Firefox bloat

**CivilWars** · 01-14-10, 11:37 AM

Ok, I used to use FF, but it seems that after about 2-3 weeks it slows WAY down. I have gone in to edit some of the under the hood BS to supposedly make it better, but still no dice. I know Wile has mentioned some fixes, so wondering if he, or any others, have some suggestions. I love all of the add-ons with FF, but it gets so slow. Now the new site doesn't seem to like my Chrome, so I need to get FF running smooth.

**Mcstrange** · 01-14-10, 11:38 AM

Ive almost entirely stopped using FF at home, it slows way the fuck down for no known reasons.

**dex71** · 01-14-10, 11:40 AM

I've only had mine slow down once or twice....it seems to be cured with a re-install.

I haven't tried Chrome yet....but I hate IE.

**CivilWars** · 01-14-10, 11:41 AM

And I just got my Chrome working on TPG. So never mind. I only use Firefox for certain plugins, like FireFTP, now.

**WileECyte** · 01-14-10, 11:44 AM

The fixes I mentioned were merely adjusting the memory cache settings since those are on a per tab basis. While it prevents the bloat it does slow the browsing experience quite a bit. I've been splitting time between Chrome and Firefox and to be honest, Chrome, with extensions is just as bloated as FFox. It's the extensions that are the problem. My only solution to the bloat issue is to just periodically restart my browser...

I've got Firefox and Chrome open with the same sets of windows and both end up running > 512 megs of RAM after a day or so of remaining open. If I run Firefox in safe mode (no extensions) it uses considerably less RAM.

**Mcstrange** · 01-14-10, 11:45 AM

my issue with FF is that even a pretty clean install with almost no extensions can take minutes to launch. not sure why or whats happening but even reinstalls dont seem to help...

**WileECyte** · 01-14-10, 11:49 AM

The 3.6 release candidate is quite a bit better about leakage... I should test the startup time piece.

**Alundil** · 01-14-10, 11:55 AM

I use FF3.5.x and I notice the bloat as well - but I do not have issues with long startups. I typically save sessions everytime I close the browser as well so there are several tabs that open each time I launch. I use several extensions and can see it routinely eating over 350 Mb of memory. I usually just restart the browser if it starts to slow down. I've played, a bit, with Chrome and while it is fast, I am not using any chrome extensions with it yet. So, on the whole it is just as fast (to me) as FF with no extensions. I am hoping that FF3.6 is considerably better about the memory management.

We'll see

**Red_Lizard2** · 01-18-10, 08:07 PM

usually if i leave it open it gets really bad (i've had it take up i think a gig of memory once after a few days of being open. usually if i close and restart it it goes way back down

**Bunni** · 01-18-10, 10:00 PM

when i hit break tomorrow ill post up the hidden FF settings i have, and the FF optimization plugins i use. For the most part, i see a fairly even performance from FF and GC. What exactly are you encountering? Just long page loading times? Lag, Freezing?