Page 1 of 2

[56K Warn] Firefox being a resource hog

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:56 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Does anyone have any ideas what would make Firefox use this much of my system resources...
Image

I actually watched the usage gor from 88K to over 101K before I took the screenshot. Is this normal? I can't imagine that it is. This is a regular daily occurance at work. Toward the end of the day I get the warning from Windows that I am low on virtual memory and that Windows is increasing the size of my Page File. What gives?


PS Sorry for the big picture size, but I'd rather have it here than have to make anyone go out to see it.

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:01 pm
by panic!
101k? that's not very much ;)

Firefox suffers from memory leaks pretty bad, the newer versions seem to be much tighter. I'm using 1.5.0.5 and my usage is currently *checks* 25,000k with 10 tabs open: not too bad! Certain bugs in FF mean that some client side code can create memory leaks and mean you wind up using 200,000k for one tab :(.

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:03 pm
by RobertGonzalez
The thing is, I had three tabs open. I have a crap load of extensions installed, too. But there is not another app that comes close to using that much. Even photoshop with five multilayer images open uses that much. It just seems like a lot to me.

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:26 pm
by panic!
right, the extensions are probably the problem, are there any you can live with out, i disabled FIREBUG (which I need for dev but not surfing) WEB DEVELOPER and Tidy VAlidator and FF just ran like a dream...try running FF in safe mode and see if it still takes up as much memory!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:17 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I think there may be something up with my computer at work. At home, with the same extensions enabled and with the samenumber of tabs open and MORE windows open, the usage is at 75K. It just seems odd. Oh well, maybe my work computer will blow up and I can get a shiny new one. Oooh :mrgreen:

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:27 pm
by Benjamin
Mine was at 400k the other day. It either has a memory leak or it doesn't free the cache from ram.

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:47 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I suppose I should ask this question as well, but does the amount of resources consumed have a direct relationship to the performance of the machine? I assume it does, because as the concumed resource value increases, the performance of the machine decreases substantially. Is there a way around this?

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:58 pm
by Benjamin
On my system it doesn't. But if it did I would just close and re-open firefox.

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:19 pm
by AKA Panama Jack
robincard wrote:101k? that's not very much ;)

Firefox suffers from memory leaks pretty bad, the newer versions seem to be much tighter. I'm using 1.5.0.5 and my usage is currently *checks* 25,000k with 10 tabs open: not too bad! Certain bugs in FF mean that some client side code can create memory leaks and mean you wind up using 200,000k for one tab :(.
You missed the 94% CPU usage. :D

Firefox has a number of memory leaks amoung the many issues with resource overload. One of the major complaints about Firefox, even the new betas is how it mysteriously eats ram, never gives it back and uses massive amounts of CPU for no apparent reason.

When it comes to stability... well... it's kind of neck and neck with IE.

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:58 am
by matthijs
Mine's 166.000 kb. With maybe 30tabs and a few days running. But CPU is near 0 when I do nothing, so that's ok I suppose.

Extensions can take a lot of memory. Disabling a few, certainly the ones your don't use, may help. Some weeks ago I had a lot of problems with the Google browser sync.

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 2:06 am
by Benjamin
Image

0 Plugins
4 Tabs
Running 2 days 5 Hours 16 Minutes

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 6:38 am
by MrPotatoes
the only time opera goes to 100K is when i'm on myspace checking out the girls and have like 10 tabs open. just 10 will do it because everone on there thinks that flash, gifs, movies, audio, falling flowers/snow/debris and or 300 pictures is awesome. but then again it slows down even IE. so screw that crap

i honestly don't know how they'd put out a product free or not that has that many memory leaks. this isn't the first time that i've read about this

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 7:13 am
by hydroxide
This is firefox 2.0 beta with nothing installed and 5 tabs open! Memory leaks ftw.


Image

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:42 am
by RobertGonzalez
Well, maybe there is nothing to trip on then. I don't know, it just seemed like a lot. Last night, like I posted, usage was at 75K. Oh well, thanks for the replies everyone. It was an educational experience.

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:45 am
by panic!
on my work machine I have 5 tabs open:

135,000k OUCH!

I don't really notice it at work as I have the luxury of having alot of memory.

at home=512MB..I feel that.