Here's why Chrome is SLOW (It's NOT your RAM)
Summary
TLDRThe video script discusses the evolution of Google Chrome from a fast, lightweight browser to a resource-heavy application. It explores the impact of extensions on browser performance, noting that while some extensions like LastPass and Grammarly can significantly reduce performance, others like uBlock Origin can actually improve it. The script also provides tips for managing browser resources, such as using the Chrome Task Manager to monitor extension activity and disabling unnecessary extensions. It highlights the importance of good browsing habits, like managing open tabs and turning off memory-saving features when sufficient RAM is available. The video concludes with a look at Google's Manifest V3 and its potential impact on the capabilities of Chrome extensions, suggesting that users might consider trying alternatives like Firefox if they find Chrome's performance unsatisfactory.
Takeaways
- đ **Chrome's Evolution**: Google Chrome was once praised for its speed and lightweight design, but it has become a more resource-intensive browser over time.
- đ **Tab Management**: The way Chrome handles open tabs has changed, with dynamic caching used for inactive tabs, which can still contribute to high RAM usage.
- 𧩠**Extensions Impact**: Not all extensions affect browser performance equally; some like LastPass can reduce performance by up to 12%, while others have little to no impact.
- đ **Ad Blockers**: Ad blockers need to interact with the rendering pipeline, which can reduce browser rendering performance, although this slowdown may be masked by other speed benefits.
- đ **Benchmarking**: Different benchmarks reveal varying effects of extensions on browser performance, indicating that the impact is not uniform across all types of use.
- đ **Performance Loss**: With multiple extensions running, there can be a significant performance hit, with up to a 25% decrease in the Chrome browser's speed observed.
- đ ïž **Task Manager**: Users can manage their extensions using Chrome's Task Manager (accessible via Shift + Escape) to identify and disable resource-hogging extensions.
- đ§ **Optimization Tips**: Disabling unused extensions, managing tabs effectively, and turning off memory-saving features in Chrome can help improve performance.
- đ **Privacy Concerns**: There is a mention of privacy, suggesting that users might want to disable tracking in their browser settings for a more secure browsing experience.
- đ« **Manifest V3**: Google's update to Manifest V3 will change the capabilities of Chrome extensions, potentially affecting the effectiveness of ad blockers and privacy extensions.
- đ **Alternatives Mentioned**: The video briefly mentions Firefox as an alternative browser and suggests that its performance with and without extensions could be a topic for future testing.
Q & A
Why was Google Chrome considered a revolution when it was first released?
-Google Chrome was considered a revolution due to its lightweight and fast performance, as well as its innovative features such as tab sandboxing, which prevented a single frozen tab from crashing the entire browser.
What has contributed to Chrome becoming a 'bloated, RAM devouring Behemoth'?
-Factors contributing to Chrome's increased RAM usage include the accumulation of many open tabs, the installation of numerous extensions, and the dynamic caching of unused tabs.
How do extensions impact the performance of Google Chrome?
-Extensions can vary in their impact on browser performance. Some extensions have no significant effect, while others, like LastPass, can reduce performance by as much as 12%. The cumulative effect of multiple resource-intensive add-ons can lead to a noticeable slowdown.
What is the significance of the 'manifest V3' update by Google?
-The 'manifest V3' update is set to significantly change the capabilities of Chromium extensions, which will also affect Microsoft Edge. It is expected to hinder the effectiveness of ad blockers and privacy-enhancing extensions.
What is the general impact of having many tabs open on Chrome's memory usage?
-Having many tabs open can lead to a substantial increase in memory usage. For instance, with 48 tabs open, there could be an additional 2 GB of RAM usage for a similar user experience.
How can users manage their extensions to improve Chrome's performance?
-Users can improve Chrome's performance by disabling or removing unnecessary extensions, managing their tab usage, and adjusting Chrome's settings to optimize memory usage.
What is the role of dynamic caching in Chrome's memory management?
-Dynamic caching in Chrome is a mechanism that allows the browser to deal with having many tabs open by caching the content of tabs that are not actively in use, thus reducing the overall memory footprint.
What is the impact of ad blockers on Chrome's rendering performance?
-Ad blockers can interact with the rendering pipeline to hide ads, which may result in a reduction of browser rendering performance. However, this slowdown may be masked by other speed benefits in real-world usage.
