Is your gaming computer struggling to manage YouTube streams and videos?
Is your gaming computer struggling to manage YouTube streams and videos?
I've been operating with Microsoft Edge on my 1.5-year-old machine equipped with these specifications:
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z690-P D4
Processor: 12th Gen Intel i5-12400F
Graphics Card: ASRock AMD Radeon™ RX 6700 XT Challenger D 12GB
Memory: Corsair VENGEANCE LPX DDR4 3200 32GB (4x8GB) CL16
Hard Drive: Patriot 1TB 2.5 SATA3 SSD
My main use is gaming, and it usually runs well. But lately, I've encountered problems, particularly while streaming YouTube videos or live streams in Microsoft Edge. The more content I watch, the slower and more unstable the performance becomes. Also, when I try to navigate back through a livestream after 30 minutes, the browser freezes completely, looking like it's about to crash, then suddenly resumes in 5 to 10 seconds. Recently, the whole computer crashed during one of these episodes.
I'm puzzled because I increased my RAM from 16GB to 32GB, knowing that browsers can consume a lot of memory. However, checking the RAM usage in Task Manager during those freezes only showed around 10GB out of the 32GB being utilized. It seems browsing and watching YouTube videos might not be that demanding, or there could be another factor at play.
After some testing, I noticed a brief improvement but now the performance has worsened significantly. It's very slow and unresponsive, similar to when you start a music playlist on YouTube and can't press the shuffle button for 20 seconds. The video only pauses after a delay, and even then it takes three more seconds for it to stop. It feels like I'm using a very old computer.
Just found this article -
https://www.windowscentral.com/soft...s-...t-be-a-fix
"The weekend is supposed to be a time to rest and relax, but for a number of folks who use Microsoft Edge, it's far from that. There are threads appearing on Reddit suggesting that Google has nerfed YouTube performance in Microsoft's web browser to a level that makes the site unusable. "
Article goes on to say that there are hundreds of threads on Reddit with users complaining about the exact same issues I am having (freezes, slow performance etc)
Well FIDDLESTICKS AND DOODLEBUGS! I hate to do it, but I guess it's time to go back to Chrome. I'm totally flabbergasted that a company can be so shameless that they GOOF UP something so hard it crashes my computer. If this is true, FUDGE GOOGLE!
Edit: Had to replace a few swear words because apparently you can't say ANY on this forum.
There might be something else useful to consider.
If you're using an ad blocker on YouTube, even if you opt for an ad-free experience, make sure to whitelist or disable it while viewing content.
The same scenario applies to me. When YT decided to take real action on the ad blocking, I chose to proceed with the service, which has been especially beneficial for my Firestick and phone. I hadn't realized that despite paying, their method of blocking ads works quite effectively.