New Edge browser has much better memory management than Chrome

[Sycologist]

Just recently I switched to the new Chrome based Edge browser and noticed a huge improvement in memory usage. I don't know what the software engineers at MS did but it's genius. Chrome has been my goto browser for the last 5+ years but for some reason it has a really bad memory leak issue on my PC. If I open up a single browser window with about 50 tabs it use about 25% of system memory, but if I leave it open and use it for a week or two the memory climbs to a ridiculous 98%. At that point I have to close the browser AND reboot Windows! If I don't reboot, the memory is not reclaimed by Windows after closing the browser. With the new Edge there's very little memory leakage if any at all. So now I'm using Edge almost exclusively for browsing.

 

[Remij]

Yep, I made the switch from Chrome to the new Chromium based Edge a few months back.. and needless to say, I'm glad I made the switch. To me it feels more responsive and quicker.. it uses less memory, and has much better features coming. All the extensions I use work and everything syncs perfectly. It was as painless as possible to move over, and I'm not looking back.

It's also extremely nice to simply have a great browser built right into Windows 10.

This isn't the first thread I've read of people switching from Chrome to Edge either.

 

[orangpelupa]

yeah chrome is heavier and heavier despite google keeps saying they made it leaner, more optimized, etc.
Unfortunately I saved tons of info on chrome/google, and fully switching to Edge would need me to move all those info, and i didn't have the urge to do that.

I wonder if its a simple 1 click "import"?

hmm. i should use this chance to use 3rd party password manager instead of chrome's

 

[hoom]

The Great Suspender is a good way to keep Chrome memory use in check for those of us with large numbers of tabs.
They're supposedly working on integration of similar tech but more hidden, not sure if any of it is actually on by default yet.

 

[Sxotty]

yeah chrome is heavier and heavier despite google keeps saying they made it leaner, more optimized, etc.
Unfortunately I saved tons of info on chrome/google, and fully switching to Edge would need me to move all those info, and i didn't have the urge to do that.

I wonder if its a simple 1 click "import"?

hmm. i should use this chance to use 3rd party password manager instead of chrome's

I think you can import. You may as well try. I like edge myself.

 

[Sycologist]

Yeah you can import and it's very easy keeps your passwords too. This was why I switched over so fast. It was very seamless.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I still prefer FireFox, I feel old but good about it.

 

[Sycologist]

For the last month I've been using Edge only. Very happy with the browser. I have literally tons of tabs open in Edge and it still uses memory very efficiently.

 

[orangpelupa]

I think there are 2 edges in my freshly clean installed windows 10. Confusing. Some stuff also still use internet explorer. Weird.

 

[Deleted member 2197]

Final Chrome Release of 2020 Brings the “Largest Performance Gain in Years”
November 17, 2020

One of these improvements includes reducing CPU usage by up to 5x and extending battery life by up to 1.25 hours by prioritizing active tabs over everything else.

"Even if you have a lot of tabs open, you likely only focus on a small set of them to get a task done," Mark Chang, Chrome Product Manager, explains. "Starting in this release, Chrome is actively managing your computer’s resources to make the tabs you care about fast - while allowing you to keep hundreds of tabs open - so you can pick up where you left off."

The company is using tab throttling, occlusion tracking, and back/forward caching to help Chrome manage computer resources more efficiently. Occlusion tracking (previously added to Chrome OS and Mac and is now coming to Windows) enables the browser to know which windows and tabs are visible to you. "With this information, Chrome can optimize resources for the tabs you are using, not the ones you’ve minimized, making Chrome up to 25% faster to start up and 7% faster to load pages, all while using less memory," Chang added.

https://wccftech.com/chrome-87-brings-the-largest-performance-gain-in-years/

 

[Sycologist]

Competition is good, it's too bad they were complacent until Microsoft raised the bar using their own browser engine. I don't think I'll be going back though unless Edge starts lagging behind Chrome.

