Comments on: Firefox 3 Hogs Memory Like Crazy

By: Eli J

Eli J — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:06:31 +0000

Well, without Google Toolbar running FF has not exceeded 185K of memory, even after running continuously for 2 days. Outlook over three days is up to 286K and 4 Chrome Processes total about 130K. I expect modules to consume much memory since my box has 6GB and Vista/Win 7 tries to make use of it all, so nothing running now is unsatisfactory.

I have also run quite a few Youtube videos in FF and it doesn’t seem to be suffering from a memory leak now. I’ll try to add Google Toolbar back in tomorrow to confirm how the memory usage pattern differs but Google seems to be a major memory culprit.

By: Matt B

Matt B — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:58:58 +0000

@Andy M. I understand your intent you are conveying to me. This would make utmost sense due to the install of the ad blocker plus blocks almost ALL the flash banners and ads. I also have flashblock add on due to I did notice awhile back that a flash page will keep cycling forever. I thank you for your input. I have to tell you flash is used much too heavily on the web anymore, just as elife has too many darn exclamation points. Kudos to you and continue the threads with your input.

By: Andy M

Andy M — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:08:00 +0000

@Matt B: As a developer, it would seem to me that the underlying problem is the Flash plug-in. Almost all ads are Flash these days and while I don’t know enough about the FF plug-in architecture to speak intelligently about it I do notice that if I leave the browser idle but loaded with pages with Flash ads on them it will spin out of control — resource wise.

It does this with Flash game sites too. Leave a Pop Cap game up for a while and come back. It’s not Pop Cap’s code that does it, but something tied to the browser plug-in architecture or the Flash plug-in itself. My gut says the former.

By: Eli J

Eli J — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:01:05 +0000

I’ve been experimenting with removing different addons and, so far, Google Toolbar seems to make the biggest difference. FF is running at 145KB right now, but I’ll have to check it after 24 hours have gone by.

By: Matt B

Matt B — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:18:03 +0000

Get this. Addon of Ad Blocker Plus. NOW the memory hog is gone. I have 6 tabs open and it stays @ about 100. Now that is tolerable. I am wondering when the page is autorefreshing if it calls EVERY server that is connected to that page. As a non-programmer does anyone know? It appears (to me) that the adservers connections may be it. But that still needs work if it is constantly restreaming all data on the page when autorefreshing. This is on Ubuntu. I have not looked at the XP install in while how much memory is being blocked due to I just have not fired it up in awhile.

Also as a plus with the Ad Blocker Plus, pages load VERY fast due to no adserver connection calls.

My 2 cents.

matt

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:46:21 +0000

It seems what ever memory leak is causing this is getting worse with new updates. At first I didn’t hardly notice a difference with the initial release. And I tried 3.5 RC2 It was peaking at 1.5GB, closed all but one tab and it remained and climbed higher. This might sound odd, but after upgrading to a better memory and processor, it just seems to use as much as it possibly can, including processing power.

So I take back my original post. The load time is worse that FF2, and much worse than Chrome, FF3 is way too bloated.

By: Eli J

Eli J — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:36:21 +0000

I’m running Firefox 3.5 under Windows 7 with 6 GB memory. I had FF running for about 24 hours and when I checked the Task Manager FF was at about 1.2GB. Horrors!
I might make Chrome may default Browser, although I’ll be missing some of those extensions.

By: Abhinav K

Abhinav K — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:10:24 +0000

Try Firefox 3.5 RC2. It’s been tested to be the most memory efficient browser in the current scenario.

By: James

James — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:19:40 +0000

I have been having a horrible time with Firefox this past month. my memory usage after 15 mins browsing is 1.5 and up. if I am using a facebook app for too long I it gets really slow and have to restart the browser to finish what I am doing. the same happens in IE, but I expect that from “THEM” I may have to switch to Opera if there is not a fix for this.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:36:20 +0000

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.