firefox 3.5.5.

[simonlang]

okay 15 tabs open is maybe a lot but i guess every1 will agree that firefox eating over 1Gb ram is simply too much.

this ****tty little piece of browser is a real memory pig and if they dont fix it asap i ll be back to opera.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Yeah Firefox memory consumption over time is absolutely atrocious. I've had it hit 500-900mb.

They have to change over to the system Chrome uses, runs separate processes for each tab, so when you close a tab that memory is flushed. Right now it's pathetic, laughable how Firefox will end up after a heavy spell of usage (closing/opening tabs frequently over say 30mins-1hour+).

I find myself closing the browser and opening it again every so often to stop the memory rape and sluggishness kicking in.

[supernova_00]

Is it really hurting anything? No, so who cares. How about instead of complaining, you figure out which add-on is causing it?

[Guest]

I have stopped using Firefox because of the memory usage. It also starts getting pretty sluggish after a while. I've had it use 1GB+ of RAM too:

[simonlang]

nah sorry i wont take myself the blame for this. i havent installed too many addons, only these i really need:.

- adblock plus

- bbcode

- downloads in tab

- facebook bar

- flash got

- imagebot

- quickpagezoom

- skipscreen

- skype extension for firefox (i somewhere read that this was causing memory issues, so disabled/uninstalled it, didnt change anything tho!!)

- update notifier

- yontoo layers

these are all extensions im using. and i dont want a browser i have to close every 2 hours to get it to work. neither a browser which is only easy on memory if no extensions installed. then i relally can get back immediately to opera and having still more possibilities.

using it since long time ago (with some temporary switches to opera) but firefox is getting worse and worse.

im on a laptop with "only" 2GB ram. ...... its simply too much. and besides that i cant play a youtube vid without having it stucking every 5 seconds for a bit.

thats unacceptable for a browser with version number 3.x ....... if it was still 0.8 i wouldnt argue!

I have stopped using Firefox because of the memory usage. It also starts getting pretty sluggish after a while. I've had it use 1GB+ of RAM too:

boah so im not the only one. 1.38GB?!! thats just SICK ...

[Hani]

Mine doesn't even reach a 100mb with 10+ tabs open.

[Salty Wagyu]

Well it's definitely one of the addons, never had firefox consume over 300mb with 20 tabs, although that might have been a rare occurrence. What you should do is enable an addon one by one and find the culprit. If that fails, then create a new profile, re-install addons and import your important data (bookmarks, passwords you name it) if you have the time.

[Growled Member]

Mine doesn't even reach a 100mb with 10+ tabs open.

Same here. One problem I've found is that if you do open and close tabs a lot then RAM consumption will rise over time. I've found it best to keep tabs low and reuse them instead of closing them and opening new ones. It seems Firefox has problems releasing the RAM once a tab is closed.

[Kirkburn]

Addons can indeed cause memory leaks.

I strongly suspect it is one of those you list: going above, say, 500MB within a single session is definately signalling an issue - especially if you monitor it over time, and it rises without you doing anything.

I have far more addons, and rarely have this issue (generally when some Flash or JS is misbehaving).

Note, you will never find a browser that has tiny RAM usage, unless you want worse performance (e.g. less caching), or non-functioning page elements. Rendering a page is not a simple task.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Same here. One problem I've found is that if you do open and close tabs a lot then RAM consumption will rise over time. I've found it best to keep tabs low and reuse them instead of closing them and opening new ones. It seems Firefox has problems releasing the RAM once a tab is closed.

Yes this is the issue, it's not a case of "oh hey lets open firefox and immediately open 20 tabs and see how much memory is used".

In my findings what Firefox is terrible at is extended usage and handling memory giveback - In other words you use it for an hour straight, close all the tabs back to one, and it's still using hundreds of MB's. Where as a close and reload with one tab is anywhere around 40-80mb.

That is why IMO it really has to shift to Chromes way of running tabs as separate processes, rather than lumping all memory consumption under one task.

[Kirkburn]

Yes this is the issue, it's not a case of "oh hey lets open firefox and immediately open 20 tabs and see how much memory is used".