 

[mattgibbs11]

I still prefer to use Chrome over Edge.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I still use both browsers. Edge with javascript on and Chrome with javascript off (more secure this way, but less convenient).

I do like the previous Edge better, however, as the new Edge still has missing features compared to the previous one. The biggest, WTF, for me is that the new Edge doesn't support directly annotating on a webpage with a pen or even touch. Grrrrr, I used to use that relatively frequently.

However, I do like that Edge now has one of the things that I liked the most about Chrome, even if it was buggy and didn't always work. The ability to re-open tabs that were open when either the browser crashed or you closed the browser. Sometimes Chrome wouldn't have the option to open previously open tabs. That would be aggravating if I was in the middle of an extensive research project and lost 50-100 tabs which I'd then have to go and find again either through searches or digging through hundreds and hundreds of history entries. UGH.

Regards,
SB

 

[orangpelupa]

I still use both browsers. Edge with javascript on and Chrome with javascript off (more secure this way, but less convenient).

I do like the previous Edge better, however, as the new Edge still has missing features compared to the previous one. The biggest, WTF, for me is that the new Edge doesn't support directly annotating on a webpage with a pen or even touch. Grrrrr, I used to use that relatively frequently.

However, I do like that Edge now has one of the things that I liked the most about Chrome, even if it was buggy and didn't always work. The ability to re-open tabs that were open when either the browser crashed or you closed the browser. Sometimes Chrome wouldn't have the option to open previously open tabs. That would be aggravating if I was in the middle of an extensive research project and lost 50-100 tabs which I'd then have to go and find again either through searches or digging through hundreds and hundreds of history entries. UGH.

Regards,
SB

To be safer, install session buddy extension. So evensnitb hard crash, the tabs will still e there

 

[Sycologist]

Latest update adds vertical tabs option which I really like! Is this new or has this been done on other browsers? It is super useful when using portrait mode monitors vs having many horizontal tabs getting squeezed smaller and eventually getting truncated on the right side of the tabs bar.

I think a good solution to the shrinking/truncating horizontal tabs problem would be to add a right arrow dropdown menu like the favorites bar. This way any new tab that is opened via a weblink could be accessed and viewed easily. I hope Microsoft engineers add this in a future update.

The new sleeping tabs feature is very cool freeing up cpu power.

 

[Malo]

Is this new or has this been done on other browsers?

Vivaldi has had varying tab positions, including top, bottom and either side. A whole slew of other tab options as well.

 

[Davros]

Opera GX

 

[Silent_Buddha]

What I'm really digging with the new Edge browser is the Browser Task Manager. I found out that a tab for an organization that I'm associated with was using over 3 GB of memory with a consistent 5% average CPU usage. Wow! Needless to say, I won't be leaving that forum in a background tab anymore.

Regards,
SB

 

[Cyan]

Opera GX

yes! That one is the best ever.

I decided to try de Dev version of Windows 10 'cos of Auto HDR, as part os Windows Insider. But the browser is totally unstable. Edge has been my default browser for the last 3 years. Fast, reliable..., and chromium compatible now.

However, the computer kept restarting. So I decided to download Opera GX and soooooo glad I did. Opera was my default browser a long time ago, when they invented the tabs, but then I started using others after year 2010 or so.

 

[Cyan]

Why Opera GX is the best, from what I've found out.

- It's super agile, more than any other browser I know -tried a lot!-. It snaps.

- Totally HDR compatible -the best along with Edge and Chrome in that regard, Firefox isn't HDR compatible-.

- Allows you to use Chromium engine extensions (those that use Chrome or Edge for example)

- It has a dark mode to view the websites that way if you want. It's a little better done than the experimental dark mode of Chromium browsers (Chrome and Edge)

- It is pleasing to the eye and has services like Discord and Reddit just a click away.

I don't miss Edge because I put Bing as a search engine, I still have the Xbox New Tab extension available with the background gamepass and the rewards.