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Odd browser memory usage stats
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:50 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Dude, this is about as odd as it gets...
Current memory usage:
Explorer -> 38Mb
Firefox -> 87Mb
Safari -> 114Mb
Opera -> 159Mb
I have never seen FF stay so low while I have never seen the others skyrocket like that. Does anyone else pay attention to their memory usage stats?
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:04 pm
by JellyFish
I don't know how to check my memory usage stats...
EDIT: Why are all your browsers using so much memory?
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:52 pm
by superdezign
JellyFish wrote:I don't know how to check my memory usage stats...

Ctrl+Alt+Del?

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:57 pm
by JellyFish
superdezign wrote:JellyFish wrote:I don't know how to check my memory usage stats...

Ctrl+Alt+Del?

Oh right! Thanks. I knew it sounded familiar.

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:01 pm
by Benjamin
How about:
lynx 1656kb (terminal)
firefox 163mb (linux)
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:12 pm
by superdezign
Firefox hovers around 100MB for me unless I activate the add-ons.
The 100MB includes Firebug and Web Developer Toolbar.
Re: Odd browser memory usage stats
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:43 pm
by AKA Panama Jack
Everah wrote:Dude, this is about as odd as it gets...
Current memory usage:
Explorer -> 38Mb
Firefox -> 87Mb
Safari -> 114Mb
Opera -> 159Mb
I have never seen FF stay so low while I have never seen the others skyrocket like that. Does anyone else pay attention to their memory usage stats?
It's all going to depend upon what you were doing with each one and the configuration settings when you checked. I know Opera will keep memory allocated for about 20 minutes and then free it. I think it keeps the memory allocated incase you return to previous pages to speed up page loading.
If you want to do a better test you should start each browser with the SAME default site when it loads. Record the memory used. Let the browsers sit open for a few hours and check the memory again to see any any have used more memory. If there is a substantial memory increase then there may be a memory leak causing the browser to slowly eat memory.
I have been browsing quite a few sites for the past 30 minutes and Opera 9.21 is sitting at 42meg used and I have two sites open. This one and the css3.info site.
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:52 pm
by AKA Panama Jack
Oh, I forgot to mention the other test you should do as well that will test how well each browser handles memory when it has multiple web sites opened.
You basically do the same test I mentioned previously but open 19 other web sites for a total of 20 pages. Open the same sites in each browser and check how much memory each uses. Let them sit with 20 open sites for 2-3 hours to see if the memory usage increases over time.
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:56 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I was using Safari to browse and test print rendering. At the time there were 7 tabs open. FF had 5 tabs open. Opera had 7 tabs open. One of the tabs in Opera had a flash music player running in it.
One of these days I will play with the tests you mentioned. I already know that FF will tank in the tests. It never frees memory. Ever.
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:25 am
by Benjamin
I under the impression that there are some major under the hood changes being done in firefox. This should be good. Goes off and waits...
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 1:45 am
by matthijs
Interesting stuff. I now have 150 MB for FF, with 14 tabs opened for half an hour. Usually at the end of the day that's around 250-300mb. But it would be interesting to do a standard test comparing a few browsers. But you should really have exactly the same sites opened. Some sites can really drain your memory.
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 2:36 am
by aaronhall
Opera, back when I last used it (version 7?) was cheaper by far in terms of memory usage when compared to firefox. Firefox on ubuntu is anywhere from 80 to 200MB depending on the circumstances. But I guess Opera has beefed up since I last used it. IE was always low on Windows, but I think that's because not all of its memory usage is reflected in the iexplorer.exe process.