How does the number of browser extensions affect the overall performance of Chrome?
-With multiple extensions running concurrently and everything enabled, the performance of the Chrome web browser can decrease by about a quarter, which is noticeable in day-to-day use.
What is the role of preloading pages in Chrome's performance?
-Preloading pages can speed up browsing as it reduces the time spent on reloading pages. However, for users of ad blockers or privacy extensions, preloading may not be beneficial as it could lead to unwanted content being loaded.
What is the recommended approach for users who wish to optimize Chrome's performance?
-Users should regularly review and disable or remove extensions that are not frequently used or necessary. They can also manage their tab usage effectively and adjust Chrome settings to improve performance.
How does the ODU software mentioned in the script help business owners?
-ODU offers all-in-one business management software that consolidates various business apps into a single unified platform. This includes CRM, sales, time sheets, and accounting apps, which can streamline operations and save time and resources for business owners.
Outlines
đ€ The Evolution and Performance of Google Chrome
The first paragraph discusses the transformation of Google Chrome from a fast, lightweight browser to a resource-heavy application. It attributes the change to user habits, such as leaving multiple tabs open, and the installation of various extensions which can impact performance. The paragraph also introduces the topic of extension impact on browser performance, mentioning that not all extensions are created equal and some can significantly reduce performance. It sets the stage for an exploration of how to address these performance issues and touches on Google's potential solutions, hinting at possible downsides.
đ ïž Browser Performance Testing and Extension Impact
The second paragraph delves into the complexities of measuring browser performance due to the vast range of tasks modern browsers perform. It uses the Steam Hardware Survey to establish a baseline for testing and examines memory usage with and without various extensions. The text outlines the significant increase in RAM usage with multiple tabs and extensions, highlighting the impact of specific extensions like LastPass and uBlock Origin. It also discusses the results of different benchmarks, revealing a mixed impact of extensions on rendering performance and user experience. The paragraph concludes with suggestions for managing extensions and browser settings to optimize performance.
đ§ Optimizing Browser Performance and Future Considerations
The third paragraph offers practical advice for users to improve their browser's performance. It suggests managing or disabling unnecessary extensions and adjusting Chrome's memory-saving features. The importance of good tab management is emphasized, and the potential benefits of disabling pre-loading for certain users are discussed. The paragraph also touches on privacy settings and the impact of Google's manifest V3 on the capabilities of Chrome extensions. It concludes with a teaser for another video on a related topic and a reminder to check out the sponsor, ODU, for business management software.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄGoogle Chrome
đĄTab Sandboxing
đĄDynamic Caching
đĄExtensions
đĄResource Usage
đĄBenchmarks
đĄManifest V3
đĄMemory Management
đĄAd Blockers
đĄPrivacy Extensions
đĄODU Software
Highlights
Google Chrome was once considered a revolution for its lightweight and fast performance.
Chrome introduced features like tab sandboxing to prevent a single frozen tab from crashing the entire browser.
The user's browsing habits, such as leaving many tabs open, contribute to Chrome's increased RAM usage.
Extensions can significantly impact browser performance, with some reducing it by as much as 12%.
Two-thirds of people use Chrome as their default browser, indicating the widespread nature of the performance issue.
The Labs team measured browser performance using a machine based on common specifications from a Steam Hardware survey.
Idle RAM usage on a clean Chrome system was measured at around 1.1 GB, increasing to 1.25 GB when streaming 4K video.
The impact of extensions on RAM usage varies, with some having no effect while others significantly increase it.
The ad-blocking extension uBlock Origin effectively reduced overall RAM usage by blocking ads and trackers.
With 10 of the most popular extensions, there was a nearly 50% increase in RAM usage with half a dozen tabs open.
As the number of open tabs increases, so does the additional RAM usage for a similar user experience.
Benchmarks showed that ad blockers can reduce browser rendering performance due to their interaction with the rendering pipeline.
Extensions like LastPass can cause significant slowdowns, especially when scanning text fields for autofill opportunities.
Disabling memory-saving features in Chrome can speed up the browser if the user has good tab management and ample RAM.
Pre-loading pages can improve speed, but may not be suitable for users of ad blockers or privacy extensions.
Google's Manifest V3 update is set to change the capabilities of Chromium extensions, potentially affecting the effectiveness of ad blockers and privacy extensions.
