Comments on: Browser Memory (RAM) Usage: Firefox 3.5 RC, Safari 4, Opera 10 Beta, Google Chrome 3.0 Dev

By: Russell

Russell — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:27:11 +0000

All I know is that whenever my computer slows down, all I have to do is bring up the task manager and oops, firefox is up there at 525,000 plus every time. I don’t know what screws up firefox and causes it to hog memory but it does. I have my task manager sorted by program memory usuage and honestly, its always at the top of the list, even when I have just 2-4 websites open compared to IE that I use as my primary browser that usually by the end of my workday has 8 or 9 windows open. Case and point, firefox has problems. If you want proof Mr. Authory, google your own question. Firefox is at the bottom of everybody elses list except yours. How much did they pay you to post this? Come on, admit dude. : )

By: Aeromax

Aeromax — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:38:05 +0000

What were the testing criteria? I know dynamic web pages (facebook, etc) and anything with Flash will take up a lot more memory than simple HTML. How many tabs were open? Usually in Firefox I’ll have anywhere from five to fifteen tabs open at any given time, probably 60% of which have Flash embedded somewhere (ads, etc). And if I leave my computer on all night, FF will sometimes have 350,000KB usage.

By: BenTLor

BenTLor — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:22:24 +0000

I laugh. I have Firefox as a default browser, and 512Mb RAM in my computer. I have various other explorers, like Opera, Chrome, IE 5.5, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 (web developer needs) and the only thing is that firefox has never used more than 150Mb of RAM on my computer, however, it is not too rare that I open up to 20-30 tabs at a time. Chrome would open with 100MB and only the home page is shown…

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:38:30 +0000

trying to make firefox look good… firefox has been proven to be the 2nd largest ram user of all the browsers… one behind IE. There are plenty of people out there with a 512 mb RAM and it would overload there system if this info was true.

By: Porcsale

Porcsale — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:52:17 +0000

Kind of an odd comment to post here, since the subject should interest people that WANT a browser using less RAM.

By: lucideer

lucideer — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:36:51 +0000

This is most certainly nonsense. Firefox has massively improved it’s memory usage in 3.5, before that it has a reputation for being a browser with substantial memory leaks.

Thankfully they will probably no longer hold that reputation, but the problem with addons’ memory usage/leaks is not something Firefox/Mozilla will ever have any control over as each addon is written by a completely independent 3rd party developer. Firefox could potentially have terrible memory leaks with just one addon installed if that addon happens to be an extremely poorly written one.

By: lucideer

lucideer — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:33:10 +0000

The article is old but still relevant as it explains memory usage in general, not specific browser versions’.

Opera frees memory to any apps needing it when tab-trash is emptied. As most systems have (a) far more RAM available than in the past and (b) are primarily used for browsing, without high-memory apps running parallel to your browser there is rarely any app requiring memory and any reason to free it. Holding unused memory is more efficient as it can be more quickly filled when needed.

@ps
The memory usage “on-minimise” is an operating system feature if I’m not mistaken.

By: Matson

Matson — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:11:05 +0000

Last night firefox 3.5 RC3 occupied 1.2G ram, and it was keep rising.

By: nobody

nobody — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:20:23 +0000

astonishingly old article i have to say.

but it does not explain why opera doesnt purge memory after clearing trash. this includes both working and private sets – tests in the opening article were done with the same system hooks as sysinternal’s process monitor

By: somebody

somebody — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:00:27 +0000

This post explains the reason for that behaviour.

http://my.opera.com/mitchman2/blog/show.dml/167116