I'm seeing a strange video playback issue on a Dell Precision 5550 running Windows 11. Locally downloaded 4K videos play smoothly, but YouTube videos drop frames and videos in Telegram Desktop stutter. Scrolling on some websites also feels unusually laggy, while the same sites and videos work normally on another computer.
The laptop has Intel UHD integrated graphics and an NVIDIA Quadro T1000. Dell and NVIDIA drivers are up to date, Edge is fully updated, and Device Manager reports no problems. Hardware acceleration is enabled in Edge, which reports hardware-accelerated decoding, but it appears to use the Intel GPU rather than the Quadro. During 4K YouTube playback, CPU usage is around 40–50%, Intel GPU usage is below 30%, and the Quadro is barely used.
Could this be related to the Intel graphics driver, Windows' compositor, GPU selection, hardware acceleration, video overlays, MPO, or GPU scheduling? What should I test next?
3 Answers
It sounds like Edge and Telegram may be choosing the Intel integrated graphics as their primary renderer, while your local media player is handling acceleration differently. In NVIDIA Control Panel or Windows Graphics settings, add Edge and Telegram and assign them to the Quadro, then restart the applications and compare playback and scrolling. This would explain why local 4K playback is fine while Chromium-based apps struggle.
Check YouTube’s playback statistics and look at the codec being used. If the video is using AV1, try temporarily forcing H.264 or VP9 with a browser extension or another browser. AV1 decoding or rendering can expose driver issues even when local video playback is smooth.
I tested this in Firefox and playback was much better there, but the problem still affects the other applications, so the underlying issue isn’t fully resolved.
Another useful test is to disable hardware acceleration inside Telegram and, separately, inside Edge. It sounds backward, but a problematic graphics driver, compositor, or overlay path can cause stuttering in accelerated apps. If disabling it fixes the issue, you can then investigate the Intel driver, MPO, browser GPU settings, and Windows graphics scheduling rather than the video files themselves.
That seems plausible, especially since both Edge and Telegram show the same behavior while local playback is perfectly smooth. I’ll force those applications onto the Quadro and test again.