The video suggests that managing and disabling unnecessary extensions can lead to noticeable performance improvements in Chrome.
The video also promotes ODU's all-in-one business software as a solution for managing multiple business apps more efficiently.
Transcripts
man Google Chrome kind of sucks now
right I remember when everyone was
screaming stop using Internet Explorer
Chrome is so much faster was that all a
lie no actually Chrome was a revolution
it was lightweight fast as I'll get out
and it brought great features like tab
sandboxing so that if one of your tabs
froze your entire browser didn't have to
crash like the old days so what changed
then to turn Chrome into this bloated
Ram devouring Behemoth maybe it was
you me I mean I don't have the best
browsing habits I leave way too many
tabs open but Chrome has a way of
dealing with that using Dynamic caching
for the tabs I'm not using sure but is
Google the one who installed all those
extensions I mean I don't have that many
I just have zoto for tracking my
research language
tool tele party and an ad locker could
it be that his insatable thirst for
extra functionality is bogging down his
browser as it turns out yes I need to
make some Chang
but not every extension is made equal
while some had no effect on browser
performance others like last pass
reduced performance by as much as 12% an
effect that Stacks across your library
of resource sucking add-ons with 2third
of people using Chrome as a default
browser it's clear that we need to see
just how bad this situation is explore
what can be done to fix it and talk
about Google's solution including why it
might be a bad one so quickly now to the
lab wait this isn't the lab this is the
segue to our sponsor ODU if you own a
business you'll know what I mean when I
say you probably have too many apps
running at the same time with odu's
all-in-one business software you can
combine all of those into a single
unified platform so click the link in
the description to learn more our Labs
team has a fair bit of experience under
their belt testing video games and
productivity apps but this is one of our
first for into browser performance and
how exactly you measure browser
performance is a big question primarily
because browsers are big programs
chromium the open source framework that
Chrome is based on is 31 million lines
of code that is almost as much as the
Linux kernel the core of Linux based
operating systems and it's close to the
estimated count for older complete
operating systems like Windows XP which
Probably sounds ludicrous right until
you consider that I mean outside of
games how many programs do you run that
aren't in your browser and of those ones
how many of them are just web apps that
could run in your browser so the thing
is modern browsers need to be able to
support pretty much everything from
28-year-old geoc cities pages to
full-blown Photoshop clones so coming
back to the question of how to measure
their
performance it's challenging because
browsers do a lot of different things
but we're going to do our best starting
with a machine that is based on the most
common specifications in a recent steam
Hardware survey to look at memory use we
opened up Chrome to a set of common web
pages and on a clean system measured our
idle RAM usage at around 1.1 GB which
increased to 1.25 when we were streaming
4K video even on a system with just 8
gigs of RAM that's not a problematic
amount of usage and it's important to
note that even if it was higher that
isn't necessarily A Bad Thing programs
that need to access information quickly
will benefit from using up more R and as
long as they give it up in the event
that your Os or another program needs it
it's not really a problem but what
happens when we add extensions well as
it turns out it depends on the type our
password manager last pass and our
thirdparty spell checker grammarly both
used considerably more RAM than say
coupon code collector honey one
extension insert usual disclaimer about
the impact on creators actually reduced
our overall RAM usage and that was
ublock origin which is clearly
effectively blocking ads and trackers
from sapping our system resources though
funnily enough the more popular ad block
extension didn't have the same effect
which kind of makes us question its
Effectiveness especially when they
advertise that their extension saves
memory overall with 10 of the most
popular extensions we observed a nearly
50% increase in RAM usage with half a
dozen tabs open that's not that big of a
deal but as your tab addiction grows so
unfortunately does your Problem by the
time we reached 48 tabs we were looking
at a whole 2 GB of extra RAM usage for
what is functionally the same user
experience I mean you're not looking at
all those windows at once are you I mean
of course if you have ample system
memory you're probably not going to
notice the difference anyway will you
actually you might to gauge performance
of our browsers we ran several
benchmarks that aim to test the many
features of the web in motion Mark which
measures Graphics per performance in our
browser most of our extensions caused
virtually no change in performance
except this is kind of a funny one our
ad blockers you see ad blockers need to
interact with the rendering pipeline in
order to hide ads without turning your
web pages into a completely fragmented
mess and that appears to have resulted
in a reduction in in browser rendering
