The battery drain when watching YouTube videos on Brave is way too much, in my opinion. I used to use the Google/Chrome browser and battery consumption when watching YT on it was not as high. Yes, brave does reduce battery drain in general, but that doesn’t seem to apply to YT, even with memory saver, energy saver and hardware acceleration turned on. My laptop lasts approximately 3-4, maximum 5 hours at 100% with YouTube and 7-8, maximum 9 hours without (3 other tabs are still open meanwhile). In comparison, my battery still lasts approximately 7-8, maximum 9 hours at 100% when YT is used on Chrome. I’ve seen other people also face this problem with no solution, so it can’t be something wrong on my end. Brave is a great browser, but I really hope this is fixed. I also have the h264ify extension turned on, but that only helps a little.
Why the need for h264ify extension? which GPU are you using?
Well if I remember correctly, the h264ify extension converts the video codec YT uses from VP8/VP9 to H.264, which apparently helps with battery life consumption, stuttering videos etc. I’m pretty sure it does work, coz YT drained less (still a lot) battery when I added the extension to my browser. I use Intel(R) UHD Graphics. Please excuse me if I said anything wrong, I don’t have a lot of knowledge when it comes to things like tech.
h264ify extension would probably a good idea, for low end HW (like UHD graphics). Not well optimised for video playback which what h264ify is needed for. Try lowering the youtube playback to 720p or possibly 480p, see if its just a resolution issue. 1080p playback might be causing more battery drain.
Even if you’re on power it might still stuggle in performance still, on battery you will get battery drain and performance issues.
I have used UHD drivers in the past, were never very reliable for hardware acceleration. See if there is any updated driver also, but don’t expect masssive performance changes.
I checked on the manufacturer’s website, and no, there are no gpu updates. And my resolution is already at 480p.
Only a suggestion, maybe try using the Intel gpu drivers directly from Intel instead? Just do the backups and testing if you need to roll it back. Otherwise you maybe simply hardware limited on what your gpu can do regarding gpu decode and effiency
Oh, that makes sense. Thanks a lot for your help. If only there was something less draining than yt to watch videos on.
I remember once I was binge-watching YouTube videos on my phone during a long commute, and my battery just couldn’t keep up. It was frustrating! But here’s a little trick I learned: keeping some bulk batteries handy saved me. I got a pack from this place online that had great deals. Now, whenever I’m out and about, I just swap out the battery and keep going.