Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Microsoft Edge: Which browser gobbles up the most RAM?
Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Microsoft Edge: Which browser gobbles up the most RAM?
A few years ago, gaming company Corsair put out an amusing advertisement that chop-chop went viral. In it, a man wearing a Google Chrome shirt greedily devours a plate of RAM-shaped cookies, while another man in an Adobe Photoshop shirt takes a dainty bite of one, then puts the residue back.
Information technology was a damning indictment of Chrome — even if it was missing some important context. For the record, Google Chrome really does go to town on your computer's retention, and I had a skillful express mirth forth with everyone else. But information technology too got me thinking: Does Chrome actually gobble up more than its fair share of RAM? And, if then, do other pop Internet browsers take a more conservative approach?
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I tested Chrome against Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, and my findings were quite interesting. Despite its reputation for being a existent RAM squealer, Chrome did not perform the worst. In fact, Chrome was mostly in the centre, while Firefox used up the about RAM overall. Microsoft Border used up the least RAM in every single exam.
Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge: How I tested
A quick refresher: Random admission memory, or RAM, is a identify to store data for short-term processing. Your computer needs RAM to render text, images, music, videos — essentially, all the things you find on a website. That'southward why browsers need a lot of RAM, particularly as you open up more tabs.
To see how much RAM each browser required, I shut down every nonessential program on my PC, then booted up i browser at a fourth dimension. In that browser, I opened 10 tabs that might come up in everyday life: Google, Tom'south Guide, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, YouTube and so forth. (I as well opened up the Corsair homepage, since that visitor inspired this whole experiment.)
I used Guest profiles in Chrome and Edge, and a "clean" profile in Firefox, in order to preclude extensions or bookmarks from clogging things upward. From there, all I had to practice was monitor retentiveness usage in Windows Task Manager.
The second step was to see how each browser handled massive amounts of data. When a browser has a ton of tabs open, rather than try to run each one simultaneously, it will ofttimes prioritize and optimize data in order to save RAM. This fourth dimension around, I kept the initial 10 tabs, and then added x more from equally enervating sites: eBay, Best Buy, the New York Times, Disney Plus and Google Stadia, to name a few.
Adjacent, to actually tax each browser I opened a whopping sixty tabs in Chrome, Firefox and Edge. I opened three copies apiece of each website from the 20-tab test. For the terminal test, I opened upward each browser twice, and launched twenty tabs in each example. This replicates a user multitasking — writing in ane window, and researching in another, for example.
Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Border: RAM usage results
| Google Chrome | Microsoft Edge | Mozilla Firefox | |
| x tabs | 952 MB | 873 MB | 995 MB |
| 20 tabs | 1.8 GB | 1.4 GB | one.half dozen GB |
| 60 tabs | three.7 GB | 2.9 GB | 3.nine GB |
| 2 instances / twenty tabs apiece | 2.8 GB | ii.5 GB | 3.0 GB |
Running 10 tabs took up 952 MB of retention in Chrome, while Firefox took up 995 MB. The real surprise, withal, was Edge, weighing in at simply 873 MB of retention. That Edge made such a great showing is less surprising when y'all call up that Microsoft's browser now runs on the aforementioned Chromium architecture as Chrome. Only to beat Google at its own game is nevertheless impressive.
With the xx-tab test, Chrome performed the weakest , eating upwardly 1.eight GB RAM, compared to Firefox at 1.half-dozen GB and Edge at only 1.4 GB.
Edge connected to perform the all-time when I loaded lx tabs in a single browser window, taking upward 2.9 GB of RAM, versus 3.7 GB for Chrome and 3.9 GB for Firefox. The results here were much starker than the 20-tab examination, every bit Firefox required a whole extra gig of memory, compared to Edge. On the other hand, not every user needs 60 tabs open up simultaneously, so consider whether this use-case might apply to y'all.
On the concluding test, with twoscore tabs open beyond two instances (20 tabs apiece), Edge required 2.v GB RAM birthday, while Chrome needed ii.8 GB and Firefox needed iii.0 GB. These figures are roughly double what the 20-tab test required, which is not terribly surprising — except for Chrome, which seems to be a little bit improve almost optimizing data beyond two windows.
Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge: Observations
Microsoft has made a big to-do about Edge being a real contender in the Web-browsing infinite, and my results propose that the company isn't simply blowing smoke. It really is leaner and meaner than either Chrome or Firefox. The difference isn't night-and-day, particularly if your system has a lot of RAM to play with, but this could be a big deal for lower-powered PCs — especially lightweight laptops.
It's important to remember that my tests weren't highly scientific. RAM usage volition vary somewhat depending on your organization, and will vary tremendously depending on what kind of websites y'all visit, and which extensions you use.
Does this brand Edge the "all-time" Web browser? Not necessarily. A browser should be lightweight, sure, but it should also load your favorite websites without a hitch, run the extensions you want, protect you from malware and then forth. This test didn't evaluate any of those factors, so you'll have to decide for yourself whether it'south worth making the switch.
Just if nothing else, it'due south skillful to know that Chrome isn't equally bad with RAM equally I thought — and that Microsoft Edge beats both Chrome and Firefox.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/chrome-firefox-edge-ram-comparison
Posted by: lucasarmishath.blogspot.com
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