Why does Firefox use so much memory
Before we delve further into the issue, let us first take a look at what the officials at Mozilla has to say about the amount of memory that Firefox uses. The official word is that Firefox only needs about one hundred to one hundred and fifty Megabytes of RAM to be able to run and perform most of its in-browser functions. However, that is the minimum quota of course and if your computer is a high end system with ample Gigabytes of RAM, then Firefox will definitely use a lot more than just one hundred and fifty MB of RAM. It should still not be anything that should hinder you in any way, but if you do feel that Mozilla Firefox is using more memory than it should, then it is time to check it and take some actions. While the problems are being discussed, you will realize that understanding the reasons or the issues that are causing Firefox to use up more memory than required on your PC is almost synonymic to the solutions to these problems.
As is the case with most things, not all software products are compatible with Mozilla Firefox and some of them can actually be responsible for the particular issue in question. If you open up the Firefox menu and go to the “Add-ons” section, you will find certain categories like “Extensions” and “Themes/Skins”. Both of these sections may contain software that is responsible for using up your system memory while Firefox is running. The best advice to ensure that these are not causing the problem is removal. Just uninstall or remove all the extensions and themes that you do not need anymore. After you have done this, you should be able to see a faster Firefox browser that also uses less RAM. Apart from uninstalling the unnecessary software, you should also remember that the number of tabs you open at once on your browser will directly influence the RAM usage. Also, some of the Flash rich websites need more RAM to load properly and run. If you open quite a few websites on Firefox that are running videos at the same time, then there is definitely going to be a demand for memory. The same thing will also happen if you are playing online games as they use up a good deal of RAM as well.
If you are experiencing problems, then you should close the tabs that you are not using at that moment to get a better performance out of Firefox. Some of the users maintain that choosing the “Start Private Browsing” option reduces memory usage through Firefox by a good margin. If you are looking for a more direct approach to the problem, then you can always set the Firefox priority to “low” from the “Processes” section in the Task Manager.