Firefox 3 memory usage write up

Sweet :)

I will be keen to see if this trend continues once extensions are updated for FF3 or if they will tighten restrictions on what extensions can use wrt resources.

My biggest gripe about FF has always been memory usage.
 
Great find, cookies inbound. I love that they have put energy into this... I always got the impression nobody besides users cared. :-\
 
Sweet :)

I will be keen to see if this trend continues once extensions are updated for FF3 or if they will tighten restrictions on what extensions can use wrt resources.

My biggest gripe about FF has always been memory usage.

I constantly here this yet I've used Firefox for years since the Phoenix days on numerous platforms and have never noticed a memory issue. I don't care what task manager syas, but have you ever actually noticed a performance hit? Do you load tons of extensions?

I am currently on FreeBSD, I've had firefox open for about 3 hours and it is reported as using 120MB of memory.

Code:
last pid: 64523;  load averages:  0.13,  0.09,  0.12    up 1+06:50:18  19:23:41
83 processes:  1 running, 82 sleeping
CPU states:     % user,     % nice,     % system,     % interrupt,     % idle
Mem: 328M Active, 1082M Inact, 204M Wired, 11M Cache, 112M Buf, 367M Free
Swap: 2047M Total, 2047M Free

  PID USERNAME    THR PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE  C   TIME   WCPU COMMAND
24586 root          1  96    0 85940K 68552K select 0   7:28  0.05% Xorg
25108 joe           1  96    0 31816K 16364K select 0   8:06  0.00% gkrellm
[B]56702 joe           7  96    0   120M 83848K ucond  0   1:31  0.00% firefox-bin[/B]
  942 root          1  96    0  4520K  1348K select 0   0:40  0.00% hald-addon-
  940 root          1  96    0  4520K  1348K select 1   0:37  0.00% hald-addon-
24652 joe           1  96    0 17376K 11056K select 0   0:26  0.00% metacity
24703 joe           1  96    0 44984K 16196K select 1   0:24  0.00% mixer_apple
56827 joe           2  -8    0 60440K 21296K piperd 0   0:21  0.00% gnome-termi
24662 joe           1  96    0 75156K 35636K select 1   0:15  0.00% nautilus
  921 haldaemon     1  96    0  6392K  3728K select 1   0:14  0.00% hald
24691 joe           1  96    0 44572K 16608K select 0   0:10  0.00% wnck-applet
24657 joe           1  96    0  5028K  2460K select 1   0:10  0.00% gam_server
24655 joe           1  96    0 59584K 25048K select 1   0:06  0.00% gnome-panel
  810 messagebus    1  96    0  3260K  1564K select 1   0:03  0.00% dbus-daemon
24681 joe           1  96    0  6004K  3264K select 0   0:03  0.00% xscreensave
24673 joe           1  96    0 20620K 10552K select 0   0:03  0.00% gnome-volum

That seems to be the average anytime I check it, between 50 & 150MB of RAM usage.
 
I constantly here this yet I've used Firefox for years since the Phoenix days on numerous platforms and have never noticed a memory issue. I don't care what task manager syas, but have you ever actually noticed a performance hit? Do you load tons of extensions?

I am currently on FreeBSD, I've had firefox open for about 3 hours and it is reported as using 120MB of memory.

Code:
last pid: 64523;  load averages:  0.13,  0.09,  0.12    up 1+06:50:18  19:23:41
83 processes:  1 running, 82 sleeping
CPU states:     % user,     % nice,     % system,     % interrupt,     % idle
Mem: 328M Active, 1082M Inact, 204M Wired, 11M Cache, 112M Buf, 367M Free
Swap: 2047M Total, 2047M Free

  PID USERNAME    THR PRI NICE   SIZE    RES STATE  C   TIME   WCPU COMMAND
24586 root          1  96    0 85940K 68552K select 0   7:28  0.05% Xorg
25108 joe           1  96    0 31816K 16364K select 0   8:06  0.00% gkrellm
[B]56702 joe           7  96    0   120M 83848K ucond  0   1:31  0.00% firefox-bin[/B]
  942 root          1  96    0  4520K  1348K select 0   0:40  0.00% hald-addon-
  940 root          1  96    0  4520K  1348K select 1   0:37  0.00% hald-addon-
24652 joe           1  96    0 17376K 11056K select 0   0:26  0.00% metacity
24703 joe           1  96    0 44984K 16196K select 1   0:24  0.00% mixer_apple
56827 joe           2  -8    0 60440K 21296K piperd 0   0:21  0.00% gnome-termi
24662 joe           1  96    0 75156K 35636K select 1   0:15  0.00% nautilus
  921 haldaemon     1  96    0  6392K  3728K select 1   0:14  0.00% hald
24691 joe           1  96    0 44572K 16608K select 0   0:10  0.00% wnck-applet
24657 joe           1  96    0  5028K  2460K select 1   0:10  0.00% gam_server
24655 joe           1  96    0 59584K 25048K select 1   0:06  0.00% gnome-panel
  810 messagebus    1  96    0  3260K  1564K select 1   0:03  0.00% dbus-daemon
24681 joe           1  96    0  6004K  3264K select 0   0:03  0.00% xscreensave
24673 joe           1  96    0 20620K 10552K select 0   0:03  0.00% gnome-volum

That seems to be the average anytime I check it, between 50 & 150MB of RAM usage.
well j79, you make a great point, what task manager reports as being used is just memory that's claimed, much of that is just claimed, released as needed

I've never been a firefox fan but one thing, I really never noticed a computer slow down with it

how many windows can you open with firefox?

I can usually open between 32 and 40 in internet explorer
 
Maybe thats the thing, I usually have between 5 & 10 tabs open, a couple forums and a stock ticker just to make sure that I am losing the requisite amount of money on the day.
 
I frequently and up with nothing but tab icons when at work. WHile XP's task manager is inaccurate, it reports firefox as being close to 900MB, the system is sluggish and firefox hangs for 5-10 seconds when scrolling or changing tab.

Maybe those that don't see issues aren't using it very heavily.
 
Could this also be a case of using AJAX as these some heavy AJAX sites will use a lot of bandwidth for modules especially if they don't load quite right? This could be a problem especially if a lot of tabs are used in the browser itself. I have noticed that this does seem to affect other browsers as well, namely Opera which is my preferred browser.

This seems to happen with the increased usage of tabs and the amount of tabs that are open. Strangely enough I have a pretty good record with an IE shell Maxthon.

just something to consider.
 
Always good to see, I don't think I've personally ever had FireFox be so bogged down that it's been unresponsive in any way and I've pretty much always god a fair few tabs open.

I'll be interested in seeing if the OS X build turns out anywhere near as fast as it's Windows and Linux counterparts though.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Latest profile posts

Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

Forum statistics

Threads
62,015
Messages
673,494
Members
5,621
Latest member
naeemsafi
Back