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A comment on Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by rollcat on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @09:07AM (#45026011)
> It's a fairly common issue on Linux to be missing hardware acceleration, especially for video decoding. I've had to enable gpu video decoding on my fw16 and haven't noticed the fans on youtube.

I've worked in video delivery for quite a while.

If I were to write the law, decision-makers wilfully forcing software video decoding where hardware is available would be made to sit on these CPUs with their bare buttocks. If that sounds inhumane, then yes, this is the harm they're bringing upon their users, and maybe it's time to stop turning the other cheek.

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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by throwawaylaptop on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @11:28AM (#45027929)
I run Linux Mint Mate on a 10 year old laptop. Everything works fine, but watching YouTube makes my wireless USB dongle mouse stutter a LOT. Basically if CPU usage goes up, mouse goes to hell.

Are you telling me that for some reason it's not using any hardware acceleration available while watching YouTube? How do I fix it?

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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by dismalaf on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @11:35AM (#45028005)
Easiest way is to use Chrome or a Chrome based browser since they bundle codecs with the browser. If you're using Firefox, need to make sure you have the codecs. I know nothing about Mint specifically though to know if they'd automatically install codecs or not.
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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by lights0123 on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @05:05PM (#45032322)
You specifically don't want to use the bundled codecs since those would be CPU decode only.
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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by throwawaylaptop on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @05:05PM (#45032335)
Interesting. I'll look into that more.
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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by dismalaf on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @11:09PM (#45035048)
Straight up false. I have both Chrome and Vivaldi installed on Linux, both have hardware video decoding on OOTB...

You check it by putting chrome://gpu in the address bar.

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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by throwawaylaptop on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @05:05PM (#45032330)
Im using Brave and it seems the enable hardware acceleration box is checked.
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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by olyjohn on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @02:28PM (#45030403)
It's probably the 2.4GHz WiFi transmitter interfering with the 2.4GHz mouse transmitter. You probably notice it during YouTube because it's constantly downloading. Try a wired mouse.
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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by throwawaylaptop on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @05:04PM (#45032319)
Interesting theory. The wired mouse is trouble free, but I figured that's because of a better sampling rate and less overhead over all. Maybe I'll try a bluetooth mouse or some other frequency, or the laptop on fired Ethernet to see if the theory pans out.
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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by Sohcahtoa82 on Wednesday August 27, 2025 @01:49PM (#45042724)
> Maybe I'll try a bluetooth mouse

Bluetooth is also 2.4 Ghz.

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Re:Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series? by lostmsu on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @06:26PM (#45033124)
Or just switch to 5GHz or 6GHz range.
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