performance now in the real world this
slowdown is going to be masked by other
speed benefits but we thought it was an
interesting observation nonetheless
moving on to speedometer a benchmark
that's f focused on simulating user
experiences like working with a to-do
list editing Rich Text rendering charts
and reading news sites we found a
totally different story here it's last
pass causing a big slowdown and our best
guess is that this is due to last pass
trying to scan every text field for
potential autofill opportunities in jet
stream 2 a benchmark that's focused on
smooth
operation we found that ad block and
grammarly did a lot of damage but then
last pass was relatively benign and then
in web expert 4.0 we measured just 3%
reduced performance with all of our
extensions enabled at once so sometimes
your extensions matter sometimes they
don't and sometimes different ones will
or won't the results just don't really
seem to add up to a clear picture but
hey maybe the problem is we're looking
too closely if we zoom out and look at
the overall a clear Trend develops
especially when we configure our browser
like a regular person would and we have
multiple extensions running concurrently
with everything enabled we lose
something like a quarter of our
performance in the Chrome web browser if
you're a major Surfer 25% that's the
kind of difference that you could really
notice in day-to-day use I mean think of
all the extra LTT behind the scenes that
you could watch on lm. g/ flat plane
with all that extra time so what do we
do about this well some extensions are
always consuming some level of system
resources and you can track this
Yourself by pressing shift escape to
open the Chrome tab task manager at the
bottom of your list will be your
extensions and writing this right now
I'm noticing some of my extensions being
needlessly active page downloader single
file why is that open I'm not
downloading anything but then the PDF
editing extension that I'm using seems
to respect the fact that I don't always
need it running and it's not consuming
anything now's a perfect time then to go
through and call some of your more
inconsiderate extensions especially if
you aren't using them that much anymore
all it'll cost you is a few seconds to
click that little puzzle block and
here's a good rule of thumb if you don't
remember the last time you used it or
what it's for just get rid of it you can
always reinstall it later if you have
lots of RAM and good tab management
turning off the memory saving feature in
Chrome will speed things up as well as
Chrome will spend less time reloading
Pages preloading Pages can also speed
things up but if you're someone who uses
an ad blocker or a privacy extension
pre-loading isn't really an option
speaking of privacy this is unrelated to
your extensions but what you're in the
menu why not stop by the add privacy
section and turn all of that tracking
off we can't really give you an after
result for the impact of all the changes
you just made I mean your mileage may
vary depending on what you removed or
didn't and your overall web browsing
habits but from what we've seen
anecdotally it is very possible that
you'll notice a
difference just not in startup times
this was a really interesting part of
our test that we're tacking on the end
here we found that with a reasonable
extension load out the application takes
about the same amount of time to Launch
regardless of what you do or don't have
active then again I guess who cares
anyway because when's the last time you
closed Chrome I see that update button
the last thing that you can do is to
uninstall chrome and I'm only kind of
joking right now the roll out of
Google's manifest V3 is set to
dramatically change the capabilities of
chromium extensions which by the way
also affect Microsoft Edge now
especially hindering the effectiveness
of ad blockers and privacy enhancing
extensions we have haven't tested
firefox's performance with you know
extensions or without cuz realistically
most of you aren't using it but hey
maybe next time we do an update on this
the situation will have changed because
you'll have listened to Our advice why
not give it a try and while you're at it
why not try out our sponsor Odo if
you're running a business keeping track
of a hundred different apps all running
at once can be a pain I mean just
imagine all those Chrome tabs with odu's
all-in-one business management software
you can combine them into a single
Unified operating system check out their
CRM and sales apps which make lead
generation and closing deals easier than
ever their time sheets app helps you
keep close track of your employee
schedules and their accounting app lets
you autocreate and send invoices and it
integrates with 28,000 Banks from all
around the world and if you only need
one single app to shore up some holes
hey you can get access to that for free
so start saving time and resources by
unifying your processes with ODU you can
check them out in the description for a
free 14-day trial or to set up a demo
with their expert team thanks for
watching if you guys liked this video
maybe you'll enjoy another Deep dive
into minor differences in computer
performance check out our video where we
tested 12 of the same CPU so that we
could find a set of them that were
nearly identical in performance why did
we need those we'll never
tell well we will in that video but not
here
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