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An ode to a dead FOX - what is Firefox doing with all memory it consumes?

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  • Last reply by kubahaha

bacchante
bacchante
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Hi folks,

We all know FF29 has been a big blow to core and addictive users of Firefox.

I would open 120 (yes 120, although I remember my record was around 150) tabs at the same time in FF28, having been installed ten to fifteen addons, keep all of them open for one or two _weeks_ (never closing Firefox), some tabs including heavy flash videos, and Firefox would not use more than 2~3 gbs of memory, which was completely fine. I knew my fox could handle it. Chrome would jump 200~300mbs of memory even for a single page if I let it keep it open for half a day.

Now, I can hardly manage 20 tabs in Firefox for six hours... It starts eating half of my computer's memory, 4 gb, and I let it open with over 50 tabs once for overnight and I saw all of my computer's memory and its whole swap space is about to get consumed, which makes a total of _16_ gbs... 16 f***ing GBs.

Apart from that, FF29 also causes high CPU utilization compared to FF28 and older versions. I can say that because I have lots of active monitoring tools, and in top 3, firefox always shows itself there.

I have changed nothing in my FOX, except updating to FF29...

So, my question is, what has changed? The UI seems to be a little bit heavier. Right. But it seems to be there is something very basic changed in memory usage compared to old firefox versions. Why does it use so much memory? I mean, come on, 20 tabs keep open a day, and memory hits over 4gbs?

I have read a lot of stuff about how to fix memory usage of firefox since I dont want to abandon it. I could not keep myself laughing when I saw this about how to fix memory usage in Firefox official website: "Each tab requires Firefox to store a web page in memory. If you frequently have more than 100 tabs open, consider using a more lightweight mechanism to keep track of pages to read and things to do, such as: USE BOOKMARKS"

Thank you firefox, I did not know I could use bookmarks! Really, is this what you recommend to your users? Please remove this, it makes all firefox and its team look foolish. It gives the feeling that FOX cannot handle high load (which was not actually the case prior to FF29, although it may be true now).

Do not let Firefox to be the next IE.

Hi folks, We all know FF29 has been a big blow to core and addictive users of Firefox. I would open 120 (yes 120, although I remember my record was around 150) tabs at the same time in FF28, having been installed ten to fifteen addons, keep all of them open for one or two _weeks_ (never closing Firefox), some tabs including heavy flash videos, and Firefox would not use more than 2~3 gbs of memory, which was completely fine. I knew my fox could handle it. Chrome would jump 200~300mbs of memory even for a single page if I let it keep it open for half a day. Now, I can hardly manage 20 tabs in Firefox for six hours... It starts eating half of my computer's memory, 4 gb, and I let it open with over 50 tabs once for overnight and I saw all of my computer's memory and its whole swap space is about to get consumed, which makes a total of _16_ gbs... 16 f***ing GBs. Apart from that, FF29 also causes high CPU utilization compared to FF28 and older versions. I can say that because I have lots of active monitoring tools, and in top 3, firefox always shows itself there. I have changed nothing in my FOX, except updating to FF29... So, my question is, what has changed? The UI seems to be a little bit heavier. Right. But it seems to be there is something very basic changed in memory usage compared to old firefox versions. Why does it use so much memory? I mean, come on, 20 tabs keep open a day, and memory hits over 4gbs? I have read a lot of stuff about how to fix memory usage of firefox since I dont want to abandon it. I could not keep myself laughing when I saw this about how to fix memory usage in Firefox official website: "Each tab requires Firefox to store a web page in memory. If you frequently have more than 100 tabs open, consider using a more lightweight mechanism to keep track of pages to read and things to do, such as: USE BOOKMARKS" Thank you firefox, I did not know I could use bookmarks! Really, is this what you recommend to your users? Please remove this, it makes all firefox and its team look foolish. It gives the feeling that FOX cannot handle high load (which was not actually the case prior to FF29, although it may be true now). Do not let Firefox to be the next IE.

All Replies (1)

kubahaha
kubahaha
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You can see advanced data about memory usage in Firefox by typing about:memory in address bar. This forum is made for support questions, you can send your opinion about Firefox via: help -> send your opinion menu in Firefox menu.

Modified by kubahaha