Firefox: High Memory Consumption - Page 2

Dashken · 19th Feb 2006, 04:19 AM

I need 2GB too... and 1GB on my laptop at least, I only have 512MB now...

Quote:

Firefox users are up in arms about the excessive memory used by the popular open source browser, but the lead engineer on the project has blasted critics and has written in his blog post that the "leaky" memory was a feature in the software of the browser. Firefox lead engineer Ben Goodger also said that the memory leak is an effect of the Back-Forward cache used by the browser.

"What I think many people are talking about however with Firefox 1.5 is not really a memory leak at all. It is in fact a feature," wrote Goodger, who is now employed at Google Inc. He added that the Back-Forward cache meant that users could have immediate access to pages that had been previous used/viewed by them, "To improve performance when navigating Firefox 1.5 implements a Back-Forward cache that retains the rendered document for the last five session history entries for each tab. This is a lot of data. If you have a lot of tabs, Firefox's memory usage can climb dramatically," he explained.

Hence the number of pages that would be cached by Firefox depends on the memory of the system. A system that has 1GB capacity could cache up to 8 pages, while a system with 256MB could only cache 3 pages at a time. The problem is that Firefox seems to freeze up the memory even when the tabs are closed and this is what is troubling users.

But Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's director of engineering said that theoretically, Firefox must free up the memory, "In general, Firefox should release memory when tabs are closed. There are actually several different caches, which makes this a complicated issue. But there are cases where they're leaks," he admitted. However he added that the main aim was to "balance memory usage and performance."

To view the relevant page, users can type 'about.config' from within Firefox and scroll down to 'browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers' and click to view it. In the "Enter integer value" field, add zero to disable thee cache or 1 to 8 for the number of pages that should be cached or -1 to return the setting to defaults.

Source: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/5423.html

Chai · 19th Feb 2006, 10:36 AM

I've managed to use up 1.5GB when editing photos!

doraemon · 24th Feb 2006, 11:18 AM

i just restart my firefox....it hit 485MB

Viper007Bond · 24th Feb 2006, 01:11 PM

Yay for 2 gigs of RAM.

peaz · 24th Feb 2006, 01:18 PM

LMAO. don't every one needs 2GB of RAM nowadays? I've already felt the need for 2GB on my laptop a long long time ago.

Dashken · 24th Feb 2006, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peaz

LMAO. don't every one needs 2GB of RAM nowadays? I've already felt the need for 2GB on my laptop a long long time ago.

What's stopping you then? Coz I think you are LICHER than Chai.

peaz · 24th Feb 2006, 04:07 PM

Cos my condo is stopping me from doing it la!

Chai · 24th Feb 2006, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dashken

What's stopping you then? Coz I think you are LICHER than Chai.

Finally I agree with Dashken...

Ok, I know what's coming next...

Adrian Wong · 24th Feb 2006, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peaz

Cos my condo is stopping me from doing it la!

Don't bluff.

You can afford THREE condos at the same time!!!!

Seriously, go for 2GB la...

Lead the way!!!!

zy · 25th Feb 2006, 02:19 AM

lead the way .. hmmm

to upgrade to 2GB i would need ~RM300 and scouting around again ..
nah .. let this 1.5gb last me until i leave for the states .. then maybe i get 2gb for my laptop

19th Feb 2006, 10:36 AM	#12 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 26,760 Reputation: 3984 Rep Power: 72	I've managed to use up 1.5GB when editing photos! __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

24th Feb 2006, 11:18 AM	#13 (permalink)
doraemon Hyperactive Join Date: 18 Jun 2004 Location: 22ndCentury Posts: 3,087 Reputation: 724 Rep Power: 15	i just restart my firefox....it hit 485MB __________________

24th Feb 2006, 01:11 PM	#14 (permalink)
Viper007Bond Super Active Join Date: 12 Oct 2004 Location: Portland, OR, USA Posts: 1,605 Reputation: 152 Rep Power: 7	Yay for 2 gigs of RAM. __________________ - Viper007Bond.com Pentium 4C 3.0GHz (I had OC'ed, but the easy OC screwed with my RAM timings) 2GB RAM (4 x 512MB) OCZ PC3200 DDR in dual channel mode (2.5-3-2-6) BFG Tech 256MB GeForce 6800 GT (usually at stock speeds) 74GB Raptor \| 400GB Seagate (thanks ARP!) \| 250GB Maxtor [all SATA] 550W Antec TruePower PSU \| ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe mobo

24th Feb 2006, 01:18 PM	#15 (permalink)
peaz ARP Webmaster Join Date: 13 Oct 2002 Location: http://atpeaz.placidthoughts.com/ Posts: 8,501 Reputation: 1633 Rep Power: 31	LMAO. don't every one needs 2GB of RAM nowadays? I've already felt the need for 2GB on my laptop a long long time ago. __________________ Ken Ng Tech ARP Visit my web gallery - Ken's Digital Canvas Shoot and Earn Money from Stock Photography Sterling@PJ Community Forums

24th Feb 2006, 04:07 PM	#17 (permalink)
peaz ARP Webmaster Join Date: 13 Oct 2002 Location: http://atpeaz.placidthoughts.com/ Posts: 8,501 Reputation: 1633 Rep Power: 31	Cos my condo is stopping me from doing it la! __________________ Ken Ng Tech ARP Visit my web gallery - Ken's Digital Canvas Shoot and Earn Money from Stock Photography Sterling@PJ Community Forums

25th Feb 2006, 02:19 AM	#20 (permalink)
zy Dead Join Date: 16 Dec 2002 Location: Penang,Malaysia - Buffalo,New York Posts: 12,842 Reputation: 1998 Rep Power: 37	lead the way .. hmmm to upgrade to 2GB i would need ~RM300 and scouting around again .. nah .. let this 1.5gb last me until i leave for the states .. then maybe i get 2gb for my laptop __________________ current: P4-3.2\|P4P800-Deluxe\|512x4-DDR\|NV6600 WD2500KS\|WD5000AAKS\|AD-7191A\|1860NX\|Z2300\|MP470 home (malaysia): P4C-2.6@3.1-StockHSF\|AI7\|256x2-BT-D43\|512x2-DT-D43\|A9600XT-VIVO WD1200JB\|2xWD2500KS\|DRU-800A\|DVD-E616P\|LTR-52327S\|152x\|V.S.4121\|iP1500 laptop: M1210\|T7200\|2GBDDR667\|160GB5K160\|GO7400