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Google Chrome help

P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
2,112
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Have to ask this, but, Why on CPU is there 10, TEN, Google Chrome Helpers on there that makes the fan hit an all time high?

I know the score with Firefox and Safari, but Firefox just doesn't do it for me, and YouTube flickers al the time on the latest version. Safari doesn't seem safe enough with adblockers, they don't stop a lot of stuff that I feel it probably should. But, Chrome I'm just used to, but it does wind me up that it hogs so much CPU. I'm sure before High Sierra, it maybe showed about 3 or 4 helpers, but now it's 10 sometimes. Is there any explanation for that?
 
Google really broke fullscreen mode in Chrome with the anniversary update. But I am still struggling to switch.

That said I don't have your problem. Yes I have all the same helpers in activity monitor, but they are not eating cpu. A better way to really determine what Chrome spends it time on is to use it own activity monitor, which you find in the Windows menu.

On top of ad-blockers you may also block crypto mining with minerBlock or similar.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/minerblock/emikbbbebcdfohonlaifafnoanocnebl
 
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Peter Franks said:
Have to ask this, but, Why on CPU is there 10, TEN, Google Chrome Helpers on there that makes the fan hit an all time high?

I know the score with Firefox and Safari, but Firefox just doesn't do it for me, and YouTube flickers al the time on the latest version. Safari doesn't seem safe enough with adblockers, they don't stop a lot of stuff that I feel it probably should. But, Chrome I'm just used to, but it does wind me up that it hogs so much CPU. I'm sure before High Sierra, it maybe showed about 3 or 4 helpers, but now it's 10 sometimes. Is there any explanation for that?
Click to expand...

Little known fact: Chrome is so resource hungry, manufacturers now use it instead of 3DMark and Memtest86 if they want to stress test their hardware.
 
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Chown, that was my obvious first thought, That WOULD make sense, but no. It was one tab, the main window on it's own. It's nothing to do with how many tabs are open. It's a pain, I wish Safari was better.

Crypto mining?

keysofanxiety said:
Little known fact: Chrome is so resource hungry, manufacturers now use it instead of 3DMark and Memtest86 if they want to stress test their hardware.
Click to expand...

Unbelievable, and they don't care, judging by the millions of moans
 
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What version of Chrome is everyone using then? The latest is Version 72.0.3590.0 (Official Build) dev (64-bit) and definitely not resource intensive.
 
AFAIK it starts off with the core service and a helper then for every new tab a new helper appears. Closing tabs doesn't get rid of helpers necessarily. Well, it will over time but not immediately. To immediately get rid of all the helpers you have to quit Chrome and open it again. That will equalise the helpers-to-tabs ratio. AFAIK. Chrome isn't the only browser that manages resources like this.
 
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chown33 said:
I'm pretty sure Chrome will run a Chrome Helper for each tab or window you have open.

Close some tabs and see what happens.
Click to expand...
vkd said:
AFAIK it starts off with the core service and a helper then for every new tab a new helper appears. Closing tabs doesn't get rid of helpers necessarily. Well, it will over time but not immediately. To immediately get rid of all the helpers you have to quit Chrome and open it again. That will equalise the helpers-to-tabs ratio. AFAIK. Chrome isn't the only browser that manages resources like this.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that each tab in Chrome runs in it's own protected process. The more tabs open the more processes running.

The idea is that if a tab crashes then the process that is running it quits, or can be quit. In this manner it doesn't take down the entire browser when one tab crashes, only the affected tab.
 
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Also, quick scan of some Google docs, and testing on my Chrome copy, each extension and app you might have is a separate Chrome Helper process as well. Turned off one, Helper count dropped by one.

And there are at least one hidden helper as well: Google's Flash that comes bundled with Chrome. Looks like also one for Google Drive/Docs, but that one shows in the Extensions screen.
 
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This is weird, I hadn't opened any other tabs today. Must have been a hangover from an accumulation of pre boot? It's not behaved since the Sierra/High Sierra upgrade.

Same as these white lines I get on video now. But in fairness, these white lines when you open and enlarge clips online also happen on Safari at times.
Is this a sad lack of something to do with graphic cards on a 2011 MBP? Never had the lines pre Sierra. Even with the SSD it can't cope with these later OS?

I even had this problem with the white lines when enlarging on the iPhone 8 yesterday on some web pics in Safari
ScreenShot2018-10-25at21.15.185adbc.png
 
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chscag said:
What version of Chrome is everyone using then? The latest is Version 72.0.3590.0 (Official Build) dev (64-bit) and definitely not resource intensive.
Click to expand...

Why does this say it's up to date if you're on the later version?

Google Chrome is up to date
Version 70.0.3538.77 (Official Build) (64-bit)
 
chscag said:
What version of Chrome is everyone using then? The latest is Version 72.0.3590.0 (Official Build) dev (64-bit) and definitely not resource intensive.
Click to expand...
Chrome 70.0.3538.77 is the current version. You're on a developer build as evidenced by "dev" in your version number.
 
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chrfr said:
Chrome 70.0.3538.77 is the current version. You're on a developer build as evidenced by "dev" in your version number.
Click to expand...

Sorry you’ll have to explain that one to me. There’s a slide for that. What’s the meaning/difference. I’m not clued up on this, as you probably gathered. I tried googling and nothing explains the difference. What’s developer build?
 
Peter Franks said:
Sorry you’ll have to explain that one to me. There’s a slide for that. What’s the meaning/difference. I’m not clued up on this, as you probably gathered. I tried googling and nothing explains the difference. What’s developer build?
Click to expand...
It's a "work in progress" version, not for general usage.
 
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Am i being really stupid here by assuming that because I don't build websites, I don't need 'developer mode'? That's the only explanation I see for 'dev tools'.
ScreenShot2018-10-26at14.53.22.png
 
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Is it my imagination or is Chrome getting worse. I still see a dozen 'helpers' murdering CPU but only one tab open so the theory it's one per tab, is wrong
 
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Peter Franks said:
Is it my imagination or is Chrome getting worse. I still see a dozen 'helpers' murdering CPU but only one tab open so the theory it's one per tab, is wrong
Click to expand...
Do they use cpu? else they are not murdering cpu. I guess they also isolate other parts into own process-space for security, so you cannot just expect number of processes to match the number of tabs, but you expect there to be at least as many processes as you have tabs. They don't murder your cpu simply by being there, if they are not doing anything. However it does consume more memory, than had it all been in one process, but also less stable.
 
There are sites that no adblocker on the planet can stop pop-up videos opening incessantly 3 times a page. Daily Mail UK for one. Hideous site for the MBP and Chrome for some reason. Always bricks my laptop. I have never ever found a blocker for their incessant videos. Even Gmail which is one of their own, the fan goes ballistic when on Chrome, much more since last update of Gmail. I was under the impression updates are supposed to improve things. Chrome is now horrendous.

Sadly, Safari is very unsecure for me and let’s loads more undesirable pop ups and unwanted downloads in than Chrome does, and I just don’t like Firefox at all.

Maybe it’s my MBP. Who knows? It’s probably too old and I was mistaken thinking a new SSD and RAM upgrade would help those problems
 
Peter Franks said:
I was under the impression updates are supposed to improve things. Chrome is now horrendous.
Click to expand...
I agree that the 10year anniversary update (ver 69) was/is a disaster with Mac fullscreen and I don't understand how there is not more complaining. It really took the worst from Windows version brought to the macOS instead of the other way :-(
 
If you want to try browsers -other than- Safari, I'd suggest:
- Opera
- iCab
- Firefox
- Epic Privacy Browser
 
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