Firefox Memory Usage... not a leak?

[CaptNKILL]

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/009749.html

My friend sent me that. VERY interesting. I played around with the setting a bit and it seems to have a small effect on my work machine here, but with only 512Mb of RAM its hard to tell the difference in usage.

When I get home Im going to play with it some more. When I watch a lot of videos, like at eBuam's world or LookAtEntertainment, I usually open them in their own tabs. This would explain why my firefox hits 400-500Mb usage some times.

For those that dont know, you can get into Firefox's advanced settings to change things like this by typing about:config in the address bar.

All FF users should check out that article... its an informative read.

[CaptNKILL]

Well I set it from -1 (which is the auto setting... it changes depending on your RAM, for me this is equal to 8) to 2 and Im not noticing much difference in memory usage. It still went up to 130Mb after opening a whole lot of random pages in a bunch of tabs, and it stayed there after closing them.

I guess the program just has overall poor memory management. Im not running low by any means, but it seems a bit unnecessary for it to be using upwards of 400Mb and not giving any of it back until I close all windows and all tabs (including the download manager).

[Peoples-Agent]

Mine never goes above 50-60MB but I use a script.
Not sure if this has something to do with it, but your welcome to try.
Gives a nice speed boost to boot, and less memory usage for whatever reason.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2n5d78

First you have to allow viewing of hidden files / folders.
In Windows Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, View > Show Hidden Files and Folders.

Then go into C:\Documents and Settings\(User name)\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\Blahblah.default ( This can be anything prettymuch) ....place the prefs file in there, might overwrite a current one.

Don't worry too much, because if your not happy with it.. just delete it and next time Firefox opens it creates a new one.
Also, make sure Firefox isn't open at the time when you do it.

Let me know how it goes.

[Imbroglio]

alright, so i click on the link and i didn't see that size 4 text at the bottom of the page to begin download for about 6 minutes, i didn't know wtf was going on. anyways, this script is F'NG AWSOME (i don't like to yell much, but holy crap this is amazing), my pages are opening faster than i've ever seen them before, nice java-script (nana2)

[Rakeesh]

It's not a leak, it is several leaks. I don't think this guy completely knows what he is talking about.

Firefox will slowly consume more memory and CPU just by letting it sit idle. Most leaks however are caused by faulty extensions.

[CaptNKILL]

Heh, yeah I used the tweak I posted as well as the one People's Agent posted... right now I have one tab open and FF is using 160Mb of ram.

Sorry for giving false hope guys...

...this'n's as leaky as the titanic it is... yarrr :p

[Peoples-Agent]

I don't get it , I've tried everything to get my usage up and it goes nowhere near that. I think you might be onto something Alpha, perhaps it's one of the extensions?

[Peoples-Agent]

alright, so i click on the link and i didn't see that size 4 text at the bottom of the page to begin download for about 6 minutes, i didn't know wtf was going on. anyways, this script is F'NG AWSOME (i don't like to yell much, but holy crap this is amazing), my pages are opening faster than i've ever seen them before, nice java-script (nana2)

I'll be honest, alot of that prefs file I picked up from planetamd64.com. heh
Just keep adding and changing bits here and there as I go along.

Have you tried dropping any extensions / add-ons Capt N Kill?

[CaptNKILL]

I'll be honest, alot of that prefs file I picked up from planetamd64.com. heh
Just keep adding and changing bits here and there as I go along.

Have you tried dropping any extensions / add-ons Capt N Kill?
Hmm... I guess its worth a try.

What extensions are you using?

At work here I have adblock installed, as well as DOM Inspector and Talkback... I didnt even know about those two, but I think they are related to firefox's error reporting system.

At home I probably have those same 3 and I think I still have FlashGot installed. Other than that, I dont think Ive put any extensions on Firefox. I'll try disabling them all later. If its adblock thats doing it though, I'll stick with the high ram usage. That helps soooooooo much, itd be worth the massive memory leak :p

[Peoples-Agent]

Hmm... I guess its worth a try.

What extensions are you using?

At work here I have adblock installed, as well as DOM Inspector and Talkback... I didnt even know about those two, but I think they are related to firefox's error reporting system.

At home I probably have those same 3 and I think I still have FlashGot installed. Other than that, I dont think Ive put any extensions on Firefox. I'll try disabling them all later. If its adblock thats doing it though, I'll stick with the high ram usage. That helps soooooooo much, itd be worth the massive memory leak :p

I don't use any tbh, I use Avast Antivirus which has some good adblock features built in though.

[Q]

I use ZERO extensions, and have had this problem for ages. Since the Mozilla beta days in one level of severity or another. It's a damn good browser, but just lets itself eat up memory.

I'm happy to say that, for myself, the problem isn't as prevalent in 1.5 for myself. However, I still have a browser crash from time to time where it likes to linger as a process until a manual stop. I haven't had that funky crash where it asks you to create a new profile (or you have to restart the machine) in quite a while...so progress is being made. Hopefully the guys will plug all these holes before IE7 releases and steals back a chunk of the market.

[Peoples-Agent]

I recently switched to Avant Browser, loving it so far.
They have also made a browser called Dr Orca which is based on the Gecko / Mozilla engine.... still undecided as what to use.