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Jan 17, 2024

It’s not just you: YouTube is slowing down your PC if you have AdBlock installed by making your CPU sweat—though despite the company’s past behaviour, it’s probably AdBlock’s fault

Posted by in category: computing

From what I could see the increase was pretty consistent—so not a dangerous spike—but lower-end laptops mainly used for browsing could start having heat problems. At best it’s inconvenient and annoying.

This has led to troubleshooting paranoia, as sudden and unexplained performance dips can be a sign of hardware problems. User JotaroKujoxXx says they were “wondering why my laptop ran like a fucking jet for the last few days”, while another commenter replies: “Yeah I’ve been deleting shit randomly thinking it was my storage space problem.”

The slow-down also appears to be impacting users who are subscribed to YouTube Premium while using AdBlocker for other websites, which is a problem—seeing as a subscription is a way to avoid ads without violating ToS, causing some users to feel hard done by. Our Guides Writer Sarah James tested the extension with Premium, and noted an increase of about 15–18%.

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