Is Firefox Becoming a Memory Hog?
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 posted this at 19:03 — 13th December 2007.
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 posted this at 02:36 — 14th December 2007.
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 posted this at 04:32 — 14th December 2007.
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.
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).
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rtroxel posted this at 05:13 — 14th December 2007.
He has: 286 posts
Joined: Mar 2003
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.
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.
rtroxel posted this at 05:22 — 14th December 2007.
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
ngsupb posted this at 21:54 — 28th January 2008.
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 posted this at 09:27 — 29th January 2008.
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 posted this at 17:43 — 29th January 2008.
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
Scuba Steve posted this at 18:44 — 29th January 2008.
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
caffinephil posted this at 10:35 — 14th February 2008.
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 posted this at 13:52 — 15th February 2008.
He has: 3,956 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
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 posted this at 14:10 — 17th June 2008.
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 posted this at 21:45 — 17th June 2008.
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.
jk090 posted this at 14:40 — 25th November 2008.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Nov 2008
its pretty memory intensive but u can download a lite version
jk090 posted this at 14:41 — 25th November 2008.
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fasterfox.mozdev.org
greg posted this at 12:11 — 28th November 2008.
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!
ngsupb posted this at 11:50 — 20th December 2008.
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.
gainza34 posted this at 11:54 — 23rd March 2009.
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 posted this at 01:10 — 22nd April 2009.
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My FF eat 88 RAM... not bad i think, and Opera take 80 RAM.
Xtron posted this at 20:33 — 20th May 2009.
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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.
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articlemaster posted this at 15:36 — 23rd May 2009.
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 posted this at 23:47 — 29th May 2009.
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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