When Mozilla released Firefox 3 as a public release candidate, it was supposed to fix a bunch of memory leaks and use less memory. In fact, it reads:
Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.
Technical, yes. Real? Not really. While I have heard from others saying that Firefox 3 is running lean and mean for them, I have heard from many others saying it is just as bad in the memory department as Firefox 2.
Check out this screenshot from my own Mac Pro running Firefox 3:
Yes, that’s 550 MB of RAM in use.
Now, I’m fully aware that the plug-in functionality of Firefox can lead to this issue. It is non-Mozilla code which is in use in the browser. But, I used pretty much the same selection of plug-ins with Firefox 2 as I am now with Firefox 3 and this is about 150 MB more memory than I had ever seen Firefox use previously.
Plus, if you have to steer clear of plug-ins to keep Firefox running correctly, then that is a stupid tradeoff. One of the primary “selling points” of Firefox is the ability to use plug-ins.
I have tried the RamBack plug-in. It shaved maybe 12 MB off the memory usage, but who cares. For all essential purposes, it doesn’t work.
I’ll continue to use Firefox, but thank God I have a bunch of memory in this system. Looks like I’m going to need it.
David Risley is the founder of PCMech.com. He is the brains, the thinker, the writer, the nerd.
Well, how many tabs tid you have open? If you have 20 tabs with heavy flash animations and so on, what do you expect?
Firefox
Dude, do you think I woulda posted this post if I actually had 20 tabs open? I’m not stupid.
Well, something stupid is going on. So if it’s not you, it must be you computer/OS cracking things up. I for one sake have 14 plug-ins on my beloved Firefox, and have in rare cases been up to 100 mb of ramusage at most. And that’s with around 10 tabs open.
I’m just saing that a ferrari isn’t that cool if my grandma’ is driving it.
Firefox
I’ve officially removed PCMech off my daily visiting bookmarks after reading this article. Completely unfounded, and there’s reasons why software enters a Beta stage. Considering your getting something for nothing, and works better than well-known integrated (effectively paid-for) browsers, I don’t see where you get the right to complain.
This article is based on ONE user experience, in which it could simply be related to a SINGLE add-on that the user is operating. Zero research, zero facts, zero creditibility.
And with that I say Goodbye to PCMech. You are no longer a daily source of informed I.T. related news.
Suit yourself. But, here’s the thing. This website is owned by ONE user – me. This is a blog site where my viewpoint does make its way into a blog post. I’m not trying to pass this post off as news. It is my experience and I think I made that very clear.
If you cannot read a user opinion on a blog without cracking up, sorry.
If you’re not classifying PCMech as a news site, then why do you have a website dedicated to blogging? http://www.davidrisley.com/
Using your methodology, they are one in the same? If this was intended to be a “blog” and not trying to pass itself off as a news story, why wouldn’t you post it on your personalised blog site instead?
Fact is, you have a larger reader-base, yes. A majority of your content is reporting news events, except this one, which is a stand-alone personal opinion. People, such as myself, read this as “news”, not an opinionated blog.
My personal blog is about what I do. This blog is about tech. BOTH are blogs, about different topics.
And opinion is nothing new at PCMech. If you think so, you haven’t been around here long enough.
Wootpwned, I just gotta say.. (*sniff*) it’s so sad to see a hide-behind-the-monitor with a netspeak retard name leave the site. You shall be missed. Well, not really.
Anyway..
Dave’s FF wasn’t beta, it’s an RC. Know the difference.
And do you know of anyone else that (foolishly) pays for a web browser? Seriously? Who *doesn’t* get browsers for free?
And yes, you’re right. The fact our readership keeps growing on an almost daily basis means we totally suck. You’re so right. We’re just terrible at I.T., but hang on.. we don’t do enterprise boring-o-rama I.T. crapola.. or even things related to I.T.
Yeeeah, safe to say you talk out of a place where the sun doesn’t shine. Buh-bye.
David, there are many tweak to reduce Firefox 2 & 3 memory usage, but there is only one solution I’ve found called, Firefox Memory Optimizer http://firefox-ultimate-optimizer.en.softonic.com/ (full description of the program on this page). I have been using it for over 3 months now, and it works GREAT. I currently have six tabs open, and FF is running at a cool 244-3500k, and the program itself is using only 1500k. Sound too good to be true? Try it! It’s free, small, virus free. and works without any reduction of FF’s performance. To see how well it works, run FF, jack the memory usage up as high as you want, then start the optimizer, and try to not let your jaw hit the floor. I don’t know how it works, or why Mozilla hasn’t incorporated it into FF, all I know is that is saves my ass because, I don’t have much memory. In fact, I am embarrassingly only have 384k, yet this amazing little program allows me to run FF without issue. Let me know what you think.
Hahaha, I like the analogy. I sure hope that the leaks are fixed globally. I hope it doesn’t become like FSX, which runs really well and some computers and really poorly on others, completely independent of hardware.
