This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

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

Firefox is using 9G of memory is there a fix?

  • 3 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by Shadow110

more options

Firefox is using 9+G of memory and often is using half my CPU. this must stop. Firefox has also caused my portable to become unusable at times. I can not even close the program, I must kill it to make it STOP. I know winBLOWS 10 SUCKS rocks and is the worst OS in history but Firefox can not takeover a machine like this.

Firefox is using 9+G of memory and often is using half my CPU. this must stop. Firefox has also caused my portable to become unusable at times. I can not even close the program, I must kill it to make it STOP. I know winBLOWS 10 SUCKS rocks and is the worst OS in history but Firefox can not takeover a machine like this.

All Replies (3)

more options

You have 2 video cards enabled. adapterDescription: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB adapterDescription2: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600

driverDate: 6-27-2017

driverDate2: 9-29-2016

driverVersion: 22.21.13.8476

driverVersion2: 20.19.15.4531 Some Driver errors also I would update both then turn the on-board chip off in Bios. Unless the Intel is a Controller and not a Video Chip.

There are ways to make Win 10 look and feel like 7. I do not notice the difference anymore myself. Try Classic Start Menu and O&0 ShutUp10 Also can find a lot on http://howtogeeks.com and search for Win 10 tips & tricks


You can try to modify multi-process settings to see if this has effect. You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

Copy/paste into the search bar then : set dom.ipc.processCount to 1 if it is currently set to a higher value (4) disable multi-process windows in Firefox

You can disable multi-process windows in Firefox by setting these prefs to false on the about:config page.

browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false

http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config Also can reverse everything this tells you to enable it. http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/22/multi-process-firefox/

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

Modified by Shadow110

more options

A) if I have 2-3-4 video cards should not make Firefox use zillions of extra ram. (my notebook does NOT have an extra video card.) The second video card is built into the motherboard/CPU and is enabled for trouble shooting.

B) If you noticed on the original png file I uploaded classic start menu is installed.

C) When Firefox refreshes a page it OFTEN causes sounds to crack and pop on winBLOWS 10, I must assume that the interrupts for every card is set to something STUPID because MS is in charge of that hardware AND software on machines anymore. Any program that needs THOUSANDS of updates a month to try and hold the pile of junk together means it was and is poorly written and even worse in its management,. yet we must give it full control of everything. I hated plug and prey when it first came out and it has done nothing but get worse. Old motherboards allowed us to set interrupts for each card and override plug and prey which is no longer the case. I could try to hack into the drivers to FORCE INT to what I wish, but I am too old to wish to fix the problems MS creates.

D) trying to use Crome and Firefox together is .. to put it nicely BRUTAL. when both are opened the system takes minutes to become stable enough to actually use. The mouse nearly stops and other issues arise as well.

I hate being talked to like I am 5 years old. One thing I did not note as it gathered data on its own, the computer I posted from is on the BETA channel, but the notebook is on normal release channel. One other note there are times that I must KILL the browser using the task manager as it will NOT close with the X and I mean 3-4 minutes and it is still running. Any idea what causes THAT to happen?

more options

Well this 5yr old Firefox Volunteer was trying to help and point out that having 2 cards can cause issues in Firefox and also the driver dates could be a issue as older drivers and or corrupted ones cause issues.

See if Multi-Processor Support is turned on. Multi-processor support feature may be disabled depending on your setup (it was for me) - you can check this by launching Firefox, then enter in "about:support" in the address bar; near the bottom, you should see a heading that says: "Multiprocess Windows", then look at the value next to it. If it says "0/1", then that means it's disabled. 0/2 or greater is turned on unless says turned off.

You can try to modify multi-process settings to see if this has effect. You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

set dom.ipc.processCount to 1 if it is currently set to a higher value (4) disable multi-process windows in Firefox

You can disable multi-process windows in Firefox by setting these prefs to false on the about:config page.

browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false

http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config Also can reverse everything this tells you to enable it. http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/22/multi-process-firefox/

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.