In my findings what Firefox is terrible at is extended usage and handling memory giveback - In other words you use it for an hour straight, close all the tabs back to one, and it's still using hundreds of MB's. Where as a close and reload with one tab is anywhere around 40-80mb.

That is why IMO it really has to shift to Chromes way of running tabs as separate processes, rather than lumping all memory consumption under one task.

It essentially sounds like you don't want the browser to cache anything? I certainly wouldn't want the cache to be per-tab, because I don't do single tasks in single tabs.

Closing down to one tab wouldn't suddenly give back all the memory, because afaik it's saving a whole load of stuff so you can quickly go back to the sites you previously visited.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

It essentially sounds like you don't want the browser to cache anything? I certainly wouldn't want the cache to be per-tab, because I don't do single tasks in single tabs.

Of course I want the browser to cache things, every browser on the market does, but none of the others have the issue, at least not as seriously as Firefox does, with memory consumption.

If you've used Chrome you should know exactly what I'm talking about.

[Ci7]

Yes this is the issue, it's not a case of "oh hey lets open firefox and immediately open 20 tabs and see how much memory is used".

In my findings what Firefox is terrible at is extended usage and handling memory giveback - In other words you use it for an hour straight, close all the tabs back to one, and it's still using hundreds of MB's. Where as a close and reload with one tab is anywhere around 40-80mb.

That is why IMO it really has to shift to Chromes way of running tabs as separate processes, rather than lumping all memory consumption under one task.

unfortunately that would be late to show up

according to Mozilla road map , it is planned for Firefox 4 which is due Q3/Q4 2010

[Growled Member]

If you've used Chrome you should know exactly what I'm talking about.

IE 8 handles RAM the same way. Both are excellent at releasing RAM back for use.

[Krystalwp]

I've had it as high as 200MB ram, that was with like 20 tabs :o

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Firefox is quite good at how little memory it uses for how much it has to store (people forget just how big uncompressed images are), but a lot of extensions aren't. The largest I've seen Firefox go up to recently was around 500MB, and at that time I had about 8 tabs open with 3-4 mega pixel images in them.

IE 8 handles RAM the same way. Both are excellent at releasing RAM back for use.

Firefox also releases RAM when the system needs it as well.

[Udedenkz]

Let me get this straight,

You are Complaining about Firefox memory usage while using a bunch of addons which were not made by Mozilla. I am sorry, but if you are going to complain about a browser behaving badly - DISABLE THE ADDONS FIRST!! - Honestly.

9 TABS OPEN,

114 MB Consumed

[sundayx Veteran]

Let me get this straight,

You are Complaining about Firefox memory usage while using a bunch of addons which were not made by Mozilla. I am sorry, but if you are going to complain about a browser behaving badly - DISABLE THE ADDONS FIRST!! - Honestly.

9 TABS OPEN,

114 MB Consumed

qft

[Eice]

Let me get this straight,

You are Complaining about Firefox memory usage while using a bunch of addons which were not made by Mozilla. I am sorry, but if you are going to complain about a browser behaving badly - DISABLE THE ADDONS FIRST!! - Honestly.

9 TABS OPEN,

114 MB Consumed

Are you kidding me? Extensions are the ONLY reason why anyone would consider using Firefox. Even IE8 whups a vanilla extensions-less Firefox install.

So yeah, if a feature sanctioned and heavily advertised by Mozilla causes this much problems with the product, end users are entitled to complain. TBH, though, I wish people would take you seriously. Then they might consider moving off this crap browser and migrating to better products.

[ArKeYa]

Are you kidding me? Extensions are the ONLY reason why anyone would consider using Firefox. Even IE8 whups a vanilla extensions-less Firefox install.

So yeah, if a feature sanctioned and heavily advertised by Mozilla causes this much problems with the product, end users are entitled to complain. TBH, though, I wish people would take you seriously. Then they might consider moving off this crap browser and migrating to better products.

That's the thing. You cannot embrace something as the best reason to use Firefox and then distance from it when fails.

