Brave Browser Ignores Hardware Acceleration Setting - Mac OS

Description of the issue - including steps to reproduce:

Given that one Brave Browser > New Private Window was already open to a topic at ‘https://community.brave.com/’ . . . and there was no MacBook Pro cooling fan noise that would get your attention . . .

I opened a second New Private Window, to ‘https://publishers.basicattentiontoken.org/log-in

Very soon, the MacBook Pro’s cooling fan speed increased significantly.

I opened the Mac’s Activity Monitor.app, plus the Brave Browser’s Task Manager, and arranged their windows as you see in the following, FIRST, screenshot.

For each of the paired Activity Monitor and Task Manager windows, the GPU process (PID 30677) is highlighted:

  • Activity Monitor: Brave Browser Helper (GPU)
  • Task Manager: GPU Process

For each of the paired Activity Monitor and Task Manager windows, the web page process (PID 30976) is highlighted (but the descriptions are more obviously different):

  • Activity Monitor: Brave Browser Helper (Renderer)
  • Task Manager: Private Tab: Log In - Brave Rewards | Creators

The CPU usage for GPU, and the CPU usage for web page rendering

  • when Hardware Acceleration is Disabled
  • when Hardware Acceleration is Enabled

does not vary much, for the particular web page tested:

The FIRST screenshot (Saturday, June 11, 2022):

  • GPU process (PID 30677) is highlighted
  • web page process (PID 30976) is highlighted

Reproduced after an Exit/Quit BB, then wait some hours, then Start BB

The SECOND screenshot (Sunday, June 12, 2022):

  • GPU process (PID 9722) is highlighted
  • web page process (PID 10037) is highlighted

Brave Version( check About Brave):

Brave Browser for Mac v1.39.111
Chromium 102.0.5005.61 (Official Build) (x86_64)

Additional Information:

Mac OS 10.12.6 ‘Sierra’ (and un-able to upgrade Mac OS - so also un-able to upgrade Brave Browser past v1.40.107)

  • No extensions
  • No Progressive Web App’s (PWA)
  • No anti-virus
  • No Brave Rewards setup
  • No Sync setup
  • No VPN
  • Not using Tor
  • Shields Aggressive / Strict - but allowances for JavaScript sources (such as ‘brave.com’ and many others)
  • Using Brave Shields v1
  • In general, Brave Browser settings are lean, favoring Privacy and Security
  • Using Brave Browser > New Private Window(s)

PS. I usually do not pay much attention to the cooling fan speed, but the Brave Creators Log In webpage is apparently simple (visual), and the cooling fan response, I figured to be something to investigate . . . discovering that GPU is enabled, it seems, contrary to the Brave Browser Settings:

I did look at the ‘Local State’ file, and it shows:

  • "hardware_acceleration_mode":{"enabled":false},

UPDATE - Sunday, June 12, 2022

Tested, using a new Profile; same result.

Next, using Default profile, Brave Browser > Developer Tools, found a javascript:

  • publishers.basicattentiontoken.org/static/js/main.314a1d0e.chunk.js

that I could disable:

and the GPU (PID 66515) activity, web page process (PID 67034), and Mac cooling fans speed response, were significantly reduced:

FYI Using win10, opened both linked pages in New Tab and in New Private Window and no CPU process hogs in either Brave or windows Task Manager. Posting only the Brave Task Manager results below for reference.
image

Off-topic request follows…

Going to post questions about the above in the User Solutions: 1.39.x topic! and tag you. If you have the time and inclination can you please help with answers! :smiley:

JavaScript < - > Memory Leak

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