I took a photo of my resources and I’m on a laptop with 3gb of memory and I’m only using 227.9 and my system considers it sleeping and I’ve been on it all day…interesting huh?
Darn…couldn’t figure out how to attach the screen shot.
You removed my post concerning Firefox memory optimizer? Why? I have run IE7 & 8, Safari, Opera, and a few others, and not found that any are overly superior to the other when it come to memory, and CPU usage. I’ve been using Firefox 3 since i9t first came out, run 15 add-on, and multiple tabs and NEVER had anything like you experience. I think the other guy was right, YOU did something, or your system. Or, maybe your issue with Firefox is personal, or financially motivated? Quite possibly, you’re an idiot, and a self-proclaimed PCMech!
Brian, we have to moderate posts before they appear here. Your other comment is above.
Interesting. I just installed in (more or less to see what gives) and it’s running about about 1/2 the memory load that Firefox 2 was. I was hoping to run them both side-by-side but even installing in a different directory seems to have obliterated my installation of Firefox 2.
But when I checked, FF2 was using about 187,000K (two open tabs, 16 installed plugins). FF3 is using 77,000K (two open tabs, 9 plugins as 7 are not compatible with FF3). Sure seems a hell of a lot faster that’s for sure. I’ll play with it for a while – see if it’s a keeper.
FF2 averaged 150megs for me.
FF3 has been averaging 50 megs.
If your data is valid with no real way to reproduce, so is mine.
Personally Firefox 3.0b5,rc1,rc2 all use noticeably less memory than FF2.0 used to. I think this is the best browser I’ve ever used. Maybe its a problem with Macs? I’ve never heard of anything like this though.
No, its not the Mac. And, yes, I still agree Firefox is the best browser. No question.
So, you’re saying you’re upset at Firefox for allowing people to write crap plugins that hog memory? Huh?
Try pointing the finger of blame at the plugin writers. Or, if you want to take your argument down the reductio ad absurdum route, blame OSX for allowing a program to take that much memory.
FWIW, my Firefox is sitting pretty at 70 megs with 7 tabs open across 2 windows. No clue what you people do to bloat yours.
I USE it. That’s what I do. I am online 24/7 with this browser. I put it through its paces more than most.
I just checked mines and it reads 112 MB.
I checked mine out of curiosity, and version 3.0.7 is using between 95-105MB with 4 tabs and 13 plugins. There’s gotta be some explanation for how it can eat up 550.
I find this a very simplistic and bad review of the founder of this site. Much too little detail to get any useful information and when someone comments on the amount of tabs: I’m not stupid.
Also the link to proof that ‘many others’ have the same problem onlt contains one use who seems to have a problem, but also does not want to reveil how he tested Firefox. So to say that FF3 is still a memory hog based on this, is kind of … stupid?
All in all: a very narrowminded review which luckily is not representative of most of the Firefox 3 users which are very happy with it.
Seems to me that most people think Firefox 3 uses less memory than previous versions, so either you are encountering an odd bug with the memory management (so you should be reporting it, since these things are expected in beta
), or the plug-ins you have are not fully compatible with it.
“Plus, if you have to steer clear of plug-ins to keep Firefox running correctly, then that is a stupid tradeoff.”
Would agree, however it’s not really fair to blame Firefox for 3rd party code, in the same way you don’t blame your Mac for the memory used by Firefox. Putting pressure on the plug-in developers would help resolve the problem, if that is what is causing it.
Out of curiosity I checked my system. I currently have 3 browsers running…here’s the details.
Opera 9, been open for about 36 hours, one window open broadcasting to ustream – 37Mb
Flock 1.1.4, open for 1 hour, one window playing a Flash stream – 74Mb
FF3 (just updated to latest release this morning), open 1 hour, one window displaying a static page (this one) – 92Mb
Everyone knows FF has memory leaks. That doesn’t take away from the fact it is a great browser, arguably the best general purpose browser. Big deal if it uses a lot of memory…just close and reopen it once in a while.
My hat’s off to Dave as well. To blog is to put your opinions out to the world knowing that some will get bent by them. It takes balls to do that. Don’t like it, go to cnet and read the “objective” paid for reviews and articles.
wow post a single bad user experience about firefox and everyone is quick to point out that “it doesn’t happen to me so you’re wrong”…it’s just stupid
firefox 3 uses just as much memory as firefox 2 for me…with only this page open it takes up 95megs with no plugins installed…I love firefox as much as the next person…but seriously…someone with a lower end pc…like my brother who has xp and 512megs of ram might not even find firefox usable…and if other browsers have significantly less memory consumption then what’s the incentive for him to run it? I know it’s still in beta but with it getting rc status…there’s clearly some issues still remaining…by comparison ie takes up 35 megs and opera takes up 28
I must apologize for the rude comment my roommate posted, in my name. I left the browser open and on your page, and in her marijuana and tequila induced frenzy, she thought it was funny. Sorry. If anything, it should serve as a reminder to say not to drugs, and yes to Firefox. By the way, she uses IE6, if that tells you anything. Nonetheless, no one, including you, commented on my post, and it’s making me wonder if I’m crazy, or stupid. Does no one but me realize the value of the this little tool, or is everyone else using a Mac?
