On my notebook with 2GB and Windows XP, Firefox 3.5.2 uses about 150MB of the memory with 4 tabs open. Is there a way to reduce the amount of memory that Firefox consumes?
Asked
Active
Viewed 4,255 times
14
-
1See also: http://superuser.com/questions/5939/how-to-determine-which-firefox-add-ons-are-using-the-most-memory – mark4o Aug 18 '09 at 22:34
-
I think you meant 150MB, not 150K, right? – mark Sep 04 '09 at 09:29
-
1Here in The Future, 4 tabs means 600mb - 1GB of RAM usage O.O – YetAnotherRandomUser Feb 28 '18 at 20:40
6 Answers
11
- Check your Extensions and Themes. (By running Firefox in safe mode.)
- Check the Plug-ins.
- Clear Download History.
- Restart Firefox Periodically.
- Assign Memory Cache on Firefox. (
browser.cache.memory.enableandbrowser.cache.memory.capacity) - Release Memory when Firefox is minimized. (
config.trim_on_minimize)
2
I've been testing this for a few days and am very impressed. Reduced from average 150MB to 60MB
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11922
Of course, it's an extension so has its own footprint!
outsideblasts
- 6,455
- 1
- 18
- 19
-
Thank you so much for this! After soooo long, Firefox is fast again =8-) – Yuval Sep 07 '09 at 12:13
2
In recent versions, default history setting is 90 days. This causes your Places database's size to skyrocket and can slow down Firefox considerably. Reduce your history size to something more suited to your needs.
christophem
- 201
- 1
- 4
1
Not to self-promote (I apologize), FireTune is a great little tool which can speed up your Firefox experience along with optimizing the memory usage of Firefox.
DemoGeek
- 393
- 1
- 4
- 9
-
1Self-promotion is alright (to a point) as long as your answers are relevant and helpful! – The How-To Geek Aug 18 '09 at 19:51
1
One of the biggest memory consumers in firefox is flash. If you can't disable the flash completely, try installing Adblock Plus. This will remove at least the flash ads (as long as the other ads)
And btw, 150MB is not that much at all.
iffi
- 78
- 1
- 6
-
You can try FlashBlock (don't have the URL handy) which blocks all flash until you tell it to run the flash video. – mrdenny Aug 19 '09 at 03:59
-
All adblockers seem to increase the memory as they load in a huge stylesheet to cancel out the adverts. I've found it's better to block the adverts at the hosts file level instead using https://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman/ or pihole or something, and then you don't need an adblocker in your browser. – Matthew Lock Feb 22 '22 at 08:57
1
One thing that has worked well for me is to be very selective with which extensions I have installed (or at least enabled). If I find that I'm not using an extension very often, I'll disable it until I need it.
Travis Northcutt
- 921
- 1
- 12
- 25