• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Chrome Processes Getting Out Of Control ... Taking All My RAM

Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
4,158 (0.75/day)
Location
USA
System Name ASUS ROG Zephrus M15
Processor AMD Rhyzen 7 4800HS
Memory 16GB
Video Card(s) Geforce RTX 2060
Storage 1TB
I am trying to figure out how to control the chrome tab processes. They are hogging all my RAM after a day or so of not fully closing it out or restarting my computer.

Right now, it shows 22, I only have 16 tabs open.
1607135293614.png


I downloaded 'The Great Suspender' add on for chrome that shuts the tab down until I click on it if I do not use it for like 10 mins. I think this may be partially to blame? I notice the count seems to go up when I reload a tab from being suspended. However, it is not 1:1 .. I just unsuspended a tab and now it jumped to 27 processes. All of them soaking up some RAM so I cant tell if one is older or not so I could close it out ..

1607135525149.png


Is there other options out there to control the crazy Chrome RAM usage?
 
Well, I get 7 Chrome processes, just with a single tab open (your message). That's 6 basic + 1 per tab.
With 16 tabs, that makes 6+16 = 22 processes.

I think the underlying 6 processes handle different aspects of the window, and as a result we get faster displays.
I suspect the main option is to cut down on tabs....sorry.
 
I am trying to figure out how to control the chrome tab processes. They are hogging all my RAM after a day or so of not fully closing it out or restarting my computer.

Right now, it shows 22, I only have 16 tabs open.
View attachment 178203

I downloaded 'The Great Suspender' add on for chrome that shuts the tab down until I click on it if I do not use it for like 10 mins. I think this may be partially to blame? I notice the count seems to go up when I reload a tab from being suspended. However, it is not 1:1 .. I just unsuspended a tab and now it jumped to 27 processes. All of them soaking up some RAM so I cant tell if one is older or not so I could close it out ..

View attachment 178204

Is there other options out there to control the crazy Chrome RAM usage?
Well, I get 7 Chrome processes, just with a single tab open (your message). That's 6 basic + 1 per tab.
With 16 tabs, that makes 6+16 = 22 processes.

I think the underlying 6 processes handle different aspects of the window, and as a result we get faster displays.
I suspect the main option is to cut down on tabs....sorry.
This is normal. This is how Google Chrome & most other forks & browsers works. Each threads runs a single task for the browser such as Tabs, Extensions, Add-Ons, Components, etc. This is done in such a way so that when a single thread crashes, it doesn't bring the rest of the thread & the whole browser down with it.
 
That's standard task amount and ram usage. If it's "eating all your ram" then maybe you need more?
 
That's standard task amount and ram usage. If it's "eating all your ram" then maybe you need more?
Oh, yeah.. And 8 GB RAM is the optimal RAM usage if you open lots of tabs with lots of extensions & add-ons running. I have been running fine on a 2 GB RAM laptop (not this computer) for short term browsing.

To free up more RAM, just close any unnecessary tabs & disable unneeded extensions & add-ons.
 
Chrome needs/eats a lot of ram to data harvest.

I never have any issues with firefox to be honest.
 
Capture.PNG


Don't ask me why I have 46 open tabs. Just don't.

P.s. Ok I manually counted. I have 86 open tabs. Of those only 46 are loaded I guess.
 
Chrome needs/eats a lot of ram to data harvest.

I never have any issues with firefox to be honest.
Hope this is a joke.
First of all, unapproved data harvesting is not legal. Second, data harvesting doesn't consume much of system resources. Third, Firefox also does this multi-threaded task loading (just check your task manager).
 
This is basically chrome, their ram hungry and modern webpages are also space hungry at the same time that does not help. I am a tab hogger too never closing them after opening it, well it got so bad my chrome usage alone used 36GB or more of ram. The only cure I can think off is to keep you tabs opening very low and lcosing them after used. The great tab suspender do save ram space.

Alternatively you can try to used session manager but I don't find it as good as the now defunct firefox session manager which is great when it work. That session manager backup all your backpage and forward pages links too which current firefox and chrome session managers do not. Old firefox is also not as memory intensive as chrome too sadly the new version just sucks with many broken good app compatibility with the apps such as the old firefox session managers. I miss that manager as i could organise my tab hoarding to sessions easily.
 
Chrome needs/eats a lot of ram to data harvest.

I never have any issues with firefox to be honest.

Otoh Firefox will max out your RAM to the point of making the system unusable if you leave tabs open long enough. On the laptop (8GB) I always have 5 tabs on the background and I sometimes have to restart firefox to free up the RAM.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rei
According to your specs you only have 6GB of RAM installed which is not nearly enough to use Chrome with that many tabs open.

I'd recommend switching to Firefox and installing uBlock Origin + NoScript, which could cut your RAM use in half.
 
You can try to use extension which freezes websites if you havent touched them in like 5 or 10 minutes.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Rei
I am trying to figure out how to control the chrome tab processes. They are hogging all my RAM after a day or so of not fully closing it out or restarting my computer.

Right now, it shows 22, I only have 16 tabs open.
View attachment 178203

I downloaded 'The Great Suspender' add on for chrome that shuts the tab down until I click on it if I do not use it for like 10 mins. I think this may be partially to blame? I notice the count seems to go up when I reload a tab from being suspended. However, it is not 1:1 .. I just unsuspended a tab and now it jumped to 27 processes. All of them soaking up some RAM so I cant tell if one is older or not so I could close it out ..

