Firefox 57 - Are you a happy user?
- Thread starter ng4ever
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Please provide comments and solutions that are helpful to the author of this topic.
- Dec 29, 2014
- 1,717
Only problem is I can't find the extension anywhere in the Mozilla extension store. Anyone, considered looking at the source code to verify the safety of this? It sounds good in princple at least. Be nice to hear from someone who can read code and who could maybe compile this and make the installer available. The GitHub link is at the bottom of the page.
Trying to keep my better senses with extensions after trying a few sketchy ones
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- Jan 8, 2017
- 1,320
This will only compromise Firefox performance, RAM was made to be used and not saved / limited, you will not be able to have a fast browser using only 100 or 200 MB of RAM.and @Deletedmessiah
So sorry - wrong name!!!
The product is FireMin - NOT FireMem. You can find it here:
Is Firefox using over 1GB of precious memory? Download Firemin and control the amount of memory Firefox uses.
BTW - Rizonesoft makes good stuff!
[I was getting it confused in my feeble mind with CleanMem - another fine Memory Manager that does actually work.]
- Dec 29, 2014
- 1,717
If you use the browser extensively, system RAM on Chrome or Firefox will climb to as high as 80% and higher, even up to 100%. I know it's common to make the claim you make here, but it doesn't match with the experience I have had testing applications, in this case browsers, and memory usage. The more memory is being used, the more Windows has to keep track of what is being used. Over about 80-85% is a noticable change (decrease) in performance, especially during multi-tasking, although probably not with a game running by itself etc. However, even a browser running by itself will crinkle Windows over time if the PC isn't restarted for an extended period and if the browser is used daily and relatively heavily. There is definitely something missing in the high end of memory management with browsers, based on my experience.
For me, on an i-5 2400 with 8 GB and a 6 GB/sec standard disk drive, it takes Chrome about 8 days to take Windows to a frozen solid state. I haven't tested Firefox as long, but it seems to fight ever escalating RAM on the high end of memory usage. I am guessing it would take about 5 days. FF gets to 80% pretty quickly though. This testing is performed without turning the system off and also while running streaming video in the focused tab. In these same tests, I have been using a tab suspender, so only about 5 tabs are active of the 20 or so open in the browser.
Don't know if I would call this a memory leak. I think I would say that it's more an abcense of high end memory management from the browsers. They are different more or less than anything else that I have experienced with memory over long stretches, so not sure I would say that this behavior should be controlled via the OS. It would be nice, but I think browser devs and the main engines will probably evolve this type of capability over time. FF seems to be edging toward it already.
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- Jan 8, 2017
- 1,320
You have 8GB of RAM, you do not have to worry about using it, it's a waste to have that RAM and want to limit it to only using 3 or 4GB, RAM usage is performance / speed, but it's weird to use Firefox and get to 80 % of use, I used it here and it did not even come close to that, if it reached 50% it's very..
- Dec 29, 2014
- 1,717
LOL, I know what you mean. I move very fast back and forth from YouTube to heavy news sites with videos. It's not easy to get there. Some normal sites are strangely heavy like MS related forums and so on. Not just those, but I also search images alot, working with images consistently. The RAM was always creeping on me and clearly it was rooted in browser activity, so I decided to do these tests once and for all to see where it would end. I was interested to see if Mozilla in particular had built "brakes" into the high end of system usage with FF 57 running...
Interesting note to me. I noticed that FF 57's crash reporter element will dump system memory all the way from 70%+ (I believe this was the amount at the time) down to 20% when FF is closed using that element of the browser. I noticed this after a crash not long after I installed FF 57 (I guess several hours). FF 57 is not buggy, but I think I had an extension that crashed the browser. It was there when I upgraded. I would love to find out what that element of FF does to achieve that, considering nothing in the system tray or anywhere else gets closed. I would make a script of it set to run on a timer and when the browser closes...
- Jan 8, 2017
- 1,320
What madness this, I tested here now with it open and still Opera together, 5 tabs each, consuming 41% of my RAM, I also have 8GB, this happens only with Firefox?
- Dec 25, 2017
- 158
@AtlBo
My experience as well. Quantum is much better than prior versions, but it still has problems. Back 20 or 30 versions ago FF was PATHETIC in terms of Memory leaking. (But then, so was Chrome.)
I too have 8 GB and I do not intend for FF to burn up 80 % of it. Period. It does help to periodically restart it. But then rebooting every so often does as well.
FWIW, I don't use FireMin much on this machine (Win 7 pro 64) **. On an old XP 2 GB box I always run it with FF and derivatives. Otherwise, memory gets melted by FF. Note that FireMin is one of the few type memory programs that actually works and are not snake oil.
** On this box I usually run Process Lasso and it has some good memory management built in.
My experience as well. Quantum is much better than prior versions, but it still has problems. Back 20 or 30 versions ago FF was PATHETIC in terms of Memory leaking. (But then, so was Chrome.)
I too have 8 GB and I do not intend for FF to burn up 80 % of it. Period. It does help to periodically restart it. But then rebooting every so often does as well.
FWIW, I don't use FireMin much on this machine (Win 7 pro 64) **. On an old XP 2 GB box I always run it with FF and derivatives. Otherwise, memory gets melted by FF. Note that FireMin is one of the few type memory programs that actually works and are not snake oil.
** On this box I usually run Process Lasso and it has some good memory management built in.
- Dec 29, 2014
- 1,717
Only if you are in front of the computer using the browser fairly heavily for hours on end will you notice this. Also, there is a high correlation with the number of tabs in use. THEN, you also have to leave the system in sleep mode rather than turning it off and for a long time...like days or even a few weeks. Anyway, for me it just points to a trend, and I think it suggests that browser devs can and I feel should improve memory management of their apps. I sense just a little bit of sophistication will do the job.
