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How on earth is it possible that Firefox uses 40% of my RAM, doing absolutely NOTHING?

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

Arjanl
Arjanl
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I start Firefox and my RAM usage immediately goes to 40%. No other apps open, all Firefox add-ons disabled, no sites open in tabs, nothing. I have 3 Gig RAM, that's not much, but it's more than sufficient for browsers like Chrome and Opera. I really prefer Firefox, but as soon as I have just two tabs open, my RAM goes to 90% and my CPU usage goes to at least 80%. It then doesn't take long till it crashes. Although the Crash-report "promises" feedback, I never ever got any. . .

I realize Firefox is a free app, so perhaps I shouldn't be complaining, but hey, all browsers are free these days and I would hate to go back to Chrome.

What can I do to reduce Firefox's use of resources? As I'm typing this it is using 250,000 K of RAM, basically doing nothing, accept keeping this one support-tab open.

I start Firefox and my RAM usage immediately goes to 40%. No other apps open, all Firefox add-ons disabled, no sites open in tabs, nothing. I have 3 Gig RAM, that's not much, but it's more than sufficient for browsers like Chrome and Opera. I really prefer Firefox, but as soon as I have just two tabs open, my RAM goes to 90% and my CPU usage goes to at least 80%. It then doesn't take long till it crashes. Although the Crash-report "promises" feedback, I never ever got any. . . I realize Firefox is a free app, so perhaps I shouldn't be complaining, but hey, all browsers are free these days and I would hate to go back to Chrome. What can I do to reduce Firefox's use of resources? As I'm typing this it is using 250,000 K of RAM, basically doing nothing, accept keeping this one support-tab open.

All Replies (6)

Muhammad_Faizan
Muhammad_Faizan
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Hello, Try these easy fixes https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-uses-too-much-memory-ram report us back.

Arjanl
Arjanl Question owner
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Sorry, didn't work. Just tried the same configuration with Chrome and it's very fast, using half of the resources.

Arjanl
Arjanl Question owner
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Thunderbird has exactly the same problem, compared to Outlook, it must a Mozilla thing, I'm afraid.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You can try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

  • Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"

You need to close and restart Firefox after toggling this setting.

Arjanl
Arjanl Question owner
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Already manipulated all settins and all of my extensions/add-ons. What seems to give some "relieve" is disabling my Okay Freedom VPNS add-on, I guess because it works as a proxy.

FredMcD
FredMcD
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Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac Options) key, and then starting Firefox. Is the problem still there?