Memory usage - Google Chrome vs. Mozilla Firefox

[odysseus]

I have used Chrome for a while. I took a look, and it uses about 250MB of memory. But Firefox used only 150MB, so I migrated to the latest version of Firefox. Now I find there are two other processes called "Web Content" and these use about 120MB together, and I read they belong to Firefox. Now it looks like Firefox uses even more memory than Chrome.

Any comments? What is your recommendation?

[chemal]

My new desktop has an E3-1270 v6, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SM961. I don't care anymore. Chrome or Firefox ESR (not even the new thing) is all the same to me, no perceptible difference.

[desertcat]

I have used Chrome for a while. I took a look, and it uses about 250MB of memory. But Firefox used only 150MB, so I migrated to the latest version of Firefox. Now I find there are two other processes called "Web Content" and these use about 120MB together, and I read they belong to Firefox. Now it looks like Firefox uses even more memory than Chrome.

Any comments? What is your recommendation?

This is half a dozen one way or the other. Chrome is supposedly a much more secure browser than Firefox, but Firefox is no wimp. How are you determining memory usage? Top?!? I suspect if you start any app under Chrome your likely to find that the amount of memory used by Chrome goes up. I suspect that in Firefox there is a base amount of memory used, then as soon as you start an app it starts drawing more memory. Depending on the amount of Physical Memory installed, the app is copied into Physical Memory, if not it utilizes your SWAP freeing up the Physical Memory. The idea is to make access to the most frequently used apps as fast as possible and that happens if it is stored in RAM (physical memory). 250MB is not actually that big in these days of GB memory. Most computers have at least 8 GB. so ~250 MB is essentially not that much. OTOH if you ONLY have say 4GB of RAM create a SWAP of at least 8GB This reserves about 8GB of your hard drive space and treats it as though it were Physical RAM. Best advice: Use the browser you are most familiar with and don't worry about how much memory it is supposedly using. There are far bigger issues to worry about.