View attachment 178204

Is there other options out there to control the crazy Chrome RAM usage?
I would't be concerned... Yesterday I was Downloading a lot of univesity lessons and it used almost 10Gb of ram
 
This is what you need, had same issue with Chrome, it got so bad that was freezing my computer multiple times.
It automatically suspends tabs, especially useful to people like me that on average have 50+ tabs open same time.
 
I am trying to figure out how to control the chrome tab processes. They are hogging all my RAM after a day or so of not fully closing it out or restarting my computer.

Right now, it shows 22, I only have 16 tabs open.
View attachment 178203

I downloaded 'The Great Suspender' add on for chrome that shuts the tab down until I click on it if I do not use it for like 10 mins. I think this may be partially to blame? I notice the count seems to go up when I reload a tab from being suspended. However, it is not 1:1 .. I just unsuspended a tab and now it jumped to 27 processes. All of them soaking up some RAM so I cant tell if one is older or not so I could close it out ..

View attachment 178204

Is there other options out there to control the crazy Chrome RAM usage?

Uninstall and get Firefox. Run in private mode only. If you need a link or a login save it explicitly in the FF login manager.

No history saved, but runs like a dream.

According to your specs you only have 6GB of RAM installed which is not nearly enough to use Chrome with that many tabs open.

I'd recommend switching to Firefox and installing uBlock Origin + NoScript, which could cut your RAM use in half.

+1 though it seems Origin is in need of a refinement, its no longer a catch all
 
sorry, those specs were about 10 years old :) I have updated them now ... I am running 16GB in my laptop now.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into them and see what I can do, if anything, about this outside of closing down tabs ... because that is crazy talk :)
 
Yeah that actually looks normal, if you use firefox tabs won't load unless you click on them so it uses less ram that way but if you have multiple tabs it does use up ram. My firefox process is at 900odd megabytes and I've only got like 5 tabs open.

abff.png
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Rei
I don't think that matters.
Well, if Google doesn't want to get caught with lawsuits & bad press breathing down their neck, then it would've been wise to get user approval especially with many willing sample data.
Regardless if anonymous statistical usage data (or something of the sort) is disabled or enabled does not matter as it would not affect browser performance.
 
First of all, unapproved data harvesting is not legal.
Yeah, I didn't see this earlier. Sorry Rei, but that is not true at all. In order for something to be "not legal", there has to be a law specifying it (and "it" needs to be specifically defined) is "illegal". And there is no law anywhere in the world that says "unapproved data harvesting is illegal". Except maybe in North Korea, if any such law was passed, it would be shot down immediate by that country's Supreme Court as being too vague and general.

Well, if Google doesn't want to get caught with lawsuits & bad press
The courts have already ruled over and over again "for" Google, ISPs, cell carriers, Facebook and others. They can harvest pretty much all they want without our approval. HOWEVER, if we specifically say they cannot, then they can't. However, that may mean we cannot use their software or access their site.

You are right about bad press - but for many of these companies, they don't care about bad press.

It is important to remember that consumers tend to be our own worst enemies. If we don't want out information out there, we should not post it.

Having said all that, the greater risk is really from sites that are supposed to protect our data who then fail to do so through incompetence, ignorance and even criminal neglect. For example, the massive Equifax breach a few years ago. It could have easily been prevented but they failed to apply a patch that would have blocked the vulnerability the bad guys exploited - a patch that was available for several months before the breach! :( And they failed to secure the data on their servers as nearly all of the data of the 147 million users compromised was stored "in the clear"! That is, it was not encrypted! :mad:
 
Well, if Google doesn't want to get caught with lawsuits & bad press breathing down their neck

They do get caught all the time, that's why I said it doesn't matter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rei
It does not matter if is it Chrome,MsEdge,Opera...etc. all browser will "eat"a lot of memory if you love to keep many tabs open,pause video on 1 tab open on another&another&another...believe me I am one of those people who just like to keep 50-100 tabs open and even if I reset or shutdown I always love to continue where I left with all tabs-re open :)....

image_2020-12-05_173241.png
Anyway it is recommended to use CCleaner or some other similar apps from time to time to clean all that junk and start with"fresh"page-re-opening....
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Rei
It does not matter if is it Chrome,MsEdge,Opera...etc. all browser will "eat"a lot of memory if you love to keep many tabs open...believe me I am one of those people who just like to keep 50-100 tabs open....

View attachment 178313
Anyway it is recommended to use CCleaner or some other similar apps from time to time to clean all that junk and start "fresh"page-re-opening....
Anything but CCleaner. Piriform has gone so far down from when they started that's it's laughable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rei
They do get caught all the time, that's why I said it doesn't matter.
And frankly, Google should be one of the least of our worries. Unless you tell them, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla, for example, they don't know our real names, street addresses, billing information, or even our physical location if we connect via Ethernet. And they are not trying to collect that information either. The closest Microsoft, for example, knows of my physical location is my POP (point of presence) - the physical location where my ISP connects me to the Internet backbone. In my case, that is 6 miles away on the other side of town.

Of MUCH BIGGER concern is our ISPs and especially cell phone carriers. They do know our real names, billing information etc. And they can tie that to everything we do on the Internet. An our cell phone carriers also know who we texted, who we emailed. But worse, they know within few feet where we have been, where we are standing - to include the aisle of the store we are in, the direction we are heading and how fast we are traveling! :eek: :kookoo:

Anything but CCleaner.
Totally disagree. CCleaner is still a great program. Yes, Piriform, the company, has issues since being bought by Avast, but CCleaner, the program, is still a great cleaner. Just because we don't like the politics and policies of a company (or in this case, their parent company), that does not mean their products are bad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rei
Back
Top