Mozilla Announces Update 139.0.1 for Firefox to Address Artifacts on Nvidia GPU Systems

Mozilla has announced the release of Firefox version 139.0.1, addressing graphical artifact issues that occurred after the previous release on May 27. This update was necessitated by user reports of video flickering and visual anomalies affecting web page rendering, particularly on systems equipped with NVIDIA GPUs.

The initial implementation of Firefox 139 introduced features including Full-Page Translations, but also inadvertently re-enabled a DirectComposition path behavior, which was responsible for the graphical issues. This behavior had been previously blocked in earlier versions of the browser to prevent conflicts on mixed-refresh rate NVIDIA setups.

With the removal of the block list in Firefox 139, users with specific configurations experienced a graphics driver bug on NVIDIA cards while running Windows 10. Symptoms included video content bleeding across different windows when playing high frame rate videos on high-refresh monitors.

The issue primarily affected configurations with multiple monitors and was not present in single-monitor setups, nor did it impact systems using AMD or Intel GPUs. This highlights a collision between Mozilla’s DirectComposition implementation and certain NVIDIA hardware. A Firefox developer noted that adjustments to the browser’s compositing methods may be necessary to avoid further issues.

To resolve the problems, version 139.0.1 has reinstated the block list, effectively mitigating the occurrence of these artifacts. Mozilla has documented this update, confirming that it rectifies graphics corruption associated with certain NVIDIA adapters operating at mixed refresh rates post-upgrade.

Users can obtain this latest version by navigating to the settings menu within their Firefox browser and checking for updates.