Why do browsers like google-chrome use so much memory?

[CantankRus]

Why does google-chrome use upwards of 500mb memory when starting to a bank page with history and cookies erased.
Same with opera-developer.
Just seems a lot just to open.

Recently upgraded from 2G to 4G memory and just not used to seeing over 2G memory used.
Does google-chrome use more memory if it's there to be used?

From a cold boot, start off around 700g ... open google-chrome ...up to 1.3G ...open 3 or 4 tabs and I'm up to 1.8G.

[kerry_s]

to me it seems to always try to use up to half the ram available, so for example i have 2gb it will use just up to a gig, i've got netflix running on 1 screen & on the other screen a few tabs i'm at 897.4mib(49%). i think it just uses what it can. like you i plan on upgrading to 4gb as well, it's already on it's way, hopefully i get it this week.
i've tested other browsers, there about the same, except for midori which used about 500+mb, but midori is very crashy. also chrome is the only 1 that can do netflix, i tried using it just for netflix & another browser for just web browsing but resource use is about the same so no point.

[CantankRus]

Yeah , my main browser is opera-developer which is built on chromium and I see the same memory usage.
The reason I upgraded to 4 gig was the modern browsers were using so much memory.
Just appear to be behaving like the tax man.... the more you got the more they want.

[DuckHook]

So much of our lives revolve around the browser these days that it's like the central star in a solar system. When you think about it, one can view videos, get news, read books, listen to music, play games, create and edit docs/spreadsheets/slides, e-mail, message and do our taxes, all without leaving the browser. Crazy.

It's the single most important app on a desktop. It is also the most sophisticated and versatile. It must be capable of multiple scripting, large dedicated caching, juggling dozens of tabs and web pages, running hundreds of child processes, accepting dozens of plug-ins and extensions, morphing into a web app that looks like a completely different and unrelated animal, and yet make this incredible juggling act look seamless and effortless. It's quite the feat guys. And it's no wonder that it takes up an obscene amount of resources.

If you want a skimpy browser, try links2. It is totally Mickey Mouse next to the heavyweights, but it allows you to read static web pages well and it's as fast as greased lightning. Oh, and it uses probably 5% of the resources that the bloated monsters do.

[robsoles]

I think flash is the biggest culprit in terms of memory acquired by browsers, maybe it isn't any more but it certainly was the last time I did anything to try to work it out.

I love your sig DuckHook

[DuckHook]

I love your sig DuckHook

[user1397]

So much of our lives revolve around the browser these days that it's like the central star in a solar system. When you think about it, one can view videos, get news, read books, listen to music, play games, create and edit docs/spreadsheets/slides, e-mail, message and do our taxes, all without leaving the browser. Crazy.

It's the single most important app on a desktop. It is also the most sophisticated and versatile. It must be capable of multiple scripting, large dedicated caching, juggling dozens of tabs and web pages, running hundreds of child processes, accepting dozens of plug-ins and extensions, morphing into a web app that looks like a completely different and unrelated animal, and yet make this incredible juggling act look seamless and effortless. It's quite the feat guys. And it's no wonder that it takes up an obscene amount of resources.

If you want a skimpy browser, try links2. It is totally Mickey Mouse next to the heavyweights, but it allows you to read static web pages well and it's as fast as greased lightning. Oh, and it uses probably 5% of the resources that the bloated monsters do.

Sing, you canary

[DuckHook]

Sing, you canary

[Matthew_Harrop]

I have a question then:

Why do we demand so much from our web browsers when we demand so little from others?

And has this demand created the product? or has the product created the demand?

[kerry_s]

Why does google-chrome use upwards of 500mb memory when starting to a bank page with history and cookies erased.
Same with opera-developer.
Just seems a lot just to open.

Recently upgraded from 2G to 4G memory and just not used to seeing over 2G memory used.
Does google-chrome use more memory if it's there to be used?

From a cold boot, start off around 700g ... open google-chrome ...up to 1.3G ...open 3 or 4 tabs and I'm up to 1.8G.

so i just got my 4gb ram & installed bringing me up from the 2gb(1.9gb usable) to 3.7gb usable, i only have netflix running & 1 tab open, it's already over a gig in gnome system monitor, so it's taking advantage of the extra ram, before the same would only be around 800mb used, maybe it'll change when the ram breaks in.