Per forum post this doesn't happen in edge which should also be using the vp9 hardware decoder on the nvidia card. kwipper@ can you confirm that if you try this same test in edge the YouTube stats for nerds says "vp9" for the codec?

I just did the same test in the latest version of Microsoft Edge. Here are the results at the end of the video...


Video ID:rql_F8H3h9E
Dimensions:854 x 480
Resolution:1920 x 1080@60
Optimal Resolution:1920 x 1080@60
Volume:100%
Stream Host:r3---sn-vgqs7nls
Stream Type:https
CPN:bpgqxJ8v8nRuGpTZ
Mime Type:video/webm; codecs="vp9"
DASH:yes (303/251)
Connection Speed:30437 Kbps
Buffer Health:0.0 s
Network Activity:0 KB
Dropped Frames:0/8432

As you can see in the last line... No dropped frames.

So... does nobody have any ideas on how to fix this?

Here is a recording I made of the issue I am having.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2gdvzpM_8#t=62.8934

Is that the actual recording, or a mispaste?

Also, could you follow the steps at https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/submitting-a-performance-bug to record a trace when youtube is dropping frames? I probably only need a couple of seconds of trace while it's happening. Then you can attach the trace to this bug.

Also, could you see how it works if you run Chrome with the --disable-accelerated-video-decode command-line flag? That might be a workaround.

Is this on creator's edition or anniversary update?

The about:gpu says 10.0.15063, which is creators update.

Here is that trace you wanted. I hope I did this right.

Deleted: trace_Youtube_fullscreen_dropped_frames_bug_trace.json.gz 9.7 MB

trace_Youtube_fullscreen_dropped_frames_bug_trace.json.gz 9.7 MB Download

I just tried it using the command line flag --disable-accelerated-video-decode and I still have the same issue with dropped frames, like before. 

Thanks for the trace. It looks like raw presents to the screen are taking 50ms, which is an incredibly long time. I guess running the game is taking a lot of GPU away from Chrome.

Could you try running chrome with the --disable-gpu-vsync command-line flag? It's possible that would help, though I'm not too optimistic. Have you tried it with only one monitor connected, or with it set to extend the desktop onto the other monitor rather than mirroring it?

I will try this out with the command and let you know shortly. For your other question, I have tried this with just ONE monitor and it works fine. I have even tried this with the extended desktop, again the video plays back just fine. It only happens when I clone the display... and only with every version of Google Chrome that is ABOVE version 50.

 I tried the command "--disable-gpu-vsync" and it did not work. :( I still had the same issue as before.

Is it possible that you can try this out on your computer to see if you run into the same bug?

Err I made an error in my response above. I should have said. "...and only with every version of Google Chrome that is version 50 and ABOVE."

Good point - Chrome 50 is approximately when we enabled DirectComposition, so the --disable-direct-composition command-line flag should fix this for you.

I'm working on reproducing this on my system, but I need to get the right combination of hardware set up. Hopefully this doesn't need Creators Update to reproduce.

Let me try that now. I will let you know if this works or not.

IT WORKED! IT ACTUALLY WORKED! THANK YOU! What does this command do exactly? 

I don't think this will be a creators update issue, for I was having this issue long before the creators update was released to the public. I was able to reproduce this issue on my friends computer and he is using an Nvidia GTX 1050Ti GPU. I wonder if this issue persists on an AMD GPU as well. Sadly, I don't have an AMD GPU to test this out with.

Ok, good to hear that it works. On windows 10 we normally use the DirectComposition API to draw to the screen because it reduces power consumption a little. It looks like there's a bug in DirectComposition for your case, so that flag disables it and uses the older DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_SEQUENTIAL mechanism for drawing to the screen

Sweet! I really hope that this bug can be fixed so I won't need to use the command-line anymore, till then, I'll use the command line as a workaround.

Hmmm. I might be having a new issue now. Ever since issuing the command --disable-direct-composition to my browser. It would appear that at random, the whole browser becomes unresponsive. I can't click on anything within the browser window, and I can't close it by normal means. I have to resort to using the Task Manager to force close it. I am unsure exactly what triggers it either. It just randomly happens while I am using it.

I haven't seen those hangs before. Are there entries in chrome://crashes/ corresponding to them. If so, could you copy the list here?

Sadly. The only entries I see are from May 4th. There aren't any here that
were generated recently.

Interesting. While I am using the command "--disable-direct-composition". If I right click on the bookmark bar and select any of the options  "Edit", "Add Page, Add Folder", "Rename". The whole browser just locks up and I have to use the Task Manager to force close the browser.

Been having this issue for months now and would like to share some additional details that might help.

1) It doesn't need to be a game, any app that uses D3D acceleration can cause it, MPC-HC player with a paused x264 video in the background is enough to cause the issue.

2) Having had to face this issue for a long time the workaround I've found was to press windows key twice so that the start menu would open and close. This would cause the taskbar to overlay the video and make it stop dropping frames for as long as it stayed showing on top.

3) --disable-direct-composition flag also seems to fix the issue for me. 

