Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
How would the RAM tweaks help speed? Wouldn't that mean it either has to reload stuff more often or dump data to the page file? I could see the point of it if you're short of RAM, but I've got all the RAM I need, especially when browsing. So should I do it, or just stick with point 2 only?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rathji
The first one only makes sense if you never go back to a page you have been to recently. Loading from your RAM is much faster than reloading the page from the site directly (or an online cache). This is especially true since Firefox automatically reloads any page you go back to, unlike Opera which will just let you go back to your cached page.
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Here's what a quick google search on
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer turned up:
Quote:
About the Firefox "memory leak"
For those who remain concerned, here's how the feature works. Firefox has a preference browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers which by default is set to -1. When set to this value, Firefox calculates the amount of memory in the system, according to this breakdown:
RAM ............. # of Cached Pages
32MB ............ 0
64MB ............ 1
128MB .......... 2
256MB .......... 3
512MB .......... 5
1GB .............. 8
2GB .............. 8
4GB .............. 8
(reference: nsSHistory.cpp)
No more than 8 pages are ever cached in this fashion, by default. If you set this preference to another value, e.g. 25, 25 pages will be cached. You can set it to 0 to disable the feature, but your page load performance will suffer. (add: when using your Back button)
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That seems like an awful lot of RAM for 8 pages of cached history. It's worth noting, however, that you don't have to disable the feature altogether. For example, you can enter the number "5" instead, which should (theoretically) cap the amount of RAM Firefox reserves for this feature at 512MB.
Here's what Mozilla has to say about it:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/High+memory+usage
Personally, I very rarely use the back button. When I'm at a page with a few links and I know I'm going to want to come back to it, I just open the links in new tabs and then flip between my tabs, rather than back and forth between cached page views. Setting
browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer to "0" is perfect for me. It allows me to use my machine's resources for my tabs and pages I'm moving forward to, not for caching pages I'll never see (because I rarely use "Back").