago. It was enabled on operating system with macOS Big Sur. You can check if it's enabled under chrome://gpu/ and then under "Video Acceleration Information". It is enabled on my 2017 13-inch non-touchbar Macbook Pro with Intel 7360u CPU. Currently using "Version 95.0.4638.54 (Official Build) (x86_64)".

 

[benyben123]

Appreciate that.

This pic you added, what am I seeing here? Where is the line showing it's active/working/enabled?

Thanks again.

 

[Birkan]

It shows that h264, vp9 profile0 (SDR) and vp9 profile2 (HDR) videos are hardware accelerated when they are decoded. If it wasn't active, it wouldn't show up under chrome://gpu/ section.