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…
April 25th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
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.
May 6th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
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
May 9th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
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…
June 26th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
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 !!
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:32 pm
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.
August 10th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
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.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
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.
August 19th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
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.
August 20th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
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…