Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Comparing Memory Usage of Firefox 2 vs 3

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-don't-remember-nothing dept.

DaMan writes "ZDNet picks up on yesterday's Firefox 3 beta 1 review by comparing the memory usage of Firefox 2 against the latest beta. The results from one of the tests is quite interesting, after loading 12 pages and waiting 5 minutes, 2 used 103,180KB and 3 used 62,312KB. IE used 89,756KB.""

5 of 402 comments (clear)

  1. How are they measuring? by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Informative

    Are they using the handy dandy Task Manager? If so, this is not even remotely accurate. In the age of managed memory, this is an estimate at best. Don't believe me. Open up internet explorer, run it a while and look at the memory usage. Now minimize IE. Watch the number drop like a lead balloon.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  2. Re:not to point out the obvious by ceejayoz · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the article:

    Both Firefox 2.0.0.9 and Firefox 3.0 b 1 were installed fresh using a standard install.
  3. Re:Strange, 1p/10 mins more than 12pp/5 mins? by stony3k · · Score: 4, Informative

    Form the tests that the developers have been running, most of the memory leaks in Firefox itself seem to be fixed (there are probably still some left). However, memory usage still remains a problem. I think this blog post summarizes their findings. They've been using dtrace and other tools to find out exactly what is going on.

    Unfortunately, I think the damage to Firefox's reputation is already done. There are many people who have had negative experiences with Firefox who keep on harping about the "memory leaks" and I don't see how Mozilla devs can change this public perception.

    --
    Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. - Mahatma Gandhi
  4. Just did this test in linux by Adult+film+producer · · Score: 5, Informative

    FC 6 .. kernel 2.6.22.. Firefox 1.5.0.12 vs 3.0b1

    I created a new user, logged in and loaded up FF 1.5.. opened up 12 tabs and logged into these sites

    www.bbc.co.uk
    www.slashdot.org
    www.dailykos.com
    www.news.com
    www.abc.com
    www.foxnews.com
    www.freep.com
    www.youtube.com
    www.youporn.com
    www.liveleak.com
    www.rawstory.com
    www.drudge.com

    Here are the numbers for ff 1.5. The first line is when it loaded up with 12 empty tabs. The second line is the 12 websites loaded initially.. and the third line is 12 minutes afterwards

      3876 perfume 20 0 175m 54m 38m S 0.0 14.5 0:18.19 firefox-bin
      3876 perfume 20 0 348m 124m 49m R 72.0 33.2 1:47.83 firefox-bin
      3876 perfume 20 0 338m 135m 49m R 46.8 36.0 7:30.93 firefox-bin

    I logged out, rm -rf ./.mozilla then logged back in and fired up FF 3.0b1.. same procedure, same 12 websites and 12 minutes of idling on them

      4231 perfume 20 0 202m 58m 38m S 3.6 15.6 0:11.79 firefox-bin
      4231 perfume 20 0 273m 106m 40m S 59.7 28.4 1:31.37 firefox-bin
      4231 perfume 20 0 254m 107m 40m S 1.3 28.5 2:27.26 firefox-bin

    CPU usage seemed to be much better with FF 3B1 as well.. not sure why the difference but everything was clean...

  5. Re:And Opera by daniel_newton · · Score: 4, Informative

    plugins (dlls) generally run in-process