Show HN: Avoid smooth spinners, use low-FPS spinners

https://nh2.me/low-fps-spinners/low-fps-spinners.html
I got so annoyed by various apps (VScode, Chromium, Firefox, Thunderbird) burning CPU/GPU cycles and and making my laptop hot and sluggish with spinners on otherwise static content, that I made this little page to fight this.

Comments

echoangleSep 25, 2026, 7:43 AM
Your claimed GPU usage seems really high for a simple spinner, even considering the CPU is pretty old. I wonder if there's some other problem going on with your setup.
nh2Sep 25, 2026, 8:40 AM
I don't think so. This is just what happens when you redraw the screen.

Doing it 30x more frequent than needed costs more, no matter if it's only 1 pixel.

This problem is not isolated to me or to just one machine. Check out the chromium bug about the tab loading spinner, for example. It is a "simple" spinner as well.

Or the Zed editor, which spams screen redraws even when nothing changes at all, so it has high GPU usage for still picture.

adastra22Sep 25, 2026, 10:26 AM
It should not cost a visible fraction of CPU/GPU to update a little sprite even at 30fps.
nh2Sep 25, 2026, 12:21 PM
But it does. The GPU rerenders your entire screen with all its pixels, even if you change only one. The only thing you can do to avoid that is to not ask the GPU to render a frame. For that you need to reduce FPS.
SR2ZSep 25, 2026, 3:33 PM
You need a fairly modern laptop to change the screen refresh rate like you're describing. Older laptops do 60Hz (or whatever) refreshes at all times, they can't change refresh rates like that. The compositor should only paint relevant pixels on the screen.

I'm sure that some spinners are horrible and peg the CPU, but unless your machine is older than ~2018 there is something wrong with your setup if spinners (and not intense operations behind them) cause your battery to suffer.

nh2Sep 25, 2026, 10:50 PM
I'm not describing anything about screen refresh rates, which I'm pretty sure are 60 Hz on my laptop even when the CPU+GPU are at 0% and don't draw anything. Compute != monitor refresh.
adastra22Sep 26, 2026, 2:14 AM
Compositing is fast and energy efficient. The screen should not be doing a full refresh of the entire display for an isolated change.
Timon3Sep 25, 2026, 1:55 PM
Did I totally miss how damage tracking has gone out of fashion, or what do you base this on?
nh2Sep 25, 2026, 10:47 PM
The damage tracking doesn't seem to be effective at reducing the computational cost. Measurement:

Opening https://nh2.me/low-fps-spinners/smooth-spinner.html it doesn't matter if I zoom the spinner to 25% or 500%: Despite the 400x difference in pixels redrawn, the "GPU Process" CPU usage in the "Browser" tab of the Chromium Shift+Esc task manager is equally high.

It only scales down the cost when reducing the FPS.

adastra22Sep 26, 2026, 2:13 AM
I am also mystified at how far things have fallen.
Lord-JoboSep 25, 2026, 2:23 PM
I miss the 1 update per second animations of ye olden times, even if it would be ugly as sin in a modern product.
jy14898Sep 25, 2026, 9:39 AM
I'm on mobile so I'm not able to check, but can the will-change and contain attributes reduce the cost?
nh2Sep 25, 2026, 12:20 PM
Avoiding unnecessary browser repaint of the rest of the page is a basic technique and often already done correctly. If people don't do that, it's just ultra-bad.

But do really have the CPU/GPU go idle, you need to not use them; the only solution to that is to show still images, aka reduce FPS.

DitiSep 25, 2026, 9:08 AM
Those aren’t spinners (also called numeric updowns, see [1]). Those are throbbers (also called loading icons, see [2]).

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing)

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throbber

creatonezSep 25, 2026, 10:03 AM
> [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing)

Hah, I did not expect that. I can't imagine any end users will be able to name that one.

zaepSep 25, 2026, 9:05 PM
This is a rare instance where I think Wikipedia is plain wrong. Maybe the process to have multiple pages renamed is onerous? The thing in the original post I've usually heard to be called spinners, while this input element, which I'm not sure I've ever even seen, doesn't seem to have its name justified in any way on the Wikipedia page either. I can't really tell why it'd desperately need a concise name either, it's basically a numeric input with extra controls on it? anyhow, spinners spin and those spin so they're spinners, I won't hear otherwise.
DitiSep 25, 2026, 10:25 PM
Mozilla employees up until recently (2024), and research literature, seem to be calling them throbbers as well.

Anecdotally, I’ve only ever heard non-frontend developers call them “spinners”.

Maybe starting a discussion on the articles’ talk page could elicit some change? Language evolves, after all.

nh2Sep 25, 2026, 10:59 PM
> I’ve only ever heard non-frontend developers call them “spinners”

Such as these non-frontend devs?

https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/components/spinners/

nomSep 25, 2026, 10:46 PM
spin boxes date back to windows 95 and were part of the windows common controls, often called spinners

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/...

I think they fell out of fashion after the scroll wheel was invented

pwdisswordfishqSep 25, 2026, 10:24 AM
To be fair, those do spin, while "spinners" don't.
adastra22Sep 25, 2026, 10:25 AM
That’s not how language works.
DitiSep 25, 2026, 11:31 AM
That is how language works.
account42Sep 25, 2026, 11:59 AM
The general public says: no.
4d4mSep 25, 2026, 7:11 PM
Can this be done in a lightweight way that uses less resources at full speed?

Low fps seems jerky/retro?

nh2Sep 25, 2026, 10:51 PM
Probably no.

Does "Square ring" really look jerky/retro?

4d4mSep 25, 2026, 11:15 PM
Square ring and the 2x2 look smooth!
nonamesleftSep 25, 2026, 7:51 AM
I truly wish i could get everything to use the ticking clock one at 1Hz (or maybe 0.5) for spinners, animation in user interfaces causes me anguish in general, so i have to go around filtering them on webapps.