Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

gerabbi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 8, 2009
155
0
Please this is not a question about whether you use Safari or Firefox.
What Browser has the smallest memory footprint for use on the MBA?
With limited ram @ 2GB I find either Safari, Firefox, Camino, etc using as much as 200MB +/- in activity monitor. Are there some more obscure browsers that use/need less memory and function just as well or almost as well?
TIA
 
Chrome?

I personally use Firefox and the memory foot print isn't that major for me.

I found "Stainless" it's pretty small and so far is doing pretty well.
Does anyone else have any experience with this browser?
 
A follow up to "Stainless"
What a tricky little bugger. I thought it was small memory but it turns out each tab uses about 20 MB and they show up seperately in activity monitor. Now I'm using "Sunrise" and while it isn't particularly small memory it is interesting.
 
To my knowledge, the most memory-efficient *modern* browser is Google Chrome. It's outrageously fast too - I never use Firefox unless I need Firebug / some other extension.

Safari is fantastic, but a memory hog, so not too great on the Air. Get Chrome and you'll wonder why you waited so long.
 
Google Chrome Beta is definitely the most RAM efficient web browser on Mac OS X. It still is beta and has its bugs, but overall is a good web browser.
 
I really want to like Chrome and it has been getting a lot of rave reviews for being fast and having a small footprint but I've found that's it's as deceptive as Stainless. The footprint of Chrome itself is under 100mb but the total, with all of the "Google Chrome Helper" processes make it over 370mb with a couple tabs open (nothing with major elements).
 

Attachments

  • Screen shot 2010-03-03 at 3.19.37 PM.png
    Screen shot 2010-03-03 at 3.19.37 PM.png
    47.5 KB · Views: 423
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.