Firefox 126 is out – and it’ll make a huge difference to the quality of videos in the browser, for those with the right hardware
An Nvidia RTX graphics card plus HDR monitor is the price of entry
Mozilla just powered up its Firefox browser by bringing on board a new tech from Nvidia to provide better-quality video playback.
The release of Firefox v126 introduces RTX Video, one part of which is Nvidia’s RTX Video Super Resolution tech. That already debuted in Mozilla’s browser previously, and it upscales video clips to an artificially higher resolution using AI to add the extra detail.
That extra sharpness and detail is now accompanied by a second piece of Nvidia tech in Firefox: RTX Video HDR. This feature does much the same thing, but for colors, improving SDR colors to (artificially) become HDR – giving the image a lot more vibrancy and pop.
So, the overall effect now when watching video clips in the latest version of Firefox is that the experience will be much improved. Indeed, we were seriously impressed with the HDR emulation (which is essentially what this is) on offer with RTX Video HDR when we experienced it first-hand.
RTX means what it says
There are a couple of caveats, though (aren’t there always?) and as the name suggests, RTX Video is only for those who own an Nvidia RTX graphics card. Secondly, at the risk of stating the obvious, you’ll need an HDR-capable monitor to enjoy RTX HDR colors.
Assuming you’re correctly equipped on the hardware front like so, it might be a good idea to grab the new version now, if Firefox is your browser of choice – you’re in for a treat.
Mozilla was relatively slow to pick up on RTX Video Super Resolution, mind you, while some of its best web browser rivals were very quick to adopt this tech when it emerged last year. Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge had it in play at the beginning of the year, just after it was announced, whereas Firefox didn’t get it for some months after.
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However, the second part of the equation that makes up RTX Video, the HDR trickery, has been deployed in a much timelier manner by Mozilla.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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