How To Reduce Firefox Memory Usage

One of the most common problem with firefox is memory usage especially if you don’t have enough ram on you system, usually i open two firefox window and sometimes i open like 50 tabs and more when i check firefox memory usage i find it something like 550 MB, although i’v 4 GB ram in my system , i noticed firefox become slow and it’s really annoying, so i tried to search and find how to reduce firefox memory usage and i found these tips to solve this problem.

1-Limit Pages Stored in memory
Every time you visit new page firefox store it in memory to help improve performance and load pages faster when back and forward

  1. type about:config in the address bar
  2. search for this string browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers
  3. the default value is -1 you need to change it to 0

2-Reduce memory usage when minimize firefox

This will reduce firefox memory usage when minimize and let Windows to claiming back the memory used when it minimize.

  1. Type in about:config in the address bar
  2. Right click and choose New > Boolean
  3. Type config.trim_on_minimize in the pop-up box and hit Enter
  4. Select True and hit Enter.
  5. Restart your Firefox

3-Fixed cache capacity

Evey time you visit new page firefox will cash this page in memory so it doesn’t need to be loaded again when you visit it later.

  1. Type about:config in the address bar
  2. search for this string browser.cache.memory.capacity
  3. If you set to 0, Firefox will not cache any pages. for more info read here.

4. Use less extension as possible

Try to use only important extension you really need dont install extension you not going to use it, this will herlp you reduce firefox memory usage.

Related posts:

  1. How To View IE-Only Sites In Firefox
  2. How To Changing Firefox 3.5 Default Search Engine
  3. List of Firefox 3.5 Tips and Tricks
  4. How To Make Firefox Look Like Google Chrome
  5. List Of Google Chrome Shortcuts and Commands

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Posted by admin on 11 May, 2008
5 Comments
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5 Comments on “How To Reduce Firefox Memory Usage”

  • Brian
    11 May, 2008, 21:43

    All Firefox tweak are moderate at reducing memory usage; however, a little program known as, Firefox Memory Optimizer 1.1 is the very best tool for such a task. This little thing has no features other than closing it, or having it start up with the OS. All you do is download it (requires NET Framework 2 or better) and open it. Run Firefox, open a bunch of tab, let you memory climb way up there, then open the Task Manager (or other memory monitoring software), and open the Firefox Memory optimizer. You be amazed as your memory usage drops to 1-3k instantly! Sound too good to be true, but it is. Program is safe–no conflicts with OS or other programs, and completely virus, spyware, ect free. Try it, you’ll love this thing. Download available at http://firefox-ultimate-optimizer.en.softonic.com/

  • Spidro
    13 May, 2008, 13:49

    thanks for your comment Brian but not every one want to download software to do everything , so these tweaks good for any one doesn’t want to download software

  • Chris
    17 November, 2009, 20:47

    Plus the software Brian is peddling is malware…

  • elwoode
    18 November, 2009, 17:44

    yeah the optimiser Brain talks of works by using more of your pagefile, I prefer to use ram but try and limit the amount firefox uses. by using the tips mentioned but I prefer to just reduce the amount and not use the 0 figures given here. I use browser.cache.memory.capacity 14336
    browser.sessionhistory.max-total-viewers 5
    this has reduced memory usage and made firefox more responsive for me

  • Jason
    19 December, 2009, 19:41

    Step2-”Reduce memory usage when minimize firefox” is not working in Windows 7

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