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Firefox and Safari. Firefox is much slower or is it just me.

N

nathan1281

macrumors member
Original poster
I have always used firefox. But lately when trying to access web sites it seems to take so much longer. I can open the same website in safari and it is so much faster. I know it has nothing with my internet speed because my download speed is around 16 down and 1 up. I also don't believe it is the DNS because safari can load it much faster. Try different news sites such as CNN.com or foxnews.com . Both seem to take a lot longer in firefox. Not sure if it has to do with all the adds that are in these pages. I should mention I am running a late 2008 iMac with 4gb of ram
Thanks for your help.
 
Sounds like some kind of a problem on your end. I'm running Firefox 3.0.5 and Safari ver. 4 public beta on a UMBP and there is really no significant speed difference between the two. I'm on a 3.2/700 DSL line and all sites load pretty much instantly on both browsers with some sites loading slightly faster on one browser while others load slightly faster on the other. On my system these load time differences are so miniscule that you'd really be hard press to notice them.

In seconds how long does it take for each of your browsers to load the two sites you've mentioned?
 
Used to use firefox, stopped after version 1.5. There are definitely faster browsers around then it now. I use safari and camino. Best thing for a faster browser is quiting it and re-opening again, it clears the RAM. Helps with the "snappiness" 🙂
 
I am using Firefox 3.0.10 Not sure if that has anything to do with it. Sometimes when I open firefox it could take up to 30 seconds to finally reach the site. Safari is instant. I just opened firefox and it came right up. Weird.
 
nathan1281 said:
Sometimes when I open firefox it could take up to 30 seconds to finally reach the site.
Click to expand...

I don't know what sites you go on, but that's definitely not normal. Been using firefox ever since and it's a fast browser. Granted, safari might have that minor speed advantage over Firefox, but Firefox makes up with the features available for it (add-ons, personas, etc).
 
I've noticed a small speed increase with safari compared to firefox, but I just use firefox because of the add-ons etc. I might consider switching to safari 4 when the final version is released but until then I can handle the minor speed deficiency.
 
tallguy said:
I might consider switching to safari 4 when the final version is released but until then I can handle the minor speed deficiency.
Click to expand...

...switch and miss out on all those awesome features FF has? 😕
Don't mind me, I'm a hopeless Mozilla fanboy. 😱
 
agree with insulin junkie, firefox is much superior browser than safari. especially the multitouch precision and variation that safari obviously lack
 
nathan1281 said:
I have always used firefox. But lately when trying to access web sites it seems to take so much longer. I can open the same website in safari and it is so much faster. I know it has nothing with my internet speed because my download speed is around 16 down and 1 up. I also don't believe it is the DNS because safari can load it much faster. Try different news sites such as CNN.com or foxnews.com . Both seem to take a lot longer in firefox. Not sure if it has to do with all the adds that are in these pages. I should mention I am running a late 2008 iMac with 4gb of ram
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

You've edited your preferences in about:config correct? Which ones did you edit?
 
I've always found Safari to be marginally faster, but the terrible interface and lack of expandability keeps me away.
 
Insulin Junkie said:
...switch and miss out on all those awesome features FF has? 😕
Don't mind me, I'm a hopeless Mozilla fanboy. 😱
Click to expand...

Have you tried Mozilla's SeaMonkey? I use it much more than Safari or FF.

I've always found FF to feel a little "heavier" than Safari, but not greatly so.
 
Using Firefox 3.5 beta and it is very fast. Multitouch and scrolling works perfectly on MacBooks. Safari looks and feels pretty sterile compared to Firefox, in my opinion.

Looking forward to try Google Chrome later when it arrives.
 
Tried Firefox 3.0.10 on both G4/G5 and new Intel based iMac's.
One thing I have noticed is that Safari is leaner on resources and renders pages exceptionally.

While Firefox's performance is marred by some Add-ins and it's higher on CPU and Memory usage.

I was a big fan of Firefox while I had a PC, but now - running an iMac, I don't feel Firefox offers anything that Safari can't do. So I keep my iMac lean - leave only Safari installed.
 
It's not you. I also dumped Firefox when they released 3.0. It's just too slow for me these days. Are you using the new Safari 4 Beta? If not, you should check it out.
 
thats kind of weird cause i think firefox is faster then safari..try re-installing firefox again,my firefox crashed a couple of months ago and it was not even loading and i did not use it for a while but then i re-installed and now its back to normal,use appcleaner so you can clean up all the files then re-install
 
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