Firefox now supports video decoding via Vulkan.
The Firefox team merged a new code path that uses the Vulkan graphics API to handle video decoding. The change lands in the upcoming 129 release and works on Windows, Linux and Android devices with Vulkan‑compatible GPUs. It falls back to the existing media‑pipeline when Vulkan isn’t available.
By offloading decode work to the GPU, Firefox hopes to reduce CPU load and cut power draw, especially on low‑end or battery‑powered devices. Early benchmarks show modest frame‑rate gains and smoother playback under heavy load, though results will vary by driver and hardware.
The move mirrors similar GPU‑accelerated video paths in Chrome and Edge, suggesting Vulkan is finally catching up as a viable video‑decode backend, not just a graphics renderer.