Brave is crashing AMD GPU driver on video websites

[PiEye]

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Description of the issue:
SITES THAT DISPLAY VIDEOS CRASH THE AMD GPU DRIVER (LATEST VERSION 24.5.1, THE ISSUE HAPPENED WITH PREVIOUS VERSIONS TOO). DISABLING SHIELD AND FINGERPRINTING BLOCKING APPEARS TO PREVENT THE ISSUE AT FIRST, BUT CRASHES STILL TAKE PLACE AFTER.

ANY WEBSITE THAT DISPLAYS VIDEO, LIKE YOUTUBE AND DAILYMOTION:

Did the issue present with default Shields settings? (yes/no)
YES
Does the site function as expected when Shields are turned off?
AT FIRST YES, THEN IT CRASHES
Is there a specific Shields configuration that causes the site to break? If so, tell us that configuration. (yes/no):
NO (DISABLING FINGERPRINTING BLOCKING OR SHIELD ALTOGETHER APPARENTLY FIXES THE ISSUE AT FIRST)

Does the site work as expected when using Chrome?
YES, UNLESS I FORCE CHROME TO USE THE DISCRETE GPU (IT USES THE INTEGRATED BY DEFAULT)
Brave version (check About Brave):
Version 1.66.118 Chromium: 125.0.6422.147 (Official Build) (64-bit)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
I’m using an “all-AMD laptop”, and by default, Brave uses the discrete AMD GPU. After forcing Brave to use the integrated GPU within Windows’ Graphics Settings tool, there’re no more crashes.

I tried then to force Chrome to use the discrete GPU (it uses the iGPU by default) and it crashes the driver as well. Then I tried Firefox with the dGPU, and it doesn’t crash. Finally I tried Microsoft Edge (which is Chromium-based) and it also crashes when forcing the dGPU.

So, I think I narrowed it down and the bug is present inside Chromium code, then it’s carried over to Brave, which is triggering the crashes because -unlike other browsers- it uses the discrete AMD GPU by default.

[Mattches]

@PiEye,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
Can you please share a link to a site where you can reproduce the issue so I can test this on my end? Additionally, can you please tell me what OS you’re using when you see this behavior?

[PiEye]

Any Youtube video, but also any website displaying videos. I just noticed turning off fingerprinting doesn’t solve the issue, I still get crashes unless I disable Brave shield completely.

I’m using Windows 10 LTSC.

[Mattches]

Can you please try opening a guest window (Menu --> More tools --> Add new profile) and then tell me if you get the same behavior when visiting Youtube or one of these sites?

[PiEye]

I just tried this, at first didn’t crash, then it started crashing after I enabled vertical tabs. I tried disabling vertical tabs in the original profile, but it kept crashing. I don’t think this is related.

What I just discovered is that by default, Brave uses the discrete AMD GPU (I don’t think I mentioned before, but I’m using an “all-AMD laptop”). After forcing Brave to use the integrated GPU within Windows’ Graphics Settings tool, it’s no longer crashing, at least for now. Of course this is just a workaround, the bug is still there, as Brave crashes with the default settings. I will update the first post with this information.