Key into the location bar

1. about:memory
2. and later also try about:compartments

Those are interactive tools that should at least explain where the memory is being used. The first one even has a button to reduce memory usage, and brief notes about using it. The second one is of more use when many tabs are open.

• This article contains general information on the subject Firefox uses too much memory or CPU resources - How to fix

Thanks for answer, I know what you are talking about, I read it. My point is why user has to fight with this at all...

• Uninstall the unwanted extensions
• remove the unwanted toolbars

Take a look at this

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Memory_Leak
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram

As I wrote before, I have fresh OS, no toolbars no extentions. The only thing installed is Adobe Flash Player.

btw I found answer for my problems ----> Opera :)

Good luck with Opera.

I have just got Firefox up to 600MB RAM use and it is running fine, tabs in triple figures and eight Windows open !!

Then in a ninth Window another Firefox version with just two tabs using 9o+MB and comparatively looking rather a memory hog.

I'm not trying to be malignant. It's that my laptop is quiet old, and as I noticed if firefox uses lots of RAM, and additionally when I'll lunch something on yt flash consumes up to 100% CPU, then it is impossible to do anything else... the same situation with Chrome. Just Opera sems to be solution, for now... :)

If Opera works better than Firefox with Flash on your system them it makes sense to use it.

The 300MB for tabs sounds a bit high, and I agree could be a problem on some legacy systems. There is nothing to stop you using more than one browser on your system. Firefox has been improving recently as regards memory use, something that Mozilla continues to follow up on.

Some background information on the work being done and solutions

• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Performance/
• https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2011/05/23/a-better-aboutmemory-stage-1-75/ (it has improved since then)
• https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2012/06/15/memshrinks-1st-birthday/
• Firefox uses too much memory or CPU resources - How to fix

NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED i did not post the above that says

Followed you right up until where you say panel on left; what panel? I am not getting any dialogue boxes that say sort the contents by name; nada; either my page looks different or I'm not getting to the right place; only panel on left says: History, Downloads, All Bookmarks, under which are Bookmarks Tookbar, Bookmarks Menu, and Unsorted Bookmarks. What do I click on to get the dialogue box you refer to? How do I get Sort Contents by Name?

I did attempt to make a reply that disappeared, guess it was a glitch on the forum

I did NOT make the last two posts !!

DB Glitch

Now mostly sorted out.

Quite possibly the quoted text was from thread /questions/946250

Well basicaly I've been using Firefox since I remember. I've also tested Firefox on my coleguages computers. They also have bug memory usage but everything goes smoothly. Maybe it's my laptop getting old (5 years)... I have dell xps m1210 with 5 times replaced mothearboard due to nvidia faulty chip. Except of that everything goes fine, diferent IDE's ord DBMS's works, just when I'm starting to use browser everything goes down, the same with opera. I'm betting now that flash is the problem combining with my laptop cinfigoration. Maybe it's time to change hardware.

You appear to be running Windows 7, so the computer spec can not be too bad. If some of the problems relate to Flash and graphics consider

• Ensure graphics drivers are up to date
  Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL
• Experiment with hardware acceleration on and off to see which is best
  Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems
• Try with Adobe's protected mode on and off, sometimes it has been known to causes problems with Firefox on Windows when protected mode is used
  http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Flash_Player_11.3_Protected_Mode_-_Windows
• It may also be worth testing you memory chips just in case one is getting loose or not working well something such as memtest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memtest

Whilst I remember it also helps Mozilla developers if telemetry is turned on Share data with Mozilla to help improve Firefox

Yes, since Firefox 4 I found Firefox is a bit bloated/sluggy . Fortunately, after trying for a while I found that Firefox 18 can manage memory pretty well, comparable with FIrefox 3.6 and 3.5 .

With 5 Http tabs (and some addons: Xmarks, JSONView, FDM), Firefox 18.0.2 takes 150MB -> 250MB : https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Xnt4hLEMBP4/UfgJ1px4wpI/AAAAAAAAAes/VC0LW2qoJMQ/s1200/Firefox18_MemoryUsage.png

It seems Firefox 18 still has some memory leaks, but I found that it is good enough for me (when starting not too long, it usually uses less memory than Chrome 24 - which released around its time). I also tried FF22 but seems not as lightweight.