Firefox Tuning

[laszlo]

I can't really give any good advice on broadband settings, since I couldn't yet try these prefs myself with DSL or faster, but I'd probably start with the following performance related settings:

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user_pref("browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 750);

If these settings don't give you an improvement, you could play with the "content." and ".initialpaint.delay" settings. As said above, I got the best results by keeping them in synch as in the given example (750000 and 750) while setting "max.tokenizing.time" to a multiple of "switch.threshold" (greater 3; with the values of the above example: 3 * 750000 = 2250000, 4 * 750000 = 3000000, ...).

If you're not satisfied with a setting and want to reset it to the default, just remove the pref both from user.js and prefs.js while not having Firefox running.

[BenBasson]

I'm running your settings now on 768/128k (or something) cable... it's pretty fast, but I cant say that any of it makes a considerable difference to load performance with my combination of cable modem and a 2.4ghz... Maybe a little. I already had pipelining on before though, but none of the other stuff.

[Colin Ramsay]

laszlo: thanks man.

[laszlo]

I'm running your settings now on 768/128k (or something) cable... it's pretty fast, but I cant say that any of it makes a considerable difference to load performance with my combination of cable modem and a 2.4ghz... Maybe a little. I already had pipelining on before though, but none of the other stuff.

With a low latency / high bandwidth connection and a fast system I wouldn't expect really dramatic improvements during normal surfing. When a page is loaded and rendered from scratch in less than 1 second, you won't notice much of a difference. The improvements in such a scenario will probably be mainly in larger, more complex pages. Well, at least it didn't get worse, obviously. ;)

laszlo: thanks man.

You're welcome. Did you see an improvement?

[BenBasson]

Just a quick point... if you wanna test a "real world" site that appears to load slowly, try http://www.kingsofchaos.com ... my god that's slow (well, it's the only site that I've noticed being slow).

[Gonzilla]

Moderator, why not make this topic a sticky? Seems that lots of users have reaped the benefits

[viper208]

I can't really give any good advice on broadband settings, since I couldn't yet try these prefs myself with DSL or faster, but I'd probably start with the following performance related settings:

Code: Select all

user_pref("browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl", true);
user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 750);

If these settings don't give you an improvement, you could play with the "content." and ".initialpaint.delay" settings. As said above, I got the best results by keeping them in synch as in the given example (750000 and 750) while setting "max.tokenizing.time" to a multiple of "switch.threshold" (greater 3; with the values of the above example: 3 * 750000 = 2250000, 4 * 750000 = 3000000, ...).

If you're not satisfied with a setting and want to reset it to the default, just remove the pref both from user.js and prefs.js while not having Firefox running.

This works even better for me ! WOW !

Thanks man !

[rfrangioni77]

GREAT stuff, laszlo. I noticed an improvement with this setup here:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040206 Firefox/0.8
Running on a 2.6ghz P4-M with 512mb RAM, using a wireless 640/256 connection. There <i>seemed</i> to be an even more noticeable improvement with the same build running on the desktop, which is a P4 3.0 with a gig of DDR400. Me rikey MUCHO!!

On such a flaky connection, any increase in speed, rendering or otherwise, is welcome.

This is the kind of stuff I plug when talking to people about Firefox. Not only the features and performance, but input like this from the community. Thanks, man! =)

[Lost User 15175]

Here's a question; how do I speed up bookmark rendering. My submenus have a delay before they render. It doesn't have to do with the Fav icons. I have them disabled completely.

[laszlo]

Try this setting:

user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);

If this doesn't help, what are your system specs?

[Nitin]

Good candidate for FAQ

marking sticky until David Tenser sees it..

[kerz]

This would be great stuff to add to the knowledge base if someone wants to do so!

jason

[TheOneKEA]

Thanks for the new settings!

I'd add this to the Knowledge Base myself but I think that since laszlo put it together so nicely in the first page, he should do the honors

[laszlo]

OK, I'll add it to the knowledge base over the weekend. I already thought of doing so, I just wanted to know first if others get a similar improvement out of these settings like I did.

[wildman]

Hya laslo some great tips here! Could y'all look at the following & recommend some Download Manger Tweaks?

Firebird's got a new download manager! Help testing!
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... 718#380718
...
3) I also changed some of the Delay settings & left the DM window open, as multiple open/close operations seemed to consume memory exponentially. This could have been related to problems I had installing some extensions, not sure.

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about:config   (filter: download)
browser.download.manager.closeWhenDone - userset - boolean - false (was true)
browser.download.manager.flashCount - default - integer - 2
browser.download.manager.focusWhenStarting - userset - boolean - false
browser.download.manager.openDelay - default - integer - 100 (was 500)
browser.download.manager.retention - default - integer - 2
browser.download.manager.showAlertInterval - userset - integer - 1000  (was 2000)
browser.download.manager.showAlertOnComplete - userset - boolean - false (was true)
browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting - default - boolean - true
browser.download.manager.useWindow - default - boolean - true
browser.download.progressDnldDialog.keepAlive - userset - boolean - false
browser.download.save_converter_index - userset - integer - 0
browser.download.useDownloadDir   - userset - boolean - false
browser.download.useProgressDialogs - userset - boolean - false