Windows 10 reached EOS (end of support) on October 14, 2025. If you are on Windows 10, see this article.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Why does Firefox's per-site process isolation (Fission) increase RAM usage exponentially on low-memory devices with 20+ tabs?

  • 1 reply
  • 0 have this problem
  • Last reply by amoun
  • Open

    • Background:**

I'm a senior software engineer running Firefox Developer Edition on a Linux machine with 8GB RAM. I have Fission architecture (site isolation) enabled, which I understand is now the default since Firefox 95+.

    • The problem:**

When I open 20 or more tabs across different domains, Firefox's memory consumption scales dramatically — often reaching 4–6GB of RAM for what should be lightweight browsing sessions. This is significantly higher than what I observed before Fission was enabled.

    • What I've already tried:**

- Disabled hardware acceleration → no significant improvement - Set browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory to true → partial relief

 but tabs reload constantly, disrupting workflow

- Reduced content.notify.interval → marginal improvement - Tested with all extensions disabled (safe mode) → RAM usage

 still high, confirming it's not extension-related

- Checked about:memory → large number of separate

 "Web Content" processes, one per origin as expected with Fission
    • What I'm trying to understand:**

1. Is there a way to set a maximum process count cap for Fission

  without fully disabling site isolation? I found 
  dom.ipc.processCount but changing it doesn't seem to affect 
  Fission's per-origin process spawning behavior.

2. Is browser.tabs.min-warm-process-count a relevant setting here

  and what is the safe range to modify it?

3. Does Firefox have a built-in memory pressure threshold where

  it automatically consolidates processes — similar to Chrome's 
  memory saver — and if so, which about:config keys control it?
    • Environment:**

- Firefox Developer Edition 151.0b10 - OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - RAM: 8GB - Fission enabled: confirmed via about:support - Extensions: disabled for testing

**Background:** I'm a senior software engineer running Firefox Developer Edition on a Linux machine with 8GB RAM. I have Fission architecture (site isolation) enabled, which I understand is now the default since Firefox 95+. **The problem:** When I open 20 or more tabs across different domains, Firefox's memory consumption scales dramatically — often reaching 4–6GB of RAM for what should be lightweight browsing sessions. This is significantly higher than what I observed before Fission was enabled. **What I've already tried:** - Disabled hardware acceleration → no significant improvement - Set browser.tabs.unloadOnLowMemory to true → partial relief but tabs reload constantly, disrupting workflow - Reduced content.notify.interval → marginal improvement - Tested with all extensions disabled (safe mode) → RAM usage still high, confirming it's not extension-related - Checked about:memory → large number of separate "Web Content" processes, one per origin as expected with Fission **What I'm trying to understand:** 1. Is there a way to set a maximum process count cap for Fission without fully disabling site isolation? I found dom.ipc.processCount but changing it doesn't seem to affect Fission's per-origin process spawning behavior. 2. Is browser.tabs.min-warm-process-count a relevant setting here and what is the safe range to modify it? 3. Does Firefox have a built-in memory pressure threshold where it automatically consolidates processes — similar to Chrome's memory saver — and if so, which about:config keys control it? **Environment:** - Firefox Developer Edition 151.0b10 - OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - RAM: 8GB - Fission enabled: confirmed via about:support - Extensions: disabled for testing

All Replies (1)

Really well laid out query(s)

Any fruitful answers will be met with relief from many users.

Thank you for the query.

Ask a question

You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.