Firefox 4: still a memory hog

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freitasm

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Geekzone

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# 80108 26-Mar-2011 22:19

Good old Firefox... New version, same old story. One tab open, simple web page with ten images and the beast is using 1.7GB RAM.

No hope for it really. I'm glad it's not my default browser.

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# 452221 26-Mar-2011 22:23

for comparison sakes can you please open the same webpage with same scenario on IE9 and Chrome too please. would like to see how big of a difference there is in each browser.

Do whatever you want to do man.

freitasm

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# 452224 26-Mar-2011 22:32

Might have to leave it for a while - it seems Firefox uses more and more memory by the second.

Opened Geekzone in three browsers. Chrome and Internet Explorer both used about 40MB, Firefox was about 140MB from the start...

valtam

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# 452235 26-Mar-2011 23:06

Thats not good. They're aware of the memory usage, V4 and we're still no closer to an improvement in this area.

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kingjj

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# 452252 27-Mar-2011 00:05

freitasm: Might have to leave it for a while - it seems Firefox uses more and more memory by the second.

Opened Geekzone in three browsers. Chrome and Internet Explorer both used about 40MB, Firefox was about 140MB from the start...

Single tab with GZ open in FF4 is giving me 81mb (thats including 6 running extensions), GZ in Chrome 40 odd. I'm amazed that FF can chew through 1.7g on one page!

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# 452253 27-Mar-2011 00:06

interesting. i use vmware and run windows xp 32 bit in it with 512MB virtual memory. i found fx4 is snappier than fx3 (no objective measurement of course).

richms

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# 452255 27-Mar-2011 00:19

I have found that I have to blow away the firefox profile and then reimport my bookmarks etc thru foxmarks to stop it becoming a greedy bastard with all the ram etc.

IMO, it is still inexcusable the amount it takes, at least its not like some other browsers that crap all over your computer with many many processes, seemingly one or 2 per tab (cough IE cough)

Richard rich.ms

nakedmolerat

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# 452258 27-Mar-2011 00:44

i did some test on osx 10.6 (mac air 11inch) with 4GB memory. i use the activity monitor and sum up each processes

the total 'real mem' used by each of them:-

875.0 MB google chrome 10.0.648.204

358.9 MB firefox 4.0

i think firefox 4.0 runs in 64 bit on osx.

b0untypure1

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# 452262 27-Mar-2011 01:00

memory usage is high, but i love firefox 4. the awesome "switch to tab" feature is handy too !

Ragnor

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# 452268 27-Mar-2011 03:00

I'd put money on it being an addon or plugin issue, especially if you installed over the top of an existing installation of an old version.

Did you try with safe mode or resetting defaults?

Anyway I've been comparing IE9, FF4 and Chrome and this week and there isn't too much between them. However I think I still prefer Chrome so far.

I think Chrome's model of rapid development and improvement with constant releases is simply better.

askelon

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# 452269 27-Mar-2011 03:21

Pretty strange, Im sure mines sitting at around 300-400mb since I installed it. Certainly hasnt gotten up anywhere near that high.. It still works well though - I use chrome for all my customers but stick to firefox for myself.. :)

nakedmolerat

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# 452275 27-Mar-2011 08:06

i put fx 4 on my desktop (win 7 pro with 6GB). open 10 tabs, with flash and html 5.

chrome 309,680 KB 10.0.648.204
firefox 169,930 KB 4.0

this is very interesting. i think i should try fx 4.0 for the next few days.

kiwitrc

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# 452276 27-Mar-2011 08:07

With lots of addons, and 6 pages open I am getting 204MB on FF4, running Win 7 64bit.

Niel

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# 452280 27-Mar-2011 09:15

I'm also experiencing around 180MB memory usage with multiple tabs open, not worried about it. Comparing with reported IE memory usage is not fair, because lots of IE usage is hidden by Windows.

This is only my impression, no real evidence: It appears that Firefox 4 buffers more to speed up browsing, which means it will use more memory.

Some companies (can't mention mine) sets up virus scanners to scan each file every time it is accessed. If your browser uses the hard drive for buffering you get very slow speed. If using memory it is fast. Memory is cheap.

I've had 1 crash, and frustrated that the location for "open in new window" and "open in new tab" moved/swapped, but can't find fault.

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freitasm

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# 452284 27-Mar-2011 09:29

richms: IMO, it is still inexcusable the amount it takes, at least its not like some other browsers that crap all over your computer with many many processes, seemingly one or 2 per tab (cough IE cough)

And Chrome. On the other hand, if a tab crashes, it won't take down the whole browser.

simon14

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# 452333 27-Mar-2011 11:04

Chrome 19,000k
IE9 33,000k
Firefox4 60,000k

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