Firefox requires tons of memory

[Droriley]

Since the beginning of using it Firefox has always consumed too much memory and CPU resources.
Lately it has also came to practice that it would slow down the computer, especially when there are several tabs open simultaneously.
I have the latest version, and always keep my PC scanned for malware etc.
Can anybody tip for better usage?

[trolly]

At first, I think, 1 GB of installed RAM is on the very low side. You will not have fun with anything with that little memory.
The high CPU usage can be a consequence of swapping.

If possible upgrade your system.

[therube]

> there are several tabs open

And just what are in those tabs, & what are they doing?

If you open those same pages in tabs in IE does that do (noticeably) differently?

Try clearing cache.
How much free disk space do you have?

[dfoulkes]

At first, I think, 1 GB of installed RAM is on the very low side. You will not have fun with anything with that little memory.
The high CPU usage can be a consequence of swapping.

If possible upgrade your system.

That sure is low memory for Win10 or even Win7 .... my system is currently using 1.7gig of ram and I don't have a lot running.

[James]

Since the beginning of using it Firefox has always consumed too much memory and CPU resources.
Lately it has also came to practice that it would slow down the computer, especially when there are several tabs open simultaneously.
I have the latest version, and always keep my PC scanned for malware etc.
Can anybody tip for better usage?

While you posted this thread with Firefox on Windows 10, what Windows OS are you using as you really should have 4+ GB of Ram for Windows 7 and newer ideally.

[Droriley]

Since the beginning of using it Firefox has always consumed too much memory and CPU resources.
Lately it has also came to practice that it would slow down the computer, especially when there are several tabs open simultaneously.
I have the latest version, and always keep my PC scanned for malware etc.
Can anybody tip for better usage?

While you posted this thread with Firefox on Windows 10, what Windows OS are you using as you really should have 4+ GB of Ram for Windows 7 and newer ideally.

I use Win10, which is significantly more economic than Win7.
I do use an old machine though, of 2 GB RAM (and not 1 as for earlier comments). My hard drive is about half full.
What I suspect is that Firefox consumes too many resources from the system, occasionally. I mostly notice it while having multiple tabs active, and one of them will be YouTube.

[lovemyfoxy]

James--
Isn't memory usage also dependent on the number of add-ons?

There's something else wrong there on the OP's machine. I have my FF on an older XP machine w 2 GB RAM. I have about 25 extensions, and FF is using about 300-520 MB RAM, sliding up and down, but a range of only 2-5% CPU usage. It never uses a lot of CPU.

[dfoulkes]

I use Win10, which is significantly more economic than Win7.
I do use an old machine though, of 2 GB RAM (and not 1 as for earlier comments). My hard drive is about half full.
What I suspect is that Firefox consumes too many resources from the system, occasionally. I mostly notice it while having multiple tabs active, and one of them will be YouTube.

You mention that you have 2 gig in there... which on Win10 still seems light... and... in your first post (that screen shot) it shows that Firefox is using 89% at 847mb mem-use... so that percent looks like it's based on 1gig and not two? ... because 847mb is not 89 percent of 2gig... seems that you have an issue? ...

You might also want to make sure that your drive is defragged... else your system will work harder in doing it's job.

[dfoulkes]

James--
Isn't memory usage also dependent on the number of add-ons?

There's something else wrong there on the OP's machine. I have my FF on an older XP machine w 2 GB RAM. I have about 25 extensions, and FF is using about 300-520 MB RAM, sliding up and down, but a range of only 2-5% CPU usage. It never uses a lot of CPU.

Firefox memory use 'is' also made up of extensions and depending on what those extensions are... your 25 exts. may use less/more that the next users because their 25 extensions may be completely diff. from yours... also... the quantity of bookmarks and history play a part in Firefox mem-use...

[trolly]

Taking everything into account, your system must be using about 1 GB after startup without any applications running. System and firefox together are using 89% of you installed memory.

About:memory tells you how much memory firefox uses and how. Then one can decide how to reduce memory usage.

For myself over 50% of the memory is used by JS which can mean pages or addons.

[Droriley]

I use Win10, which is significantly more economic than Win7.
I do use an old machine though, of 2 GB RAM (and not 1 as for earlier comments). My hard drive is about half full.
What I suspect is that Firefox consumes too many resources from the system, occasionally. I mostly notice it while having multiple tabs active, and one of them will be YouTube.

You mention that you have 2 gig in there... which on Win10 still seems light... and... in your first post (that screen shot) it shows that Firefox is using 89% at 847mb mem-use... so that percent looks like it's based on 1gig and not two? ... because 847mb is not 89 percent of 2gig... seems that you have an issue? ...

You might also want to make sure that your drive is defragged... else your system will work harder in doing it's job.[/quote
I will look into it again - but don't forget that there are other apps that consum RAM memory, even when nothing is running and system is idle.
I will provide other examples, of better situation as well.

[therube]

There's something else wrong there on the OP's machine.

Why does there need to be anything wrong with either the OP's machine, or the memory usage by FF?
Could just be content in use.

92% of what?
92% of CPU usage on a 6-core CPU?
Yes there would certainly be something wrong there.
But 92% of a single core CPU, maybe not so odd, if you're playing some "HD" video.
And that "92%" equates to 50% with a dual-core CPU or 25% with a quad-core ...

Likewise "Memory"?

900 MB of what?
Simply opening my browser (from Session Restore, & doing nothing further) & I was using 1820 MB / 2688 MB (Private Bytes / Working Set) of memory.
So is 900 "high"?

Code: Select all

SeaMonkey 2.33.1    1527/2422   
SeaMonkey 2.35      1820/2688
SeaMonkey 2.35      1919/2831, at present, after "doing stuff" for a short while now

Neither "92%" nor "900 MB" are meaningful terms.

Likewise my 1820/2688 is also relatively meaningless.
But, I can say that opening my browser, from Session Restore, & doing nothing further, does return different RAM level usage - between (SeaMonkey) browser versions.

And all that really says is just what I said & nothing more. I cannot make the jump to saying that 2.35 is a memory "HOG", because it may or may not be, & it may be using memory differently then 2.33.1 did, or I could be hitting an extension conflict or preference setting affecting things that did not exist in 2.33.1, or anything under the sun.

But still I cannot make a "simple" statement like XYZ is a memory hog or "requires tons of memory".

I was lifting my car & it was very heavy.
My car, 2500lb compact, against my 180lb body, sure that's heavy.
My car, 2500lb compact, with a 1/2 Ton jack, again, that's heavy.
My car, 2500lb compact, against a 4 Ton jack, all of a sudden, a lightweight!
My matchbox car, 2oz, against my 180lb body, if that is still heavy, time to visit the doctor.

[trolly]

92.4% CPU from one process? I have never seen Firefox take more than 60% CPU (on my dual core or 30% on my quad core).
If nothing is heavily wrong the system seems to have a single core CPU.
And single core with only 2 GB is in my opinion mediocre nowadays.

Nevertheless, the OP has a problem. And I like to see the memory statistics.

[lovemyfoxy]

Firefox memory use 'is' also made up of extensions and depending on what those extensions are... your 25 exts. may use less/more that the next users because their 25 extensions may be completely diff. from yours... also... the quantity of bookmarks and history play a part in Firefox mem-use...

I know memory usage varies, but I was commenting on CPU usage. System Idle Process generally uses 99% of CPU in XP on a dual-core. My rather stuffed FF uses no CPU at all. Is Win 10 so different?

[malliz]

My nightly build is using around 1% and rises to around 19% when starting a youtube video but drops down to around 10%