Glad to see the issue finally getting some attention, should have probably have reported it myself as well but was convinced it was an NVIDIA driver issue :\

I've also attached my chrome://gpu in case it's relevant.

Deleted: chrome_gpu.txt 9.7 KB

chrome_gpu.txt 9.7 KB View Download

Been having this issue for months on a GTX 970 and a core i7 4790k. I even switched over to Waterfox since I couldn't find a solution until I found this. Using the Mario Skate benchmark video provided by OP, I was dropping 1/3 of the frames while duplicating my monitors and on fullscreen on the latest version of chrome, and about 1/30th of the frames while reproducing the problem on Canary (still noticeable, but not nearly as bad). When extending my monitors, the amount of dropped frames dropped drastically, to about 1/30th of the frames dropped on chrome and 1/60th on canary. 

I tried the --disable-direct-composition flag and reproduced the problem and 1 minute into the video I've only dropped 7 frames (compared to 1100 without the flag), so I can confirm that the flag does serve as somewhat of a workaround to the issue, albeit the video still drops some frames. 

It's important to note that on Waterfox, both on extended screens and duplicated screens, the amount of frames dropped is a steady 0 at all times. 

Thank you for being in touch and transparent with the community, chrome devs, and here's to hoping that the bug with nvidia cards gets resolved. 

P.S. This is exclusively a Windows issue, I'm dualbooting El Capitan and I can confirm that I get 0 frames dropped on Chrome El Capitan

+vmiura can you help triage this now that jbauman@ has left?

As per c#29, this bug still repro. I don't have a dual monitor can repro this issue thoug. give to vmiura@ to start rolling ball.

I'm still having this issue myself. Though I have another issue were the flag isn't recognized on initial load. This means I have to remove the flag, start it normally, end it, re-add the flag for this to work.

Will there be a more permanent long term fix for this at all?

Same issue for me. Same duplicated dual monitor setup. Works perfectly in Edge. vp9 codec in chrome, avc1 in edge.

Has the --disable-direct-composition option been removed? Having it on seems to no longer fix the issue and I'm forced to keep my taskbar above the video so it remains playable otherwise it stutters with dropped frames and eventually just stops playing.

Don't hold hope about this being fixed, no-one seems interested in fixing it, despite it being reproducible.
I'm now finding this bug has been forked into other chromium based browsers now, like Vivaldi.

I know this bug will likely never get fixes, however I did had some hope the existing workaround would continue to work.

Although given the release of Firefox Quantum maybe it's time to reevaluate it again to see if it's good enough to switch over.

I'm also having this issue. It's incredibly annoying since my second "monitor" is actually my amplifier which is receiving audio from my GTX970. Having the screen extended, my mouse cursor and windows can basically get lost on the amplifier part of the desktop. So I have to switch between extended and duplicating monitor mode between general use and Youtube watching. It's horrendous watching 60fps videos on youtube otherwise! 

Just reporting back that at least so far Firefox Quantum has proven a competent replacement for Chrome, so depending on your needs changing to it could be considered a "permanent" solution to this issue, which is what I've done.

Can confirm I'm having these atrocious frame drops since the latest "Creators" Windows 10 update on my Core i7 2620M. Tried 6 or 7 different drivers but all the same. In Edge everything works just fine.
Chrome is the new IE, it seems.

I have a similar problem on my Gigabyte Aero 15 when I used the laptop with external monitor and windows 10 display mode set to duplicate.  My workaround is to configure Windows 10 to use the second monitor only.  Also, I have configured the laptop to use Intel HD Graphic 630 only to reproduce the scenario even though the laptop also has NVidia Geforce 1060 build in.

Also, I won't have any issue if I use extended desktop mode.  Lastly, Firefox Quantum and Microsoft Edge browser work fine.  

The most annoying part is this is reproducible, the cause is known, but there is no effort being made to fix it. Or at least we can't see any work being made towards it.

Worse yet, it's being forked into every browser based on this. I'm honestly annoyed I have to use Firefox to get video to play properly in full screen.

Comeon, you know the cause and reason, if you aren't going to look into a fix at least create a blacklist rule for this super small power efficiency for these GPU's in a multi monitor setup. Make it so the browser is usable please.

I suspect many of the comments here are related to issue 775898, which last we heard Microsoft has a fix for, but hasn't detailed when they'll be releasing it :( See c#116, there are some comments indicating that installing https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4051963/windows-10-update-kb4051963 helps.

Already on Windows 10 Build 16299.192 and the bug is still there with
Chrome Version 65.0.3318.0 (Official Build) canary (64-bit) so doubt the
update will do anything.

I've read trough Bug #775898 thread and two important details:
* --disable-direct-composition is working again in v64 (beta) or up
* current version 63 can be fixed by setting compatibility to windows 8

I've set the compatibility mode to windows 8 and got the following results:

Chrome(Version 63.0.3239.132 (Official Build) (64-bit)):
https://i.imgur.com/es21Hac.png

Firefox(Quantum 58.0.2 (64-bit)v):
https://i.imgur.com/Yz6arEd.png

While chrome is now playable, firefox is still significantly outperforming chrome.