Firefox doesn’t really have one. Unfortunately, because of the default settings it looks like it has one.
Follow these simple steps to get your Firefox memory usage under control.
These configuration changes are a trade-off between internet browsing speed and memory usage. They are most useful if you are multitasking and need Firefox to be less of a memory hog while using other applications.
1. about:config
Type “about:config” into your address bar to access configuration options for Firefox.
2. browser.cache.memory.capacity
Controls how much memory is used to cache pages. Caching is storing pages recently / frequently visited in memory.
Right click on the page and choose New then Integer and create an integer called browser.cache.memory.capacity and set it to a low number. This controls how many kilobytes of memory are used for the browser’s cache.
NOTE: number in picture is too small. Read the table below.
| Physical RAM | Default Memory Cache (in KB) | Try this (in KB) |
|---|---|---|
| 32 MB | 2048 | 1638 |
| 64 MB | 4096 | 2048 |
| 128 MB | 6144 | 4096 |
| 256 MB | 10240 | 4096 |
| 512 MB | 14336 | 4096 |
| 1 GB | 18432 | 6144 |
| 2 GB | 24576 | 6144 |
| 4 GB | 30720 | 6144 |
| 8 GB and up | 32768 | 10240 |
3. browser.cache.disk.capacity
Controls how much disk space is used to cache pages in kilobytes.
Set browser.cache.disk.capacity to between 5000 or 15000.
128MB to 512M -> 5000.
512BM to 1GB of RAM -> use 15000
4. config.trim_on_minimize (optional)
Configure Firefox to swap memory to disk when minimized. This will make Firefox less responsive if you minimize/maximize a lot, but it is good if you need to free memory while multi-tasking to other applications.
Right click on the page and choose New then Boolean and create a boolean called config.trim_on_minimize and set it to true. Now when you minimize the window it will free up memory.
5. network.prefetch-next
Network link prefetch will download all pages with the rel=”prefetch” tag. This uses up more memory than you would think!
Set network.prefetch-next to false.
6. browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers
This controls how many pages of history are kept in the back/forward buttons. Lower the value to something acceptable. If you do not use back/forward often then you can set this very low.
Set browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers to a low number.
See also:
How to accelerate firefox - EASY!!
How to use linky to speed up adding / messaging etc.
Referrals explained, and the FASTEST ways to get them!
