Firefox uses excessive amounts of RAM
Hello,
For a long while now, Firefox 24.0 has been using excessive amounts of RAM. I attempted to look up solutions and none have worked.
I have booted in safe mode, disabled all plugins and add-ons, reset firefox, and it still uses loads of RAM.
If anyone could solve this that would be great!
Thanks.
All Replies (10)
Exactly how much RAM and Processor is it using?
Check your Task Manager! Thanks
On start up, it usually is around 100,000 K RAM
It gradually increases the longer I have firefox open (in use or not), and usually will end up around 200,000 to 300,000 K
Modified by solipsism
That is normal. Firefox recommends 512 Mbs of RAM dedicated to it, because it uses that much. You are only using around 300 Mbs at the most which is on the light side of things.
Currently I am using 400 Mbs without problems
You can also check the Firefox memory usage on the about:memory page.
300 MB is not excessively much. Firefox may be storing sessions data to undo closed tabs and windows.
Thanks for your replies. I have been to the about:memory but I don't quite seem to understand it :P
Anyways. Why does firefox use so much RAM compared to IE or chrome? On my computer those two combined would still use less than firefox.
The about:memory page has a button to free memory.
Does clicking this button have any effect?
Note that you shouldn't get confused by the amount of virtual memory that Firefox reserves. The value of resident and resident-unique is more reliable.
Modified by cor-el
I have previously clicked that button with no effect (at least to what I see)
I am also seeing this problem. Right now Firefox is using 1.3 GB of RAM and it is going up. I am constantly needing to kill the process and re-open Firefox to clear it out. I *think* I am using the 32-bit version. I am running windows 7 64-bit. Didn't know there was a 64-bit version! If I uninstall the 32-bit version and install the 64-bit version, will it keep all my bookmarks? Where/ how do I get the 64-bit version. Surprised the updater doesn't detect the OS is 64 bit.
There is no official 64 bit Firefox version for Windows only for Linux and Mac, the 64 bit version is only generated to check for compiler issues and not tested like the 32 bit version.
So you will have to stay with the 32 bit Firefox version.
If the memory usage increases then this can be caused by a problem with an extension or plugin (plugin-container).
Did you try to disable all plugins as well?
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+plugins
Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.
since version 24 it used More Ram and More Lag :D
Modified by ewwink