Memory management with FF

[Trent SC]

Running an otherwise stable P4 3.2 machine with 3G of RAM, Windows XP Pro
SP2 with pretty much all the current updates; FF 2.0.0.12. Add-ons: British
English Dictionary 1.19, Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.0.34, Talkback
2.0.0.12.

I'm having problems with Firefox which is causing it to run extremely
slowly, especially when running Java applications (such as www.popcap.com
games, which my kids love). After a short while, the navigating around the
page and playing the very simple games slows to a virtual crawl and the
games become almost unplayable.

Looking at the Processes tab in Windows Task Manager, I can see that Firefox
(with just one tab running on, say, the Dynomite game) has more than
150,000K allocated to it under the memory usage column, and this figure
doesn't seem to drop when I navigate away to a "lighter" page - it only
rises. I've seen similar problems when running through YouTube - FF doesn't
appear to "let go" of the memory it's used to load a video, even when I've
navigated away to another site.

Is there a known issue with memory management, and is there something I
might be able to do about it to get around this problem? I'd much prefer to
stay with FF and not go back to IE...

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[G. R. Woodring]

Internet Explorer uses nearly that much memory before it is even started. It is
loaded when Windows starts. Moreover you will never really know how much memory
IE uses because its functions and the memory they use are divided and hidden in
processes within multiple copies of svchost.exe.

Firefox (and most other programs) will use system memory to keep program code
and _data_ available quickly. It would be annoying as hell if you had to wait
for a menu to reload from disk _every time_ you accessed it. Or, if the "Back"
button always reloaded all content from the net.

You can modify the behavior of Firefox's caches with these user.js or prefs.js
entries. Also modifiable through about:config. Experiment the with settings to
find your sweet spot in performance vs. memory usage. Browsing habits and
expectations vary so no two people are likely to select the same settings.

// Control function and size of Disk and Memory Cache
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.enable", true);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.enable", true);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.capacity", 12288);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 8192);

The real test of a memory issue is whether that memory is released when the
program is closed. There will always be some loss because Windows does not
always unload functions when the program that called them is closed.

I didn't buy 2GB of RAM to have a program thrash the disk rather than use it :-(

--
G. R. Woodring

[Trent SC]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll certainly give it a try. I'm pretty certain
that there's something amiss with FF - when I try IE7 I don't see the same
problem with the Java app slowing to a crawl as it does in FF, so let's keep
our fingers crossed that this solves the problem.

[Andrew B]

It also pays to note that FF3 has apparently come leaps and bounds in
memory management, so it will be interesting to see how much further this
is remedied by the time it's out of beta.

[kes]

Good news around the corner. So, sit tight until FF3.0 - which should be
hitting your screen sometime soon.
http://blog.pavlov.net/2008/03/11/firefox-3-memory-usage/

[Dan C]

dAVEr wrote with clarity and wisdom:

> A rather obvious question on the settings suggested here: What is the
> recommended figures of the integer value of disk.capacity and
> memory.capacity relative to total free disk space and total RAM?
> In other words, on an older machine with on 768MB of RAM but plenty
> of disk space(15GB) at what level should these figures be set?
>
> There is a problem with steadily increasing memory use by FF (2.0.0.14)
> though restarting FF often helps. Toolbar Buttons provides a Restart
> button, which is handy.

I am using FF 3.0

I do not find "browser.cache.memory.capacity" listed
within about:config. Why is that?
I have been having some memory issues with the way I need
to set up my computer daily.
How, therefore, can I attempt to tweak FF?

Dan

[Ron K.]

Dan C keyboarded, On 5/25/2008 7:47 PM :

This bog article deals with the Fx 3 memory improvments.
http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/03/firefox-3-memory/#more-1671

--
Ron K.
Who is General Failure, and why is he searching my HDD?
Kernel Restore reported Major Error used BSOD to msg the enemy!

[G. R. Woodring]

The "browser.cache.memory.capacity" pref was not there in a new profile for
Firefox 3, but you can add it in about:config by right-clicking in the window
and selecting New > Integer.

Firefox 3 seems to have a new offline cache feature. The pref is
"browser.cache.offline.capacity". It was set at 512000. I'm not sure if that
would vary by determining individual computer's memory/disk space.

After browsing a bit you can check about:cache to see if the caches are being
over or under utilized and readjust them accordingly.

--
G. R. Woodring

[dAVEr]

The scary question is what does that 512000 represent? A half Gig? And
is it physical (RAM) or virtual memory (RAMDisk) or does FF switch
depending on availability of either?
-dave

[G. R. Woodring]

In about:cache the Offline cache device displays this:

Offline cache device

Number of entries: 0
Maximum storage size: 262144 KiB
Storage in use: 0 KiB
Cache Directory: C:\Documents and Settings\[UserName]\Local
Settings\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[????????.ProfileName]\OfflineCache

So it would be a disk file. Presumably this should let Firefox 3 navigate
better when in offline mode.

--
G. R. Woodring