Web browser memory usage

Couple of days ago I found the interesting article - “Reduce your Linux memory footprint“, the author writes how to reduce the amount of memory used by applications working on Ubuntu.
For me the most interesting part was about the web browsers. The results form “Comparison of Web browser memory usage” table are not very good for Firefox.

I decide to make same test on Windows XP with the latest version of the browsers.

This is what I did:

I launched the browser, then I opened the page, when loading was done I checked the memory usage with Process Explorer (browser was maximized),
then I closed the browser.

Each test I did three time.

And the results:

BLANK PAGE

Browser Average memory use
Firefox 36MB
IE7 27MB

page: www.digitalinsane.com

Browser Average memory use
Firefox 41MB
IE7 25MB

page: www.google.com

Browser Average memory use
Firefox 39MB
IE7 31MB

page: www.yahoo.com

Browser Average memory use
Firefox 45MB
IE7 43MB

page: www.msn.com

Browser Average memory use
Firefox 45MB
IE7 44MB

three tabs with all above pages

Browser Average memory use
Firefox 53MB
IE7 66MB

It’s not hard to guess that the Opera uses less memory than the other browsers. Internet Explorer is a little bit better than Firefox (in these tests), but it ate more memory when more tabs were open.

And the verdict is:

  • Opera - first place! (fast and less memory usage),
  • IE7 - second place (very interesting),
  • And at the last position, The really hungry Fox!

While I’m writing this post Opera and Firefox are lunched, so lets see the actual memory usage:

Opera (6 tabs opened/6 pages loaded) uses 32 320 Kb,

FireFox (5 tabs opened/5 pages loaded) uses 77 924 Kb

Hmm… Nothing else to say…

9 Responses to “Web browser memory usage”

  1. Patton Says:

    I’m reading this post with Opera 9.20, with 40 tabs opened. Yes: 40. I’m using 266840KB. I wonder If Firefox or IE would allow me to do that. That’s why I love Opera, by the way.

  2. groovee Says:

    I’m reading this post with Firefox 2.0.0.3, with 40 tabs opened (inspired by Patton:)-(16 random links from opera.com, 15 links from digitalinsane.com and 9 other sites). I’m using…. 130 196 KB! By the way: I’m loving Opera too but FF is more…flexible

  3. Cloudchaser/Scyr Says:

    I have this to say, my laptop literally rejects IE or most other microsoft products. For instance, on my laptop, IE 7 uses more than double the memory Firefox uses. I am using Windows XP SP2, fully updated ect. My laptop freezes everytime IE is opened…

  4. Roy Says:

    ok here are my findings abt firefox: yahoo - 29 mb, msn - 30 mb, and anyways, its the EXTENSIBILTY of firefox, which beats all other browsers hands down !! :)

  5. Mark Says:

    I often have 40+ tabs open on FF.My test: I opened 9 web sites with a mixture of graphics, text and video. FF - 80Mb, Opera - 83Mb, IE7 - 99Mb, but FF - 202,000 page faults, Opera - 108,000 page faults, IE7 - 95,000 page faults.

  6. Flictor Says:

    More memory or not, Firefox just feels much better, I had a couple of moments where I fireup up Opera, but I always left with a feeling of clumsiness, and always returned to the good old fox.You don’t judge a browser by it’s memory usage.

  7. Ahmed shaheen Says:

    firefox without add-ons lacks functionalities that opera has. opera is a much more advanced than firefox out of the box. opera uses less memory and also has the fastest cache speed for opening previously visited sites.

  8. usucdik Says:

    This test is BOGUS. It’s not testing 100% of the memory usage! Check the Virtual Memory column in Task Manger and check THAT out, that’s is closest to the actual total.

  9. Marco Says:

    Excellent information, Kris!!!!! I always loved Opera, unfortunately I switched to Firefox one year ago. But seeing that after starting up Firefox it already takes 50MB of RAM I will sure go back to Opera…

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