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why does safari use so much cpu?

abhishekit

abhishekit

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,297
0
akron , ohio
when i check my activity monitor..
sometimes sfari usage of cpu goes upto 45%..and itunes 35%..so it really slows evrything down..i have g4ibook 800 mhz..640 mb ram,,..
anyone knows what should i do..
thanks
 
M

Mac til death

macrumors regular
Oct 13, 2002
158
0
Memphis
is this while you are running other programs or just safari?

If you are running a lot of programs that utilize webkit, that may lag Safari, but I'm just speculating...

an update wouldn't be so bad though....
 
abhishekit

abhishekit

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,297
0
akron , ohio
Originally posted by Mac til death
is this while you are running other programs or just safari?

If you are running a lot of programs that utilize webkit, that may lag Safari, but I'm just speculating...

an update wouldn't be so bad though....
Click to expand...
a lot of times it happens when i am using safari and itunes.just two!!!actually safari usage goes upto even 50%!!!
 
zimv20

zimv20

macrumors 601
Jul 18, 2002
4,402
11
toronto
i find safari to be a giant CPU hog. i was hoping it would calm down under panther, but no change. it can grab up to 80% (out of 200%, 2 cpus).

i use 'top' to get that number.
 
Dale Sorel

Dale Sorel

macrumors 6502a
Jan 12, 2003
567
0
Safari will use varying amounts of CPU depending on the amount of "activity" on page being viewed.
 
zimv20

zimv20

macrumors 601
Jul 18, 2002
4,402
11
toronto
Originally posted by Dale Sorel
Safari will use varying amounts of CPU depending on the amount of "activity" on page being viewed.
Click to expand...

well, YEAH, i just think 80% is out of hand. chimera never gets near those levels.
 
A

altair

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2002
221
0
Seattle, WA
why's it matter if it uses 80% if you only have two things going at once? I would imagine it scales down if other things are working. What else are you going to be doing with all those processes if safari uses a lower number? You can't put them in the bank to save for later :p
 
abhishekit

abhishekit

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,297
0
akron , ohio
Originally posted by altair
why's it matter if it uses 80% if you only have two things going at once? I would imagine it scales down if other things are working. What else are you going to be doing with all those processes if safari uses a lower number? You can't put them in the bank to save for later :p
Click to expand...

no actually it does matter..it slows a hell lot down..click on the other tabbed windows and you see that busy wheel...and reloading takes a lot of time too....
when safari was using up 50% cpu..and was unable to reload a page..i opened up internet explorer, it was refreshing that page very fast..and was just taking 3% cpu...and it was a page which was giving live scores so it was important that it got refreshed fast..
and i have 640 mb memory ...does safari need even more?
 
zimv20

zimv20

macrumors 601
Jul 18, 2002
4,402
11
toronto
Originally posted by altair
why's it matter if it uses 80% if you only have two things going at once? I would imagine it scales down if other things are working. What else are you going to be doing with all those processes if safari uses a lower number? You can't put them in the bank to save for later :p
Click to expand...

actually, i run a lot of things, including folding. i'd love for all those extra CPU cycles to be used for folding instead of safari's bloat.

there. i said it. safari's bloated.
 
C

chris h 1997

macrumors newbie
Dec 23, 2003
14
0
USSA
Safari

Using "top" to check usage the highest reading I got for Safari was 75%. That does seem a bit extreme for a web browser but I don't really see it bothering the other processes running on the machine. iTunes is using about 5% and top seems to use about 12%. Just idle Safari looks to use about 10% but when I grab the scroll bar and move it rapidly the usage really spikes.

Cheers,
Chris:)
 
abhishekit

abhishekit

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,297
0
akron , ohio
Re: Safari

Originally posted by chris h 1997
Using "top" to check usage the highest reading I got for Safari was 75%. That does seem a bit extreme for a web browser but I don't really see it bothering the other processes running on the machine. iTunes is using about 5% and top seems to use about 12%. Just idle Safari looks to use about 10% but when I grab the scroll bar and move it rapidly the usage really spikes.

Cheers,
Chris:)
Click to expand...
how do u use 'top'?
EDIT..hey got it..no need to reply
 
C

chris h 1997

macrumors newbie
Dec 23, 2003
14
0
USSA
top

abhishekit,
Open a terminal window, found in
/applications/utilities, and type top at the prompt. This will show the processes and the % cpu being used by each, along with memory usage. I hope this helps. Just saw your edit, cool.

