Blocklisting/Blocked Graphics Drivers
Downloaded blacklist
This is a list of all the GPU/driver/OS combinations that we have blocked using the downloaded Video card blacklisting feature of Firefox 4.
| GPU | Driver | OS | Features | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA NVS 3100M | <= 258.96 | Windows 7 | Layers acceleration and Direct2D | Driver crashes multiple times per day |
Compiled-in blacklist
The compiled-in blacklist is implemented separately for each OS/platform (Windows, Mac, X11).
On Windows
All vendors other than AMD/ATI, NVIDIA, Intel are blocked. This was required primarily by various crashes on virtual machines with unusual vendor names (bug 621411). We're open to whitelisting more vendors if needed.
Windows 2003 is identified as Windows XP for the present purporses.
Layers acceleration is blocked on Windows versions older than Windows XP.
NVIDIA cards
We require NVIDIA driver version 257.21 or newer (June 2010), see bug 623338.
On NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache cards, we block Direct3D 9 accelerated layers.
AMD/ATI cards
We require ATI driver version 10.6 or newer (June 2010), see bug 623338.
We block the OpenGL drivers on ATI cards on Windows. This does not affect default functionality, as we use ANGLE instead of OpenGL by default for WebGL rendering anyway.
Intel cards
We require the following Intel driver versions, or newer (September 2010):
| Windows version | GPU family | Required driver version |
|---|---|---|
| Windows XP | Intel GMA 500 | 6.14.11.1018 |
| Windows XP | Intel GMA 900 | 6.14.10.4764 |
| Windows XP | Intel GMA 950 | 6.14.10.4926 |
| Windows XP | Intel GMA 3150 | 6.14.10.5260 |
| Windows XP | Intel GMA X3000 | 6.14.10.5218 |
| Windows XP | Intel GMA X4500/HD | 6.14.10.5284 |
| Windows Vista | Intel GMA 500 | 7.14.10.1006 |
| Windows Vista | Intel GMA 900 | All versions are blocked |
| Windows Vista | Intel GMA 950 | 7.14.10.1504 |
| Windows Vista | Intel GMA 3150 | 7.14.10.2124 |
| Windows Vista | Intel GMA X3000 | 7.15.10.1666 |
| Windows Vista | Intel GMA X4500/HD | 8.15.10.2202 |
| Windows 7 | Intel GMA 500 | 5.0.0.2026 |
| Windows 7 | Intel GMA 900 | All versions are blocked |
| Windows 7 | Intel GMA 950 | 8.15.10.1930 |
| Windows 7 | Intel GMA 3150 | 8.14.10.2117 |
| Windows 7 | Intel GMA X3000 | 8.15.10.1930 |
| Windows 7 | Intel GMA X4500/HD | 8.15.10.2202 |
We block Direct3D 10 features (including Direct2D) on buggy installations where the Intel driver reported in the Windows Registry is not equal to the version of the driver DLL, igd10umd32.dll/igd10umd64.dll. See bug 590373.
Moreover, on certain GPUs in the GMA X3000 generation (G35, GL960, GM965), we block Direct2D. See bug 595364. We might however remove this bit as it seems to possibly be just a special case of bug 590373.
We block the OpenGL drivers on Intel cards on Windows. This does not affect default functionality, as we use ANGLE instead of OpenGL by default for WebGL rendering anyway.
Dual-GPU systems
Our current blacklisting implementation does not properly support dual-GPU systems (bug 628129).
On Mac
For layers acceleration, we require Mac OS version 10.6.3 or newer. See bug 629016
For WebGL, we require Mac OS version 10.6 or newer. See bug 636611
The only hardware acceleration feature that we enable on Mac OS 10.5 is <video> acceleration.
For layers acceleration, we also block all old hardware that do not fully support OpenGL 2.1 in hardware (use slow software fallbacks), or that can't render to non-power-of-two texture-backed framebuffers. That includes the following generations of GPUs: ATI Radeon X1000 and older, NVIDIA GeForce FX and older, and Intel GMA 950 and older.
On X11
XRender is used via Cairo, and is not subject to any blacklisting.
Regarding OpenGL drivers, the NVIDIA proprietary driver is currently whitelisted because of many crashes in other drivers, and difficulty determining driver info without risking crashing (see this conversation). Define the MOZ_GLX_IGNORE_BLACKLIST environment variable to bypass that.
WebGL is enabled by default, so it works if your driver is whitelisted (see above).
Layers acceleration is not yet enabled by default because it's not entirely ready; however it's known to give good results with the NVIDIA driver. You can enabled it by setting layers.acceleration.force-enabled=true in about:config.