Firefox uses much more memory than Chrome
When I brought Firefox up about a week ago, it presented me with a survey, results of which were sent to Firefox developers. They asked several multiple choice questions about features, but they didn't ask a very important question: Would you use Firefox more if it used less system memory? I currently use Google Chrome for about 2/3 of my web browsing because Firefox uses up too much system memory. I would prefer to use Firefox most of the time, but can't, since it bogs down when memory usage gets too high.
The survey should have included a text input box so users could enter any comments for the developers, and the survey did NOT do that.
So, after completing the survey, I was disappointed that I couldn't comment on the most important issue I have with Firefox. I would like the Firefox dev team to try get Firefox's use of system memory down. A short while ago, I opened 4 websites in Google Chrome, then opened the exact same 4 websites in Firefox. The attached shows the memory usage of each browser.
All Replies (7)
Post a screenshot of the performance tab in task manager so we can see what you're working with.
Novain'i jonzn4SUSE t@
8gigs of ram... I deal with this kind of thing at work with users running 6-8yr old computers with i5s and 8gigs of ram, complaining about performance.
Firefox's Project Fission:
Introducing Firefox’s new Site Isolation Security Architecture https://hacks.mozilla.org/2021/05/introducing-firefox-new-site-isolation-security-architecture/
Firefox's Project Fission: better security and more processes https://www.ghacks.net/2019/02/07/firefoxs-project-fission-better-security-and-more-processes/
Enable Fission in Firefox https://www.ghacks.net/2020/09/20/you-can-try-firefoxs-site-isolation-feature-fission-in-nightly-now/
Change how many processes multi-process Firefox uses https://www.ghacks.net/2016/02/15/change-how-many-processes-multi-process-firefox-uses/
Thanks for your response, but I'm not sure what Project Fission has to do with this. I did read the first article, then checked my Firefox settings:
1. I did navigate to about:preferences#experimental, and did not see a “Fission (Site Isolation)” checkbox to enable. 2. In about:config, `fission.autostart` is already set to `true`.
The last website at ghacks dot net resulted in the attached warning.
You didn't state whether some change in Fission settings would affect memory usage. The articles above are all from 2021 or earlier. Right now, I would imagine that Chrome does something similar to this. The question is, in 2025, why does Firefox use up a lot more memory than Chrome, with the same websites open? This question is unanswered.
Hi Mike
To be fair, I am using and i5 with 8 GB of memory and rarely have a problem. I would avoid making any changes in about:config.
Do you have many tabs open in Firefox?
Do you have many add-ons installed?
I typically have 1-3 tabs open in Firefox. Websites with a lot of complex content, like many images and animation that float around, use a lot more memory than a website that lists mostly text data, like "Hourly weather roundup from the NWS". If I open Gmail and Pinterest, which I would rate as medium complexity, Firefox memory usage goes to 1100 to 1200 MB. If I try to load a complex site in a 3rd tab, it goes to something like 1700 MB or more, and Firefox slows down a lot. So, I open the 3rd site in Chrome instead. If I load the same 3 sites in Chrome, its memory usage is somewhere around 900-1100 MB.
Attached shows the 2 addons I have. Facebook Container was added by Firefox and I'm sure is very useful. WebP / Avif image converter allows one to save files in those formats to more commonly used image file formats like JPG. If you feel this alone is using a lot of memory, let me know.
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