Will Chrome be less heavy on video playback?

Perhaps Chrome will not burn less RAM on PC as hoped, at least in the short term, but it may soon become less demanding in terms of energy consumption during video playback. Beneficiaries would be those who rely on the browser to watch streaming content on a laptop with obvious consequences on battery life.

Chrome and video playback on laptops: will it consume less?

The method by which to obtain this result leverages a peculiarity of Windows, allowing Desktop Windows Manager and the operating system to reduce v-sync (vertical synchronization) when the movie is shown in full screen. The first tests conducted on a Microsoft Surface Pro 6 have returned encouraging results: -24% in the exploitation of the processor when the framerate is brought to 30 fps.

Through other optimizations the percentage could be further increased, with obvious benefits for those who rely on Chrome for operations that go beyond traditional online browsing, for example affecting multimedia entertainment and in this particular case streaming.

The browser, which today holds firmly the largest slice of market share, detaching all competitors with a large advantage, is certainly not the lightest among the alternatives in circulation. Google is well aware that it will also have to work on this front to repel the advance of its competitors: one above all Microsoft's Edge, recently switched to the Chromium engine, which despite still lagging far behind in terms of users promises well.

Source: Chromium Gerrit