The beta Flash Player 10.2 has just a tenth the CPU consumption of the v10.1 plugin in some cases, says Adobe product manager John Nack. A primary feature of v10.2 is Stage Video, which can shift most of the burden for Flash video to a GPU. GPU acceleration was first introduced in v10.1.
Improvements in CPU usage are dependent on websites updating their custom players. Among the first parties to have updated is YouTube, although “others will follow,” according to Nack. Some other likely candidates may include Vimeo and Dailymotion.
YouTube itself, however, is among a number of websites now offering H L5 as an option for watching videos.
