firefox feels really slow

[gelatin]

recently when im on a site and rollover it takes like a second for it to change to the hand cursor and when i click a link ittakes like a second to respond to me clicking during the second the beach ball comes up for a moment then it loads,its almost as if its lagging
this only happens sometimes
any idea why its doing this?

hmm a while after ive posted that and its sped up again

 

[bousozoku]

It sounds as though you're short on memory and it's dipping into the hard drive.

Use Activity Monitor to check what's happening.

 

[Xeem]

What model Mac are you having this problem on? How much RAM does it have?

 

[gelatin]

ive just upgraded to 1.25gb of memory on my ibook g4
im in activity monitor,what am i supposed to be looking out for?

 

[lorductape]

this is why I use safari

 

[bousozoku]

ive just upgraded to 1.25gb of memory on my ibook g4
im in activity monitor,what am i supposed to be looking out for?

Use the System Memory tab so that it looks similar to what I've attached. When Free is really low, the VM system has to shuffle things from RAM to disk and vice versa. My system is really low on free memory but it's still moving well. My Bon Echo is a nightly build of Firefox, so you should be able to make comparisons.

this is why I use safari

For what reason? When you're low on free memory, you're low on free memory, regardless of the browser you're using and applications lag as the VM system dips into the hard drive.

 

[gelatin]

thanks for that,ive had a look and i still have about 550mb free so it seems alright

 

[gelatin]

feels slow again tonite so i checked the monitor and its gone down to 211mb free wtf??

 

[dpaanlka]

For what reason? When you're low on free memory, you're low on free memory, regardless of the browser you're using and applications lag as the VM system dips into the hard drive.

Regardless, Firefox & the Mozillas do consistently benchmark slower than Safari & the WebKits.

 

[keithbennis]

I'm using the BonEcho optimized for Intel. Been runnin' great lately....

 

[pianoman]

For what reason? When you're low on free memory, you're low on free memory, regardless of the browser you're using and applications lag as the VM system dips into the hard drive.

Safari, at least on my machine, uses less memory than Firefox.

 

[captoats85]

I love FF on Windows, but it's by far my second choice on OSX. Just kind of clunky and un-Mac-like. There's also Camino, but that has more problems than Firefox... slow scrolling, bad Flip4Mac problems etc. Maybe 1.1 helps Camino's cause.

You could also try downloading the extension FASTERFOX for FF 2.0.

 

[gelatin]

already got fasterfox,its sped up again but i never know when or why it slows down

 

[bousozoku]

already got fasterfox,its sped up again but i never know when or why it slows down

I used Fasterfox for a long time and it didn't really help much. Adblock is a better solution, at least, for me. Cutting out advertisements often speeds up the load time on a page.

It's just a guess, but you're on an Intel-based Mac, right?

 

[gelatin]

i also already have adblock
i dont think i am on intel mac i have an ibook g4

 

[dpaanlka]

i dont think i am on intel mac i have an ibook g4

Nope, that's not an Intel Mac.