You are here

growing ram usage?

15 posts / 0 new
Last post
skyquakes
skyquakes's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 7 months ago
Joined: 2006-12-28 13:40
growing ram usage?

i realised that firefox's ram usage is growing by time while it's working. it was nearly 20-30mb when i run it, growed by time and now is nearly 90mb. also looks like growing still :/

why is this happening?

wsm23
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-09 22:05
Memory Leak

This is a FF problem. Not a FFPE problem.

Google search: firefox memory leak

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

José Pedro Arvela
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 2 months ago
Joined: 2007-07-10 07:29
Correction

Correction: This is a FF feature. Not a FFPE feature.

Check Firefox Myths.


Myth - "Firefox's Memory Leak is a Bug"

Reality - The Firefox Memory Leak is not a bug. It's a Feature! The "Feature" is how the pages are cached in a tabbed environment.

"To improve performance when navigating (studies show that 39% of all page navigations are renavigations to pages visited less than 10 pages ago, usually using the back button), Firefox 1.5 implements a Back-Forward cache that retains the rendered document for the last few session history entries. This can be a lot of data. It's a trade-off. What you get out of it is faster performance as you navigate the web."

Blue is everything.

wsm23
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-09 22:05
Not true

I use FFPE 2.0.0.11 mainly. (FF 3.0 does not have some extensions I need for work yet)

If I open 10 tabs, some with java or flash and check the ram usage of FFPE, then close all but one simple page/tab FF does not release the ram back to memory. That is a leak. Not a feature. No I do not have, cache, session manager, etc enabled.

If it was not a bug then they would not have tried to fix the problem in 3.0.

Here is a great example. I just closed 9 out of the 13 tabs I had opened. FFPE memory usage is at 242mb!:jawdrop: I have 1 NWS radar page up, portableapps.com, foxnews.com, and comingsoon.net. That is it. No way that should consume 242mb. That is called a LEAK.

Now I just closed all but portableapps.com. FFPE memory usage is at 235mb. If I restart then the leak clears itself.

EDIT: I restart FFPE then I am back down to 38mb memory usage. Does Mozilla have stock in Crucial or SanDisk? :lol:

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

José Pedro Arvela
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 2 months ago
Joined: 2007-07-10 07:29
OK, you're right, in half

No, if you closed Firefox tabs, then they will be in memory, so if you choose to reopen them, they will take less to load. So the memory consume is still high.

But it is, in part, a bug, as Opera, for example, can have the web page memory and still have low memory consume.

To disable it, you can't use the visual settings, but a about:config key (don't ask me which, as I don't remember).

Blue is everything.

wsm23
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-09 22:05
Should not be in memory

I have
browser.cache.disk.capacity set to 0
browser.sessionstore.enabled set to false

I do not have the ability with my current setup to restore closed tabs. They should not be held in memory.

It is not a setting or extension issue. It is a FFPE 2.0 and sooner issue.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

John T. Haller
John T. Haller's picture
Online
Last seen: 40 min 36 sec ago
AdminDeveloperModeratorTranslator
Joined: 2005-11-28 22:21
Ok

1. It's FF, not FFPE

2. Much of it is by design

3. browser.cache.disk.capacity and browser.sessionstore.enabled have zero affect on it. you can disable Firefox's RAM cache with browser.cache.memory.enable or limit it by setting browser.cache.memory.capacity manually, both in about:config.

4. If it's honestly bugging you for some reason, set config.trim_on_minimize to true (you may need to create a new boolean) and when you minimize Firefox, it'll free whatever RAM it doesn't need.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

wsm23
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-09 22:05
You are right

It is a FF issue, not a PE issue. Did not mean to confuse the two.

Good tip on the config.trim on minimize. Thanks.

EDIT: Works like a charm, John!!!! This is exactly the kind of modification I needed. I can wait 1 or two seconds for FF to rev up once I maximize it, if it is giving me back my RAM while it is minimized.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

BuddhaChu
BuddhaChu's picture
Offline
Last seen: 7 years 5 months ago
Joined: 2006-11-18 10:26
If you're having a memory

If you're having a memory leak I'd say the problem is you're running a really old version of FF. The Mozilla developers fixed a huge memory leak a few versions back so update to the latest version and you should be good-2-go. If that doesn't work, do what the poster above me said...search Google...memory leaks are a problem with the original application.

Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!

rab040ma
Offline
Last seen: 4 months 3 weeks ago
Joined: 2007-08-27 13:35
I concur that it is most

I concur that it is most likely not a FFP issue.

I wouldn't be so sure it is a memory leak. It could plausibly have something to do with the way FF keeps track of things like history, so the more you do the bigger it gets. At least that would give the Mozilla folks the benefit of the doubt. (That's also how a memory leak may look, hence the question.)

Another possibility is that there is a memory leak or some other memory usage problem with a plugin, or perhaps FF is not able to reclaim RAM used by an object like Acrobat or Flash or QuickTime.

See if you can identify a specific series of web pages you can load (or some other activity) that consistently causes the RAM usage to increase in a repeatable way, and then remove plugins or make other changes and see if that changes the behavior.

Also, if you get such a repeatable sequence, try it on a regular install of FF as well, to compare FF with FFP. If it only happens on FFP, then by all means return here to report; otherwise, it is more likely a FF issue to be reported on their site.

MC

skyquakes
skyquakes's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 7 months ago
Joined: 2006-12-28 13:40
here is a solution

im using the latest one, tried also with a local setup but same settings and plugins, same thing happens allways..

here is a link

http://internetducttape.com/2006/12/02/how-to-fix-the-firefox-memory-lea...

a human never fails but stop trying...

RMB Fixed
Offline
Last seen: 14 years 2 months ago
Joined: 2006-10-24 10:30
..

How much memory does opening 13 IE-explorer windows use ?

wsm23
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-09 22:05
185MB down to 90mb

Had 13 tabs open in IE7 including 2 java heavy sites (yahoo maps, and nws radar loop)=185mb.

Closed all but 5 including the two java heavy tabs=90mb. Still heavy, but at least IE7 makes an attempt to release the ram back.

Do NOT get me wrong, I will continue to use FFPE. I just count this as a flaw not a feature. It is something that I do have to alter my browsing habits for. I must occasionally restart FF when I have used graphic, flash or java heavy sites.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

rab040ma
Offline
Last seen: 4 months 3 weeks ago
Joined: 2007-08-27 13:35
curious

What method are you using to measure FF's RAM usage?

MC

wsm23
Offline
Last seen: 12 years 1 month ago
Joined: 2006-01-09 22:05
Statusbar Ex and Task Manager

Both statusbar ex and task manager agree within 1 or 2mb.

Life is about the journey not the destination!

The Kazoo Spartan

Log in or register to post comments