memory - Why is Firefox Using 2 Gigabytes of RAM?

06
2014-04
  • kookman98

    I have version 26.0. Firefox uses 2 gigabytes of RAM minimum with only one tab open. I've tried uninstalling add-ons, disabling plug-ins, everything, but nothing helps. What do I do?

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    performance - Why does QuickTime lag in Firefox if I don't put my mouse over it?
  • Jim McKeeth

    This has happened for me as long as I can remember. Since the first version of Firefox, on multiple computers and under different versions of Windows. QuickTime plays fine in IE and Chrome (even with Firefox in the background), but in Firefox if my mouse is not over the QuickTime window then it will start to studder, then lag and eventually just stop.

    • To be honest, I do keep quite a few tabs open, but Firefox stays at 1% CPU (even when QuickTime runs) and I have a few gigs of free RAM.
    • It is the same for any resolution of video or audio.
    • If the mouse is just one pixel in the client area of the QuickTime then it usually plays fine.
    • Other video formats typically play fine.

    Does anyone else notice this behavior? Ultimately I would like a fix besides keeping my mouse over the QuickTime window.


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  • Insomnic

    Most video lag in Firefox is caused by the session saving feature. Here is the fix (which will work for YouTube, Hulu and other embedded video playback).

    1. Open Firefox and in the Location/Address Bar type in about:config and hit Enter.
    2. You are now looking at some of the advanced functions that can be customized.
    3. In the “Filter” line at the top of the list (where your cursor should already be blinking) type in session and it will automatically reduce the listings.
    4. Now find “browser.sessionstore.interval” and double click it. That number is how many milliseconds between the times that Firefox saves your current browsing session in case of a crash and 10000 milliseconds equals 10 seconds – the same amount of time between video freezes.
    5. Change that number to something different. 300000 is 5 minutes and 120000 is 2 minutes. I actually switched mine to 600000, which is 10 minutes, because I don’t worry about session saving much.

    Hopefully that will help!