Some web browser advice please!

[Zeven]

I am a power surfer. I regularly have over ten tabs open in my browser, sometimes over twenty, and rarely over thirty. My current browser of choice is Firefox due to its speed, customization options, it being open source, and the organization behind it. I have over ten add-ons installed. As you can tell by the hardware I am running, I have a pretty decent machine and Firefox is my most used application.

In spite of all this and after extended use, Firefox tends to lag or slow down when switching tabs and the like. I do not quite understand why this happens considering the hardware I am running on but if I can run games just fine, why should a mere web browser not run just as smoothly? My question is, how do I make this happen? Is there a way to dedicate more system resources to a web browser? It's not like they are being used elsewhere.

I do use Opera Next as an alternative but it's not quite there yet and Opera just isn't as good as Firefox or Opera Next. I do not want to switch to Chrome or Maxthon. Please advise accordingly. Thanks!

[Mblaster]

At the moment I'd say your options are:

1. Try removing some add-ons from Firefox and see if that increases the speed
2. Move to Chrome - I have an almost identical system to you, and earlier was running Chrome with 20+ tabs, a few other applications, playing video, and noticed no slow downs. The only notable difference in spec is ... (see below)
3. Get an SSD for your system/applications drive - no idea if this will actually make a difference or not, but slow downs could potentially be caused by disk latency. I know my PC generally became much more responsive when I got an SSD a few years ago.

[mycarsavw]

Give this a try for a week and see how it runs - http://waterfoxproject.org/

What addons are you using?

[Zeven]

At the moment I'd say your options are:

1. Try removing some add-ons from Firefox and see if that increases the speed
2. Move to Chrome - I have an almost identical system to you, and earlier was running Chrome with 20+ tabs, a few other applications, playing video, and noticed no slow downs. The only notable difference in spec is ... (see below)
3. Get an SSD for your system/applications drive - no idea if this will actually make a difference or not, but slow downs could potentially be caused by disk latency. I know my PC generally became much more responsive when I got an SSD a few years ago.

1. The add-ons I have in Firefox are absolutely necessary in my humble opinion, except the ones affecting appearance of course. Don't want to get rid of those either, though!
2. The thing with Chrome is that it isn't nearly as customizable as Firefox. Just doesn't feel right. Yea, I am picky, but when I spend several hours a day with an application, I better damn like it!
3. Really can't afford an SSD at the moment but I will keep it in mind. Have they actually been catching up to HDDs in terms of price and size?

Give this a try for a week and see how it runs - http://waterfoxproject.org/

What addons are you using?

Will give Waterfox a go then. I do hope that 64-Bit makes a difference!

The add-ons I use are:

• AdBlock Plus
• FindBar Tweak
• InvisibleHand
• LastPass
• Lazarus: Form Recovery
• Stylish
• Tab Mix Plus

The themes I use are:

• FXChrome
• FXOpera
• mx3

[mycarsavw]

Will give Waterfox a go then. I do hope that 64-Bit makes a difference!

The perceived speed (to me) is worth it - whether it's all placebo or not, who knows. I leave my browser open for my entire working day - I use multiple windows and have multiple tabs in each. I used to have very high RAM usage using FF and I'd have to restart it few times a day, but haven't had any issues with Waterfox yet.

The add-ons I use are:

• AdBlock Plus
• FindBar Tweak
• InvisibleHand
• LastPass
• Lazarus: Form Recovery
• Stylish
• Tab Mix Plus

The themes I use are:

• FXChrome
• FXOpera
• mx3

Nothing on there springs out as being particularly resource hungry - I'm also using most of those addons as well as Flashblock, Ghostery, Greasemonkey (and assorted GM scripts), Xmarks and a few others too.

Have you tried dropping the themes for a day to see it anything changes?

[Flash477]

Don't forget that the sites you visit can also be a factor - do you visit a number of sites with lots of flash in them?

[Zeven]

The perceived speed (to me) is worth it - whether it's all placebo or not, who knows. I leave my browser open for my entire working day - I use multiple windows and have multiple tabs in each. I used to have very high RAM usage using FF and I'd have to restart it few times a day, but haven't had any issues with Waterfox yet.

I see. I guess the reason I don't face these issues in Ubuntu is because Firefox has a 64-Bit version for Linux, right? Also, what about Pale Moon? I don't recall if it is 64-Bit or not but I remember it saying that it has been optimized for Windows.

Nothing on there springs out as being particularly resource hungry - I'm also using most of those addons as well as Flashblock, Ghostery, Greasemonkey (and assorted GM scripts), Xmarks and a few others too.

Have you tried dropping the themes for a day to see it anything changes?

Been thinking of using Ghostery but I am not too fussed. Regarding the themes, I did get the faint impression that FXOpera runs smoother than mx3 but those two along with FXChrome are by the same developer so I didn't think that there would be a noticeable difference.

Don't forget that the sites you visit can also be a factor - do you visit a number of sites with lots of flash in them?

Since AdBlock Plus blocks all the ads, I was hoping that it would take care of all the resource intensive elements that I didn't need or want. Most of tabs are also just forums to boot.

[SwiftJustice]

I use internet explorer the most over all browsers even though their all installed

[IronWarrior]

It's always been a issue with Firefox, longer it stays active, worst it gets in performance. Flash takes a dump after X time where videos will freeze and skip. Found out that was because Firefox was "saving your tabs" so I changed the time it does that to like every 5 minutes, it still can do it.

I currently have open 8 clients open with about 10-15 tabs open on each.

[mycarsavw]

I use internet explorer the most over all browsers even though their all installed

Did you read the thread?

[ristac]

I switched to Chrome just after Christmas and now I am used to it I wouldn't use anything else.