The problem isn't the peak capability of the hardware: it's the strategy used to handle the content. In most web browsers animated GIFs are treated as images, which depending on the browser causes a whole host of potential side-effects (kept around or animating when offscreen, all frames kept in memory, etc.)
Video is video and is in general more properly streamed, evicted from memory, and halted when offscreen.
"... But in the worst case all your elements might be grouped into a single layer and the browser has to repaint every single element. And, when it’s done, it still needs to upload everything to the GPU. All of this is work occurs for every GIF frame..."
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The problem isn't the peak capability of the hardware: it's the strategy used to handle the content. In most web browsers animated GIFs are treated as images, which depending on the browser causes a whole host of potential side-effects (kept around or animating when offscreen, all frames kept in memory, etc.)
Video is video and is in general more properly streamed, evicted from memory, and halted when offscreen.
Yep.
"... But in the worst case all your elements might be grouped into a single layer and the browser has to repaint every single element. And, when it’s done, it still needs to upload everything to the GPU. All of this is work occurs for every GIF frame..."
http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/speed/animated-gifs/