Flash Player 10.1 improves performance but much more to come

Seth Weintraub
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November 17, 2009
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The Adobe Flash 10.1 pre-release player is now available for your perusal (download link).   Flash 10.1 promises much improved performance via GPU acceleration and other tricks which should make tasks like watching full screen Hulu and 1080P Youtubes much easier on the CPU. (anyone else think the release timing with 1080P Youtube is curious?)  

Well, Mac users, don't get too excited yet.  Adobe still hasn't enabled GPU acceleration on the Mac version.  In fact, GPU acceleration has only been enabled on recent models of NVIDIA GPUs on Windows (where it is showing some major improvements on machines like ION netbooks).  

It isn't all bad news - the release is still worth trying out.  There was still some quality improvement from yesterday's 1080P Youtube test - notably fewer dropped frames.  However, the CPU still red-lined on a new MacBook Pro 2.26GHZ, 4GB RAM:

Interestingly, using ClicktoFlash's Quicktime(MP4) option showed almost no CPU usage while playing the file at the same resolution.  This shows what can be done with offloading the heavy lifting to the GPU.  By they way, if you aren't using ClicktoFlash by now, you are nuts.

Not enough?  AnandTech has more information than you'd ever want on the matter.

Comments (13)

9to5Mac Bitter Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 8:59am

i use clicktoflash but didn't know about that h.264 trick till you mentioned it...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 9:08am

Clicktoflash is awesome, but didn't quite work with MLB site—would click to load live game and nothing would ever show.  Otherwise it's a winner

admin | November 17, 2009 - 9:23am

there are a few site issues.  I keep Firefox without ClicktoFlash for those

CV (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 9:12am

Is there a ClicktoFlash version for Firefox 3.5?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 9:41am

use flashblock for firefox

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433

 

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 10:47am

But this can't do H.264 decoding.

chrßjñ (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 11:18am

But Quicktime X does so beautifully. 

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 10:30am

With flash 10 the cpu goes between 59% and 70% on my Macbook Unibody @2GHZ. I don't get any frames dropped.  

chrßjñ (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 11:17am

Hi, i have been using webkit + ClickToFlash + AdBlock for months! I LOVE IT. I tell you, my web is clean and nice and fast! Also it aesy to save h.264 movies, which is sweet. I like to keep some of them for reviewing and "evidence" :-), an oddity perhaps.

I literally save a ton of time, not waiting for for concentration to be stolen, sold to someone, while i don't get any money for the constant break of focus I was also the one paying for that nuissance. Think about it. And get it now!

Flash is a dinosaur! It's extinct unless it mutates to a css3/webkit authoring tool for exact same purpose. imho

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 4:17pm

Many thanks to Seth and his team for informing me of ClicktoFlash.  This is the best browser add-on I've experienced in a long, long time.  5 Stars!

9to5Mac Canadian Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 5:39pm

Thanks so much for telling us all about Click to Flash! Safari is so much more... dare I say it... SNAPPIER!™

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 5:47pm

I dont see any spikes on my MBP 13 2.26 late 2009 the CPU is normal........  

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 17, 2009 - 7:48pm

Click to flash doesn't magically enable H264 playback... All it does is play files in HD mode in youtube.  You can do this manually with any browser by adding '&fmt=18' to the end of any youtube web address.