firefox 4 using 200MB of ram

[Johnnymushio]

actually about 210mb. firefox 3 used about 100mb. is this normal? i only have 2 extensions installed, less than what 3 had installed. only 1 tab opened now.

EDIT
it's using 270mb now, with one tab opened.

EDIT
290mb and counting.

[djr33]

Firefox is known to use a lot of RAM. Usually it's connected to busy pages. For example, Javascript and Flash can greatly increase the amount of RAM used.
It's not a good thing, but it doesn't really hurt anything either unless you don't have enough RAM. About 200 is as high as it usually goes, so as long as you have 1GB+ of RAM and aren't trying to run too many things at once, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Johnnymushio]

I've looked into it some more, and it appears to be a AdBlock Plus memory leak. When it is disabled, it only uses about 50-100mb tops, as opposed to 300 to 500mb.

[djr33]

300mb-500mb does sound like an extreme amount. Glad you figured it out.

[bluewalrus]

I also noticed 4 doesn't have many add-ons available for it. Upgrading the supported ones makes them no longer compatible with your old firefox. I've just reverted to the old one and have lost firebug, some add-ons, and small preferences (mostly just inconveniences). I'm on a mac if anyone else is wondering about this (tried 3.6.16 to 4.0).

[jscheuer1]

Early adopters.

[Johnnymushio]

linkification didn't work for me, but apparently there is a new version of it that will work with ff4. Still, I don't see it on the official firefox addon's page. adblock plus has the memory leak problem. Flashgot is the only addon of mine that appears to work.

I didn't use any betas or release candidates waiting it out in hopes of avoiding problems like this, oh well.

That aside...

I keep thinking the little tab arrow on the title bar is a spec of dirt. Right now I am running on my battery only, so I have transparency disabled, but when it is enabled, at least once a day I'll swipe my finger across it hoping to get it off the screen.

That and I keep right-clicking links and opening them in new windows, since "open in new window" and "open in new tab" have swapped positions.

[jscheuer1]

Perhaps I should elaborate. I'm sure the add ons will come along. In the meantime, if you reinstall Firefox 3x you should be able to uninstall add ons that are no longer working and reinstall them to the older version of Firefox.

I'm unfamiliar with Macs, but under Windows you may have to clean the registry and delete the folders for the specific add ons in the programs folder (if any), and the Firefox folder (if any), and the same thing in the AppData or Applications Data folder (the name of this folder varies by Windows version), once again, if any. This may need to be done after uninstalling and before reinstalling to prevent settings specific to Firefox 4 from persisting. Same thing with Firefox itself. Macs probably have something similar.

[techno_race]

Mine hit 1.3 GB yesterday; I'm at 500 MB right now with 26 tabs.

The solution: Get more RAM.

[sofiabrown]

Try with a clean profile. 200MB is not necessary problematic: if you don't experience any problem with it, there is no point. And it depends to what site you have gone.

[davelf]

Mine hit 1.3 GB yesterday; I'm at 500 MB right now with 26 tabs.

The solution: Get more RAM.

1.3 GB??? just for firefox? So this Firefox.4 problem or what?

[techno_race]

It's a problem with my browsing habits. I currently have 163 tabs open. I'm only up to 1.8 GB now (Fx 6.0a1). I'm impressed with how well Firefox handles memory. I don't think I've ever seen it go above 3 GB, and Firefox along with Thunderbird, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, After Effects, iTunes, Word, Excel, Kindle for PC, and thirteen instances of Windows Calculator have only currently pushed me to 3 GB total RAM usage. No performance impact whatsoever.

My solution stands: get more RAM.

[DuncanCox]

It is true that Firefox uses lots of memory.But with a bigger RAM we can solve this problem.