Cheers,
Chris
 
R

rendezvouscp

macrumors 68000
Aug 20, 2003
1,526
0
Long Beach, California
hhmmm.... I have a dual 2 G5 and Safari uses about 65%, and iTunes about 3%. I have 7 open tabs in Safari, and the fans actually go off (or very low) when I don't run Safari. I have Mail and iChat open too. Weird.
–Chase
 
mklos

mklos

macrumors 68000
Dec 4, 2002
1,896
0
My house!
I have a 1 GHz G4 iMac and Safari doesn't use hardly any CPU on my computer. iTunes doesn't use hardly any CPU either. I'm running Mac OS X.3.2 with 768 MB PC2100 DDR RAM.
 
latergator116

latergator116

macrumors 68000
Sep 30, 2003
1,689
20
Providence, RI
Originally posted by zimv20
actually, i run a lot of things, including folding. i'd love for all those extra CPU cycles to be used for folding instead of safari's bloat.

there. i said it. safari's bloated.
Click to expand...

zimv20, I also find Safari to be a CPU hog. Whenever I hit the reload button, it can take up to seven seconds to respond.

Im curious, what do you use?
 
B

buddha

macrumors newbie
Feb 26, 2003
14
0
Somewhere too cold
Just to throw my two cents in...

I've often had safari suck up every available cycle, even when it isn't doing anything extraordinary. I've also noticed that with certain webpages I use (blackboard edu stuff) safari will almost always suck up every cycle it can. It's pretty ridiculous considering how safari is supposed to be so light on its feet.

I still use it as my predominant browser, but have to switch to camino whenever I'm using more high intensity webpages.

Buddha
 
Rower_CPU

Rower_CPU

Moderator emeritus
Oct 5, 2001
11,219
2
San Diego, CA
Well, on the forums here with multiple tabs open, Safari is taking up 0% when I'm not doing anything.

Typing in the reply puts me around 10% tops (3% average). Navigating through the tabs, I can push it to 50% if I use the keyboard shortcuts like a maniac and click non-stop.

Running pages with flash content, Homestarrunner for example, keep me around 20%, as does scrolling up and down the page.

This is on a 1GHz TiBook.
 
alset

alset

macrumors 65816
Nov 9, 2002
1,262
0
East Bay, CA
Originally posted by zimv20
well, YEAH, i just think 80% is out of hand. chimera never gets near those levels.
Click to expand...

That's odd. I always found Camino to suck down more juice in almost every case. Safari usually hovers around 5-15% with a series of open tabs. It spikes when loading pages and such, but that's to be expected.

On another note, I wish Safari loaded multiple tabs as quickly as Camino does.

Dan
 
Chaszmyr

Chaszmyr

macrumors 601
Aug 9, 2002
4,267
86
I've heard lots of complaints about Safari being a CPU hog, but right now i'm running Safari on a dual 2ghz G5 with Panther and its using 0% CPU according to Activity Monitor
 
abhishekit

abhishekit

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,297
0
akron , ohio
Originally posted by Chaszmyr
I've heard lots of complaints about Safari being a CPU hog, but right now i'm running Safari on a dual 2ghz G5 with Panther and its using 0% CPU according to Activity Monitor
Click to expand...
actually it depends on what you are doing wit safari..open 4-5 tabs, one of them being some website thate refreshing every 45 seconds, broadcasting live scores,..then safari just eats and eats...
:D
 
N

NuPowerbook

macrumors member
Jan 17, 2004
51
0
I love safari, don't get me wrong, but it is a huge CPU and RAM hog. I usually browse a very popular internet forum, and can have more than 10 tabs open at once, and Safari is taking up over 230 MB. When using Firebird it hovers around 60 or so with the same tabs. I also notice if I quit Safari with all of the tabs open (I do COmmand-Q), I get the spinning beach ball for a good minute.
 
latergator116

latergator116

macrumors 68000
Sep 30, 2003
1,689
20
Providence, RI
Yesterday, I had to quit Safari because it was unbearabely slow. It was using around 70% of CPU just reloading a page. Anything I did ony my computer would go extermely slow. I took about 30 seconds to open up my HD window.

On a side note, it also seems to "unexpetedly quit" a lot.
 
Nermal

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,636
4,036
New Zealand
I've seen a lot of people having their CPU eaten up by Safari, but I've never had a problem on my system.
 
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