Is Firefox Becoming a Memory Hog?

He has: 286 posts

Joined: Mar 2003

Over the past few weeks, Firefox has automatically downloaded several upgrades to my PC. At this time, I am on version 2.0.0.11, which seems to use an inordinate amount of memory. For example, with only one pane open, the browser requires 88MB of RAM.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Thanks,

Roy

Greg K's picture

He has: 2,145 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

I have the same version, and just one copy open with just one window browsing to google.com, mine was using about 46 megs

I also have the following installed:
ColorZilla 1.0
Firebug 1.05
FlashGot 0.6.9.3
Image Zoom 0.3
MeasureIt 0.3.6
Password Exporter 1.0.6
UnPlug 1.6.06
Web Developer 1.1.4
CMN Toolbar 1.5.18.0

(and the Dom Inspector and Talkback one)

-Greg

Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

Joined: Oct 2002

Yes, I have also noticed that firefox is taking up more and more RAM with each release. Not to mention creeping file size.

However, I found that memory usage is also to do with the sites you visit.

JeevesBond's picture

He has: 3,956 posts

Joined: Jun 2002

It became a memory hog quite some time ago. There's a problem where Firefox caches far more Web pages than required, the Mozilla devs said it's a feature, whilst the community argued it's a memory leak. So there was a huge flameware for several years. Smiling

It's being fixed now, you can look forward to a much leaner memory footprint in Firefox 3. Naturally Opera beats everything in terms of speed and memory usage (might have some competition from Safari though). Wink

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He has: 286 posts

Joined: Mar 2003

Quote: There's a problem where Firefox caches far more Web pages than required, the Mozilla devs said it's a feature, whilst the community argued it's a memory leak.

That makes sense. Sometimes after I've shut down Firefox completely, I check in the Windows Task Manager, and it will show Firefox still running.

Quote: just one copy open with just one window browsing to google.com, mine was using about 46 megs

Actually, that's what Task Manager shows, after I've just opened Firefox. However, after a few hours, the memory use increases considerably, even after I've opened and closed several different panes. It's as if the browser is keeping something else open as well, or running some additional process behind the scenes.

He has: 286 posts

Joined: Mar 2003

OK. I am now viewing this page through Opera 9.24 and Task Manager reads just 28,690K of RAM being used. I'll test this out for a few days.

Thanks,

Roy

They have: 11 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

I haven't noticed this issue before, but looks like firefox uses to much ram indeed. I got 127mb used now:(

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

I've known about this before, but no problem for me since I do use a lot of plugins. And yes FF had the memory leak problem long ago up until today. But I have resolved this issue by occasionally closing down firefox and then restart it... (I do however open about 15 tabs simultaneously almost all the time)...

Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

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Yes, this is an issue with Firefox 2 and they are denying it exists. However, having said that, this has been fixed in Firefox 3 Wink

Scuba Steve's picture

They have: 26 posts

Joined: Jan 2008

haha, i think it is a bit of a memory hog, mine sometimes runs up to 75 megs, but that is not enough to make me stop using it, also I always have at least 5 to 6 tabs open

They have: 99 posts

Joined: Feb 2008

I have recently added some more plugins and now GMail runs slower. I searched on this and it so happens that the Firebug extension is responsible for this. It just so happens that I use firebug quite often so i'm going to have to put up with it.

JeevesBond's picture

He has: 3,956 posts

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Would disabling Firebug for the GMail domain help with the speed problem? Am pretty sure it can be disabled for certain domains.

On a seperate note Firefox 3 is in Beta now, apparently it has been somewhat slimlined.

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Jack Michaelson's picture

He has: 1,733 posts

Joined: Dec 1999

Three hours to go to Firefox Download Day! Already running the FF 3 Beta and it's so much faster and eats much less memory.

Michael James Swan's picture

He has: 400 posts

Joined: May 2008

I have never had any problems with it although i only have two tabs open, ...

One is this and the other is www.starpulse.com and my process for firefox is adveraging around 120,800KB Mark.

I have nothing else open and my windows taskbar is virtually empty.

They have: 15 posts

Joined: Nov 2008

its pretty memory intensive but u can download a lite version

They have: 15 posts

Joined: Nov 2008

fasterfox.mozdev.org

greg's picture

He has: 1,581 posts

Joined: Nov 2005

Well, Firefox 2.xxx was but Firefox 3 is fine.

With any version of FF2 mine loaded with a min of about 40mb memory usage, then from there as the day went on, my opening and closing tabs, it gradually increased.
Due to the issue where when you closed tabs it didn't clear all related cache (etc) for that tab, the memory didn't decrease fully when you closed tabs.
I.E. if opening a new site in a new tab used a further 2mb, closing that tab only removed say 1.5mb, leaving 0.5mb left (figures are for examples only, don't whip me for inaccuracy)

After a days browsing I often had FF with over 200mb of memory usage.

FF3, which I have used for a week now, opens with about 22mb, and I haven't yet managed to get it past 110mb, and that was leaving the same one open for 3 days, opening and closing hundreds of sites/tabs.

Seriously, FF3 is sorted and worth getting if you haven't already made the switch!

They have: 11 posts

Joined: Feb 2007

haha my firefox uses around 250 mb or ram. But it is ok since I have a lot of tabs opened at the same time. Except of this haven't seen any other problems with FF, it just rocks.

They have: 14 posts

Joined: Mar 2009

I use Firefox because it is customizable - I use themes, extensions, bookmarks toolbar. When I open more than 20 tabs it gets slow but I don't usually open more than five. I also have problems with opening URLs containing cyrillic letters. For URLs like that I use IE. I use both IE and FF when designing websites.

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Brutal's picture

They have: 134 posts

Joined: Feb 2009

My FF eat 88 RAM... not bad i think, and Opera take 80 RAM.

Xtron's picture

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Joined: May 2009

I think as any product gets older, it gets bigger and usually loses it's key feature that makes it so popular. FF will one day be like IE, but we'll have a new browser by then. It's how things work =P

I have 4gb of ram in my system (overkill, I know) so it runs fine for me.

Make your imagination come to life.....for just $19.95
(kidding)

They have: 83 posts

Joined: Apr 2009

Yes me also facing the same problem.
Firefox is using a lots of memory of my PC. But its the best browser for me so i just cant think of not using it..
Try to include less addon.. and thats what i do..

NickD's picture

They have: 56 posts

Joined: May 2009

I have had intermittant problems where firefox has chewed up my two gigs of DDR
but only very seldomly, I think firefox is still by far the best browser on the planet. When you look at the wealth of addons and its customisability, master password feature (godsend) and the fact you can back up all your bookmarks, passwords, cookies and everything with mozbackup, and then import them with one click after doing a fresh O/S install, I can forgive it for chewing a bit of ram from time to time.

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