M1: Google Chrome

[Pastuh]

I've been comparing Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Brave over the past few days.

On my M1 base model MacBook Air I have been shocked to see Chrome consistently use less RAM than Safari or any other of the other browsers. This is even with Chrome running uBlock Origin extension.

I cleared my website data in Safari to see if this would make a difference, but Chrome still appears to use less RAM.

Anyone else experiencing this too? I have no extensions installed in Safari. If I install 1Blocker extension it's adding even more RAM usage for me in Safari.

 

[CheesePuff]

Are you sure you're looking at all processes by Chrome?

 

[Pastuh]

I pulled up Activity Monitor under Memory with no browsers opened and noted the current memory used, and then compared the difference in memory used with each browser having 2-3 tabs open on same sites.

 

[CheesePuff]

First of all, unused memory is useless memory. You shouldn't worry about how much is free, just if there is high memory pressure when doing all your tasks you intent to use the machine for.

You need to filter by process name at the top right to see all processes and how much memory each one is using for a proper total RAM usage by the application.

 

[Prometheus3858]

Yes, I agree with you, chrome is very close to safari in terms of ram usage, but average energy impact is still high compared to safari. I did a test yesterday, I opened 10 tabs and a youtube video to compare ram and battery usages of browsers. Ram usage; Chrome:3672.2 MB , Safari: 3562.5 MB ,and Firefox:2881.9 MB, Average Battery Impact: Chrome: 13.74, Safari: 4.79 ,and Firefox: 17.66.

 

[southerndoc]

While Safari may be more efficient, Chrome offers more of what I need so I will take the efficiency hit with it. Until Safari allows profiles, I'm forced to use Chrome.