Tuesday, November 13th 2007

Mozilla Still Perplexed as to Why Firefox Takes So Much RAM

Anyone who uses Mozilla Firefox in a Windows environment knows that Firefox can use a lot of memory. Now that Mozilla is getting a lot of requests to make a mobile version, they are working very hard to make a version that won't eat all of the mobile phone's memory. Christopher Blizzard, a member of Mozilla's development board, had this to say about Firefox's alleged memory issues.
As Mozilla starts down the path to running in the mobile space we are spending time looking at memory pressure issues more closely. . . (I)t sounds like the early data suggests that Mozilla really doesn't leak that much memory at all. But it does thrash the allocator pretty hard and that's what causes the perception of memory leaks.
Source: CRN
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56 Comments on Mozilla Still Perplexed as to Why Firefox Takes So Much RAM

#1
Unregistered
Currently my Firefox browser is using over 510MB of ram, it once topped 1GB...
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#2
p_o_s_pc
F@H&WCG addict
i see about 250mb of ram being used almost everytime i use FF i also have many add-ons.
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#3
Unregistered
Thats part of the reason i dont use it,the ram useage of firefox is a joke.
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#4
Unregistered
The browser is sometimes using as much memory as the latest games, what is all that memory used for???

"Doesn't leak that much memory" my butt!
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#5
OnBoard
I'm "just" on 205MB now, nice to see they are trying to do something about it. Although it's said that 3.0 should fit the memory leaking, maybe they can put this mobile version low memory usage in there too.
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#6
Unregistered
If they dont get the mem usage down,there aint gonna be no mobile version.
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#7
WhiteLotus
i want to know how uses it so much!
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#9
L|NK|N
Wow, I just check my usage and its only 64mb. :wtf: It's not near as bad as some of yours? Just checked IE as well. Its only using 38mb.
Posted on Reply
#10
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
my firefox is currently using 52mb lol
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#11
DRDNA
Hmm srry to the folks that insist on FF but I prefer IE6 right now ...but good luck to the FF team to fix memory usage!
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#12
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
using 113mb :(
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#13
mdm-adph
Using only 130 mb now, and I have 20 tabs spread over several windows, not to mention the 30 or so extensions I have installed and am actively using. That being said, I'm very careful with the extensions that I install (I make sure to avoid any that seem to be leaking memory at an alarming rate).

However, if you ask me, any argument about how much memory Firefox should use, when supplemented by personal examples, is useless unless you also supply which extensions you're currently using.
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#14
Oliver
Raving mad

How do you guys go so high mine uses 40mb maxed out.......nice and sleek and streamlined:):):):rockout:
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#15
magibeg
Mines using 67mb with 3 windows open.... not great but meh :P
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#16
OrbitzXT
Mine is only using 45,772k...I've never seen it above 80k, why would that be? I'm using XP x64.
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#17
theonetruewill
I never get over 70MB peak. I've never had these memory problems. I normally average at around 40MB. Out of interest what skins do the guys who have memory issues use?
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#18
newconroer
Aye same here, never broken 80. I use same window with tabs, and I don't have a load of plugins installed.

I think this is more dependant on the individual user. And most people's systems are run like crap, so what should one expect?
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#20
theonetruewill
newconroerAye same here, never broken 80. I use same window with tabs, and I don't have a load of plugins installed.

I think this is more dependant on the individual user. And most people's systems are run like crap, so what should one expect?
I don't have a lot of plugins. i reckon poorly coded ones are the problem for some. Others, I don't know???
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#21
pt
not a suicide-bomber
i only have one plugin and it uses 40mb, if i install more it fuks up
so opera ftw
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#22
zekrahminator
McLovin
Firefox at 80M after about an hour of usage and three tabs open.
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#23
OnBoard
theonetruewillI never get over 70MB peak. I've never had these memory problems. I normally average at around 40MB. Out of interest what skins do the guys who have memory issues use?
Open 3 firefoxes with 20 tabs each, browse a while. Then close 2 of them and leave just 1 tab open in last and see that you are still using all the memory that was in use before. It doesn't free the memory and as I don't ever shutdown my puter (or firefox) it just builds and builds up. Only way to clear mem is to shut down every firefox and then start a new one. <- And that is a veryvery bad idea if you are reading review on some new stuff, like while back I was looking for my LCD TV. Hours of work getting usefull pages open, you just can't close them until you don't need them anymore.

Same as you'd be playing a game and had to restart it every hour :) But my FF is quite basic, no modifications and 12 add-ons.
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#24
PVTCaboose1337
Graphical Hacker
My firefox is taking 49mb... but its not that big a deal.
Posted on Reply
#25
Wile E
Power User
A lot of it has to do with the way it caches pages. If you type about:config in the address bar and hit enter, then do a search for cache, you can fine tune the amount of memory it uses. You can even completely disable it's caching to ram, but that slows down revisiting pages quite a bit. While not the best, mine never goes over 90MB, and I have 18 extensions running.
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