I leave systems in stand by rather than turn them off...been a habit for I guess 15 years. I have really noticed "RAM creep" since about 2012, when the hardware made for me using the internet worth spending many hours searching and chronicling information. Over the course of a long boot, say 15-20 days, I began noticing that system RAM would always rise with the browser leading the way. I say this, because any "RAM creep" happening without use of a browser is extremely minimal. Well, as my use of browsers has gone up, now I notice it takes almost exactly 8 days for Chrome to freeze Windows. Literally, this same pattern has repeated itself over and over many many times. Again, this is very heavy testing, and the PC isn't even in sleep mode. It's fully on 24/7 with video running while I have been doing this. With testing, I guess I have been at it hard for the last 3 months and off and on for about a year or a little bit more. My interest in this topic goes way back though, all the way to Windows 98.
Thanks for the information. I'd like to try FireMin, and maybe I will. These apps can be scary in that I have seen and heard of many bad extensions floating around. I installed an extension that claimed to be anti-miner. I think it actually contained eternal blue itself, and I had the feeling that something really creepy was happening in memory. Don't recall exactly what happened but it seems the internet went out on another connected PC here. That was enough for me, since miner malware uses eternal blue double pulsar with its ability to spread across a network. Systems were patched here anyway, but I don't like the trend in that malware.
Obviously, I got rid of the extension, and I don't think anything was written from memory to disk. Comodo would have told me if it tried. Seemed to me like maybe it was something of a miner itself that would run only when the browser was open (running with FFs trust in the security software), rather than attempt to install anything or make any changes to the system. After I rebooted and ran for awhile, I felt like the strangeness was gone. Creeped me out though.
100% your experience and mine are the same when it comes to restarting FF, although as the starting point of system memory usage is concerned, I notice each new FF session leaves the system memory at a higher point when FF is then closed. Rebooting is the sure fire fix...LOL or crash FF and use the crash reporter.
Funny thing, going way back. I remember being happy to see the crash reporter in FF even way back in like FF 3.6. Seems it has always had a crazy ability to dump RAM. In those days, I was looking at silly RAM optimizers occasionally. None of them worked, o/c. Sounds like you are familiar also with the topic...RAM Rush, RAM Boost, etc.
BTW, I like CleanMem and use it here. I read up on the app, and it seems to help with some things. However, I think it may lack the ability to do hard core trimming. Trimming to standby levels seems to have a decreasing payoff over time, although a good practice. Anyway, I still feel the browser writers will end up conquering the worst of this issue, based on what I have seen in FF 57. Chrome is a little bit better on RAM I think at this point, but FF seems to know it should fight as system memory climbs. Meanwhile, Chrome is moreso simply lacking any sort of native sophistication for managing high system-wide memory usage (contributing to managed system memory use)...full speed into the wall...
- Dec 25, 2017
- 158
@AtlBo - FireMin is not an extension - it is an exe. Yes - CleanMem is one of the good guys and I routinely use it on my XP. Now on my (new to me) Win 7 pro 64, I usually am running Process Lasso which has its own mem optimizer built in. If you have never tried it, check it out. It can tame things and provide LOTS of control over apps.
And 10-4 on the crashes and back to FF 3
FireMin is from a well respected software developer who has several other useful apps. I use a couple others. He also has a general purpose mem optimizer - Rizonesoft Memory Booster. Based on many years of research and usage this and CleanMem are the only two that I found actually really work.
Is Firefox using over 1GB of precious memory? Download Firemin and control the amount of memory Firefox uses.
And 10-4 on the crashes and back to FF 3
FireMin is from a well respected software developer who has several other useful apps. I use a couple others. He also has a general purpose mem optimizer - Rizonesoft Memory Booster. Based on many years of research and usage this and CleanMem are the only two that I found actually really work.
Is Firefox using over 1GB of precious memory? Download Firemin and control the amount of memory Firefox uses.
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- Jan 16, 2017
- 1,469
These tips seem to have worked well for me, now the browser doesn't lag or crash when 8 tabs with youtube videos are opening at once(weak laptop). Previously it used to. Thanks for sharing!
- Jun 14, 2011
- 1,896
- Dec 29, 2014
- 1,717
Yes, thanks. Firemin is working well with FF 57. I set it to 15000ms and to lower when FF reaches 80 MB. Looking forward to seeing how it works over a long boot now.
- Dec 25, 2017
- 158
Only problem is I can't find the extension anywhere in the Mozilla extension store. Anyone, considered looking at the source code to verify the safety of this? It sounds good in princple at least. Be nice to hear from someone who can read code and who could maybe compile this and make the installer available. The GitHub link is at the bottom of the page.
Trying to keep my better senses with extensions after trying a few sketchy ones
It is NOT an extension. It is a compiled .exe so is not available on the Mozilla DL store. And I don't feel up to hacking the code - but it IS there on GitHub. fun. FWIW - no need to compile - author already did that for us. If you find anything interesting, do let me know. My C dayz are long since passed - but I did not look at the code so have no idea what it is written in.
- Dec 25, 2017
- 158
Thank you!! Looks like these are some I should do
I DETEST all the telemetry crap and a couple of days ago uninstalled several M$ "Updates" (Spies) that were pushed down to Windows 7 from Win 10. That rather ticked me off when I discovered. One of the reasons I will likely stay with 7 for as long as possible.Updated info.
Firefox (stable) for Android is slow, heavy and mostly unusable. On desktop, Firefox is fine and fast.
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