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Scrolling feel is not smooth #4823

@Zedliminal

Description

@Zedliminal

Captchas

  • I have read the instructions.
    I have searched existing issues and avoided creating duplicates.
    I am not filing an enhancement request.

What happened?

I'm using Windows 11, with a R7 5800X and an RTX4070 in case the specs matter for this.

The scrolling feel of the browser is not good at all, it feels kind of laggy, anything but smooth.

Steps I have taken to try to address the issue:

  1. Disabling / enabling smooth scrolling in the settings. (it was on by default)
  2. Change the following settings in about:config to mimic the same settings in Mozilla Firefox:

general.smoothScroll.msdPhysics.continuousMotionMaxDeltaMS 120
general.smoothScroll.msdPhysics.motionBeginSpringConstant 1250
general.smoothScroll.msdPhysics.regularSpringConstant 1000
general.smoothScroll.msdPhysics.slowdownMinDeltaMS 12
general.smoothScroll.msdPhysics.slowdownSpringConstant

  1. Restarting the browser after changing the mentioned settings.
  2. Installing SmoothScroll addon. This is the only way to get some noticeable change in the way scrolling was behaving for me. However, it does not provide the same feel in Zen as it does in Firefox, it still provides a much lesser experience in Zen than in Firefox. I was not using this addon before in Firefox, I only installed it in Firefox for the purposes of comparison.

There were no noticeable changes at all when making the mentioned changes.

In case it helps, I recorded a short video comparing Firefox and Zen's scrolling while making the changes, although I did not know to try the about:config settings at that time: https://youtu.be/iO3vdiWSqc0

If there is any way I can help troubleshoot this I'll be more than happy to.

Reproducible?

  • I have checked that this issue cannot be reproduced on Mozilla Firefox.

Version

1.7.4b

What platform are you seeing the problem on?

Windows

Relevant log output if applicable

Activity

wheathy

wheathy commented on Feb 18, 2025

@wheathy

I have a similar issue but only on my laptop (I7-10750H, RTX2070, 16GB RAM).
Launching a profiler recording in the devtools seems to fix the issue for the session until you close completely the browser or restart the computer.

Zedliminal

Zedliminal commented on Feb 19, 2025

@Zedliminal
Author

I have a similar issue but only on my laptop (I7-10750H, RTX2070, 16GB RAM). Launching a profiler recording in the devtools seems to fix the issue for the session until you close completely the browser or restart the computer.

Thank you so much for this, I think I launched a profiler recording at some point without really knowing what it was but then closed the browser, and it was only a couple of days later I noticed it was fixed when I tried again, but I didn't know what fixed the issue, this is it.

ZN0N15

ZN0N15 commented on Jul 2, 2025

@ZN0N15

I'm actually having this issue right now. I'm at version 1.14b. I thought it was my PC but when I tried other browsers it felt buttery smooth except for zen. Launching the profile recording did miraculously fix it temporarily. But I'd have to do it every time I launch the browser because it only works on each session opened. It seems they haven't fixed this issue yet and there's no permanent solution. So I'm confused why this issue got closed. I might reopen another one for the devs to properly notice and make a permanent fix to this.

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          Scrolling feel is not smooth · Issue #4823 · zen-browser/desktop