Why does firefox use so much memory?
-
- Guest
Why does firefox use so much memory?
Right now, with only this tab open, firefox is using 56MB of memory and an additional 45MB of virtual memory. What is up with this? Internet explorer usually uses around 20MB.
- bytemaster
- Posts: 1264
- Joined: August 18th, 2003, 11:34 pm
- Contact:
First of all, if you have been using firefox for a long time without creating a new profile, then, create a new profile! Somewhere arround here is a list of files that you can copy over to your new profile to keep saved passwords, etc. In any case, this usually speeds things up and reduces memory ussage.
Secondly, the Task Manager is not the best judge of memory usage.
Third, you assume that programs have a fixed limit to their memory ussage. People used to servers may be familiar with the way programs like MS SQL server and Exchange server manage memory. These, like firefox, will grab available memory for their own use if they can use it.
If the memory is available and not needed by another program, firefox will grab it to increase performance. It also will release it when it is needed by other programs you may start.
In other words, the more RAM you have, the more memory firefox will appear to take, if you aren't running anything else.
Of couse, this is the theory. It is not perfect in practice, but seems to work fairly well.
(Originally posted here: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=146596 )
Also, in addition to the above, depending on your windows version, a good portion of IE's core is acutally loaded with the operating system. For example, if you have active desktop turned on, IE's rendering engine is already loaded to handle that. Thus, because of the way the task manager reads how much memory a task is using, some of the code that IE is using is already counted in other processes, plus the core, "hidden" processes.
Secondly, the Task Manager is not the best judge of memory usage.
Third, you assume that programs have a fixed limit to their memory ussage. People used to servers may be familiar with the way programs like MS SQL server and Exchange server manage memory. These, like firefox, will grab available memory for their own use if they can use it.
If the memory is available and not needed by another program, firefox will grab it to increase performance. It also will release it when it is needed by other programs you may start.
In other words, the more RAM you have, the more memory firefox will appear to take, if you aren't running anything else.
Of couse, this is the theory. It is not perfect in practice, but seems to work fairly well.
(Originally posted here: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=146596 )
Also, in addition to the above, depending on your windows version, a good portion of IE's core is acutally loaded with the operating system. For example, if you have active desktop turned on, IE's rendering engine is already loaded to handle that. Thus, because of the way the task manager reads how much memory a task is using, some of the code that IE is using is already counted in other processes, plus the core, "hidden" processes.
Brainbench Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Computer Technical Support
www.brainbench.com - <a href="http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/transcript/public/viewtranscript.xml?pid=742832">view my transcript</a>
www.brainbench.com - <a href="http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/transcript/public/viewtranscript.xml?pid=742832">view my transcript</a>
- christie129
- Posts: 22
- Joined: July 17th, 2004, 11:26 pm
- Location: Georgia
...
<b>Yeah...it's very disapointing I only have 128mb of RAM available! </b>
~*Christie*~
<a href="http://www.itpaystolearn.com/default.asp?ref_id=ALZ225">IPTL</a>
<a href="http://www.itpaystolearn.com/default.asp?ref_id=ALZ225">IPTL</a>
- bytemaster
- Posts: 1264
- Joined: August 18th, 2003, 11:34 pm
- Contact:
My recommendations for swap file size in NT (2000/XP).
Minimum: 2x your ram (1024 for 512Mb ram)
Maximum: 3x your ram (1536 for 512Mb ram)
This seems to give the best performance if you usually have a few applications open at once (e-mail, browser, etc).
Minimum: 2x your ram (1024 for 512Mb ram)
Maximum: 3x your ram (1536 for 512Mb ram)
This seems to give the best performance if you usually have a few applications open at once (e-mail, browser, etc).
Brainbench Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Computer Technical Support
www.brainbench.com - <a href="http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/transcript/public/viewtranscript.xml?pid=742832">view my transcript</a>
www.brainbench.com - <a href="http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/transcript/public/viewtranscript.xml?pid=742832">view my transcript</a>
- aconbere
- Posts: 971
- Joined: February 22nd, 2004, 9:07 pm
one of the big differences that people who are just switching form IE don't realise is that IE runs many other processes than the IE bowser. it's is in the windowing system of windows, and explorer.exe thus when you open up a browser window, and go check out the ram it's using... you only see a small fraction of what's going on.
Anders
Anders
-
- Guest
Re: Why does firefox use so much memory?
Just get an Apple!dipa wrote:Anders is right, Task Manager doesn't give you the big picture about IE.
- trolly
- Moderator
- Posts: 39851
- Joined: August 22nd, 2005, 7:25 am
Re: Why does firefox use so much memory?
Locking this old thread from 2004.
Think for yourself. Otherwise you have to believe what other people tell you.
A society based on individualism is an oxymoron. || Freedom is at first the freedom to starve.
Constitution says: One man, one vote. Supreme court says: One dollar, one vote.
A society based on individualism is an oxymoron. || Freedom is at first the freedom to starve.
Constitution says: One man, one vote. Supreme court says: One dollar, one vote.