{"id":62873,"date":"2017-06-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foxtail\/2017\/06\/20\/firefox-uses-less-memory-chrome-edge-safari\/"},"modified":"2017-06-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T00:00:00","slug":"firefox-uses-less-memory-chrome-edge-safari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-uses-less-memory-chrome-edge-safari\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefox Uses Less Memory Than Chrome, Edge and Safari"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cComputer slow. Whyyy tho?\u201d A slow computer can be frustrating. The fan turns on. Your clicks&#8230;happen&#8230;on&#8230;delay. And then everything freezes. \u201cSpeed up computer! Speed up PC! You can do it, little buddy!\u201d No amount of cheering or chanting helps. It\u2019s force-quit time.<\/p>\n<p>Slowdowns often occur from high memory usage caused by open apps that hog all your RAM. RAM means \u201crandom access memory\u201d and it gets used whenever active programs do stuff at the same time. RAM, in effect, is like short-term memory: ready to access, read, and write information related to the most immediate tasks you\u2019re working on. If our human short-term memory gets overloaded with too many tasks at the same time, we have what is commonly known in the medical community as a \u201cbrain fart.\u201d We just can\u2019t keep everything in our heads! Computers have a similar problem.<\/p>\n<h2>About Memory Hogs<\/h2>\n<p>Many computers today have at least 4GB\u2014or 8GB or 16GB\u2014of DDR RAM, which ought to be ample. (If you have less than 4GB of RAM, maybe write \u201cupgrade memory\u201d on your to-do list.) But beyond hardware upgrades, there are some apps and programs notorious for bogging down computer RAM, like graphics-intensive games, video rendering and operating systems themselves. Another likely suspect? Your browser. For many people, that\u2019s Google Chrome.<\/p>\n<p>A browser\u2019s memory usage wouldn\u2019t be such a big deal, except when other programs get squeezed out by the RAM shortage. For example, Google Chrome\u2019s architecture can hog resources by opening a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chromium.org\/developers\/design-documents\/process-models\">separate content process for each tab<\/a> that you open. (To see how your RAM is used across your entire system, open Task Manager in Windows, Activity Monitor in Mac, or see this article on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/Check-Computer-RAM\">Wikihow<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever had to quit Photoshop, iTunes or Office in order to browse the web, you have experienced this memory tradeoff. It\u2019s like making someone consciously remember a new phone number, new social security number, and new passport number, all while trying to buy a used car and simultaneously write an email. It can\u2019t all be done at the same time!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-198\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2017\/06\/memory-usage-by-browser-and-operating-system.png\" alt=\"Firefox uses less memory than Chrome\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>How Firefox Uses Less Memory<\/h2>\n<p>Firefox respects your desire to do other things while you browse the web. Firefox doesn\u2019t use as much RAM as Chrome. And it doesn\u2019t hog your ability to do more things at once. Instead, Firefox strikes a balance by using four content processes at any given time. Why four? Because four is the right number for many internet users: an amount that apportions enough RAM for superior browser performance, while also leaving more RAM for other apps and programs to use.<\/p>\n<p>Firefox aims to be <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/mozilla-tech\/the-search-for-the-goldilocks-browser-and-why-firefox-may-be-just-right-for-you-1f520506aa35\">the \u201cjust right\u201d of browsers\u2014not too hot<\/a> and memory-hoggy, and not too cool-running and slow. So if you\u2019ve experienced a memory hog at times rolling in the mud during your browsing sessions, open Firefox and add it to your browsing mix. It is faster, lighter-weight by design\u2014a happy medium of \u201cjust right\u201d for our users.<\/p>\n<p>Unless you just like having your computer heat up. And run like a tiny helicopter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cComputer slow. Whyyy tho?\u201d A slow computer can be frustrating. The fan turns on. Your clicks&#8230;happen&#8230;on&#8230;delay. And then everything freezes. \u201cSpeed up computer! Speed up PC! You can do it, little buddy!\u201d No amount of cheering or chanting helps. It\u2019s force-quit time. Slowdowns often occur from high memory usage caused by open apps that hog [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1422,"featured_media":50198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Firefox uses less memory than Chrome, Edge and Safari<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Slowdowns often occur from high memory usage caused by open apps that hog all your RAM. RAM means \u201crandom access memory\u201d and it gets used whenever\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-uses-less-memory-chrome-edge-safari\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-uses-less-memory-chrome-edge-safari\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-uses-less-memory-chrome-edge-safari\/\",\"name\":\"Firefox uses less memory than Chrome, Edge and Safari\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-uses-less-memory-chrome-edge-safari\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-uses-less-memory-chrome-edge-safari\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2017\/06\/memory-usage-by-browser-and-operating-system.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-20T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-20T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/1014fba1be8e0c2e5da5810b88b52f4c\"},\"description\":\"Slowdowns often occur from high memory usage caused by open apps that hog all your RAM. 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