I have 4 OS’s loaded on different drives:
XP SP3
Vista x64 (for 4gig usage in graphics apps)
ubuntu x64
Kubuntu x64(testing new KDE 4.0.4)
In all of these….and oddly enough in Vista, FF3 RC1 bests FF2 for mem usage(granted not all my plugins function yet). I have tried real hard to push FF3 to use loads of mem, and cannot, I even managed to crash it on a few sites(MyCast.orb still will not function properly in linux). But none hit the ceiling you have shown….so I’d have to say the earlier assessment of it’s you or your OS may have some merit.
I noticed your reaction like most MAC people was “it’s not my OS” like you can somehow guarantee Apple perfection when even they cannot. please, be objective and actually delve into this….from a ‘technical’ standpoint, not some arrogant fanboy position, the PC user realm has had enough of that kind of backwards thought progression.
Here we are twenty years later(OS, GUI, and user system speaking), still begging for basic features from our tools provided either by major corps, or the free options.
Both to blame for this lack of advancement. it’s like waiting twenty years for the adjuster wheel for your adjustable wrench(spanner), sad, truly sad, so much for innovation. And most of this can be explained by corporate greed and ignorant fanboyism, the two leading factors holding back real operating systems that just friggin work.
sigh, but I rant, good luck tracking that leak down, my guess is it’s BSD based as I’ve noticed with some other Linux ports on OSX.
That is real odd, I’m running FF RC 2 on Vista and I get about 86Mb RAM usage. Could be some sort of bug that is related to OS X, I for one have my fair share of bugs with FF 3, one being that RC 2 absolutely refuses to install flash.
[...] as a long time Firefox user, I see definite improvements in version 3. Yes, for me, it is still a memory hog. But, that’s me. There are plenty of people out there reporting much improved memory usage [...]
I’m sorry to hear about your memory hog problem.
I was actually surprised by the amount of memory Firefox 3 consumed. I tend to open way too many tabs (up to 90 – I kid you not) and it wasn’t unusual for Firefox 2 to take over 300 M..
So when I first tried Firefox 3 I got so excited about the lack of memory consumption that I went crazy adding extensions to it, hahah.
As of now I have 44 enabled extensions(most of them, technically, aren’t even compatible with FF3) and 47 tabs open. And firefox 3 is taking up 197 M. (So far I’ve seen it go up to 280 though).
I gotta say I expected it to reach 200 M on the 20ish addon… but so far it’s been holding up pretty well for me
Oh, the “Stylish” addon seemed to make firefox CPU hungry here, so I had to deactivate it… Perhaps you’re using a similar addon that might be the problem?
@Nayelianne
Just curious.. can i know how come you have 47 tabs opened?
@uvberot
It’s my incredible ability to fail at multitasking, hahaha. Probably a bit dispersive too.
I finally got an addon (Session Manager) that helps me keeping just relevant tabs open. Got 20 atm), but before that…
I just used to find interesting sites or articles(they’re like a never ending chain of interesting links) that I didn’t want to lose (and if I bookmarked them, I knew I’d never see them again)…but I didn’t want to read them at the moment, so tabs just begin to pile up :/
I guess I’m just that messy.
This review is like everyone is saying. Its crap. In order to replicate what it would take to use over 550mb on FF3 with only java and flash player installed, I had 15 tabs open all to the myspace login page that was advertising the new batman movie, and each was running the video in a difference sequence. So stop being retarded. ANY web browser is going to use tons of memory when running multiple videos at once or other plugins. People use firefox for many reasons, the main reason, it works better with streaming video and sound. I’ll trade another 20mb if it means fewer cache refreshes.
Firefox 3 is killing my mac. so much so that i never noticed it on firefox 2, but over the last few days i had to google if firefox 3 was a problem because of how slow it is.
it has noticeably slowed down my computer, almost to a crawl. i have 4Gb of memory in my mac book pro.
i’ll try some of the options here, but don’t lambaste the author as he is right.
btw, i’ve been a unix/linux systems engineer, network engineer, and java app server engineer for over 8 years now … i know how to track down a memory hog culprit. my grandmother, if she were alive, could have figured it out.
anyhow, safari works better with regards to memory for the time being.
Well you are not the only one having problems with firefox 3. For the record I LOVE firefox but FF3 is crashing my computer using 99% of the cpu. I never had any of these problems with FF2.
Have tried many ways to fix this as I am loosing my mind. Am this close to uninstalling and hoping to go back to FF2