I have problems with Firefox too and just figure the add-ons responsible, disable it and if possible update or replace it. Yes we can do that. Or, maybe Mozzilla fix memory leaks issues. That's better.

[TheTempestSonata]

I used Google Wave for about two hours the other day and I stopped using Firefox and started up Chrome when FFox reported that it was using 2.8GB of my total RAM. I wasn't having that.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

...

I have problems with Firefox too and just figure the add-ons responsible, disable it and if possible update or replace it. Yes we can do that. Or, maybe Mozzilla fix memory leaks issues. That's better.

So it's Mozilla's responsibility to patch bugs in 3rd party extensions?

[Eice]

So it's Mozilla's responsibility to patch bugs in 3rd party extensions?

It's their responsibility to prevent their #1 touted feature from destabilizing the browser. Like what Google is doing with Chrome.

[Udedenkz]

Are you kidding me? Extensions are the ONLY reason why anyone would consider using Firefox. Even IE8 whups a vanilla extensions-less Firefox install.

So yeah, if a feature sanctioned and heavily advertised by Mozilla causes this much problems with the product, end users are entitled to complain. TBH, though, I wish people would take you seriously. Then they might consider moving off this crap browser and migrating to better products.

Extensions ARE NOT the only reason why I use Firefox. IE8's addons also cause problems, many people for example complained about the slow tab opening speeds.

So start complaining about any browser that allows users to create any addon they desire. It is not the job of the browser creators to personally test every addons, if not impossible. The only way to solve that is to disable addon support or limit it and thus reduce the functionality / custom-ability of said browser.

I used Google Wave for about two hours the other day and I stopped using Firefox and started up Chrome when FFox reported that it was using 2.8GB of my total RAM. I wasn't having that.

Don't even mention Google Chrome. That browser lacks too many features for any FF user that ever customized their browser to switch. I have spent a few hours trying to figure out how to disable disk caching on Chrome for example - something that you can do on FF in 30 seconds - and well there is no way to disable disk caching in Chrome. Chrome also has problems with many websites whereas Firefox 3.5.5 renders everything flawlessly. Chrome offers no appeal to users seeking high customization, reliability, features, etc.

The memory usage is your own fault. You should be well ware that the more addons you run the more momory / slower the browser will become. Firefox allows addons and is not locked down without addon support and therefore it is not idiot proof.

It's their responsibility to prevent their #1 touted feature from destabilizing the browser. Like what Google is doing with Chrome.

Yes just like it is Microsoft's responsibility to prevent users from bloating up and slowing down the Windows OS.

[Eice]

Extensions ARE NOT the only reason why I use Firefox.

For such a dedicated *ahem* fan like you, perhaps not. But it's a simple fact Firefox without extensions gets trounced by every other major browser out there. Firefox has all but delegated the job of innovation to the extension writers, and now that's all it has left to keep it going. Name me ONE good reason to pick Firefox over any other major browser if the user isn't allowed to install extensions in Firefox. Go ahead. One.

IE8's addons also cause problems, many people for example complained about the slow tab opening speeds.

And surely that's something for the IE team to look into. Your point?

Chrome offers no appeal to users seeking high customization, reliability, features, etc.

Except that Firefox's so-called "high customization, reliability, features" suck up gigabytes of RAM and turns the browser into a slug, speed-wise, for no apparent reason. It's simply laughable how you tell people to disable extensions and crimp functionality, and yet turn around and praise how customizable and feature-rich Firefox is. A hallmark example of the selective logic typically displayed by *ahem* very dedicated fans in defending their favorite products.

Yes just like it is Microsoft's responsibility to prevent users from bloating up and slowing down the Windows OS.

This is an unbelievably stupid analogy. If it were possible for Microsoft to do that, then yes, it would be their responsibility. Until you can demonstrate exactly how and why it is possible, however, you're doing nothing but spewing drivel. On the other hand, it's perfectly possible to create an extensions system that doesn't bog the browser down. Google has shown the way. And it's time for Mozilla to play catch-up - again.