What could be the reason for FF3 to be extremely slow in different PCs in which FF 2 performs readily. I downloaded a fresh program with the same result. They have only 12 add-ons and are theme-less. Thanks in advance
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Have you tried using the tips from the Firefox Portable support page yet?
If you haven't, here's the link: https://portableapps.com/support/firefox_portable#performance
One other thing you could try is disabling all 12 add-ons and then turn them back on one at a time to see if it is one of them. There's always the possibility that one (or multiple) could slowing it down.
What I've found is that if you have less than 1GB of RAM, FF3 makes Windows swap memory to the pagefile like mad. FF2 just doesn't exhibit the same problems.
Specs: bog standard Windows XP/SP3 install on a 512MB RAM machine (3GHz cpu).
I'm using the taskmanager to watch the Firefox processes and I've added the Peak memory usage and Virtual Memory columns to show, next to the normal memory usage column.
If I launch Portable FF 2 with a bunch of add-ons, no skins and something like 12 open tabs in the session, it eats up something 120MB of memory, Peak usage is around 124MB and Virtual memory is 110MB.
If I launch Portable FF 3 with NO add-ons, no skins and something like 12 open tabs in the session, it starts to eat up the 'normal' memory, hitting something like 200 to 300MB (Peak usage) and then drops normal memory usage down to a very low 60MB.
However, if I start switching tabs quickly, 'normal' memory usage goes up very quickly to 300, 400 MB: Virtual memory usage explodes... 400, 500, 600MB easily. Peak memory usage goes up as well, 400 to 500 MB.
There's just not that much physical memory in this machine, so Windows starts swapping to the pagefile like mad. Slows down the whole machine to a crawl.
After a while, if I'm doing anything else with FF3 but having it sit quietly displaying a single webpage, it triggers furious swapping and I'm constantly using up more than 512MB of memory.
Right now I'm working in FF2, lots of tabs, which I can switch to immediately without swapping occurring, and Taskmanager reports a decent 434MB of memory in use.
I'm seeing the same thing, but I don't know about that 1 GB limit. I've got PortableApps Firefox 3 running on a Corsair 16GB USB 2.0 memory stick. Even with the browser.sessionstore.enabled set to false the device is practically unusable. I really have no choice but to go back to Firefox 2.0.x.
-bryce
Pretty strange, considering the amount of RAM FF2 and FF3 comparatively use on runtime.
Slowness was obvious right from the start. 735Mb Page file on a 2Gb system. My Kinston USB, 4Gb, never stops blinking the entire time FF3 is running.
So yes I will be going back to FF2 as well. And I did check out the performance page.
Shades of Grey
If running from a hard drive, FF3 is quite fast, but due to how often it has to read/write, running it from a flash drive can make it feel uncomfortably slow. It's unfortunate for those with slower flash drives, it doesn't seem to affect them all though.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
My DataTraveler is indeed not the fastest USB thumbdrive, but it is not that will stop me from using it (too much dependencies on my extensions like Gmarks, Adblock Plus, etc.)
I'm pretty sure that if you use a "ReadyBoost" ready usb drive, the applications should be pretty fast, as these drives are made to run near the maximum USB 2.0 speed, which is around 30MB/s read I think.
they have to be above 15MBS Read...
Im using the OCZ ATV Turbo 4GB (23MB Write - 33MB Read Consistent Average)
and it runs really well, dont even notice its not on the HD...
But this is the fastest USB drive you can buy (currently), literally...
I have 102 add-ons installed, 76 greasemonkey scripts and tons of chrome changes...
But im having another issue where my plugins and toolbars only show up on some computers and half on others... its annoying... but when it does load correctly its suuuuper fast...
dirvxrippimp, are you running FF3 on your OCZ? If so, what did you do to tune FF3. My OCZ is a 36MB with FF3 and it's one slo-dog. Even after turning off cache.
"Beware of artists — they mix with all classes of society and are therefore most dangerous." -- Queen Victoria
Same here. FF3 becomes increasingly sluggish; constant freezing on links clicks, typing, et cetera. Very very annoying.
I'm going to go back to FF2 Portable and see if it's my USB drive, but I doubt it.
EDIT: Yep, Firefox 2.0.0.16 Portable performs much better.
Same here, I'm downgrading to FF2, much quicker (settings are history and session restore enabled in FF2, and all disabled in FF3).
I did all possible performances, but no way to really gain any time.
FF3 makes me crazy. Just like upgrading, is it kosher to install FF2 right over the top of FF3?
"Beware of artists — they mix with all classes of society and are therefore most dangerous." -- Queen Victoria
Since I installed the new version yesterday, my firefox is incredibly low.
It takes at LEAST 2 mins to open a page and often it freezes and doesn’t respond anymore.
Task manager shows for the application a mem usage > 141,300 k !!!
Nothing had been changed (same USB key, same computer), so I think I'll go back to the previous version