Google Chrome is the king among browsers, but the main problem is using too much memory. If you have done some research, you should be aware of the fact that Chrome uses a lot of resources on your computer. So if you are worried about why Chrome is taking up so much memory and how you can fix it, here you will get all the answers.
Why does Google Chrome consume so much memory?
Google Chrome is a multitasking browser; from watching YouTube videos, using web apps, extensions to opening different tabs, Google Chrome does all the tasks; So what do you think consumes resources to do all that work? Obviously, Google Chrome uses your computer’s RAM to do all these things. Do you know how much RAM Chrome uses? Press SHIFT+ESC to open Google Chrome Task Manager and see for yourself.
Note- Chrome splits each tab and extension you open into one process, so if something breaks it will lock all your tabs.
So now you know why Google Chrome uses so much memory; if you use a lot of extensions and have a lot of tabs open, it can cause it to use up a lot of your device’s resources in the form of RAM. Also, Google Chrome has a pre-rendering feature that consumes a lot of memory, but this feature helps make the page load faster.
So if Google Chrome is causing high memory usage, it means that you are allowing it to do so by opening many tabs or using extensions. The application you use on your computer runs processes in your computer’s RAM, which is a temporary storage area for data stored on your device.
And whenever Chrome runs out of memory, you will see this message
“Oh no! Something went wrong while displaying this website; Error Code: Out of Memory”
Is it harmful if Google Chrome uses too much memory?
This should be your main concern if it’s not okay if Google Chrome is using too much memory. The purpose of installing RAM on your device is to allow it to instantly receive and read stored data. If the numbers in the memory column of your task manager scare you, remember that free RAM is useless, RAM exists in your system for a reason if you have a good amount of RAM on your device, it means that your computer you can store a lot of things in your short-term memory as you would quickly recall them later.
So even if your RAM is occasionally full, it’s a good thing that it’s doing its job. But if you find that RAM is often full and slowing down your device, then you need to address it. If you need more memory than your computer can offer, you can make your device slower because it will transfer the short-term memory to your computer’s hard drive, which is much slower.
How to avoid high memory usage in Google Chrome?
If Google Chrome is constantly using high memory usage, it is important to know how to reduce high memory usage in Google Chrome. To make Chrome use less memory, you can try various things like managing plugins and extensions, enabling hardware acceleration, etc. all of these methods are explained in more detail here:
1. Close programs that consume RAM memory
There are programs that use more RAM than others and one causes a lot of memory usage, you can open Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+DELETE or open Google Chrome’s own Task Manager by pressing SHIFT+ESC, and there you can see which tab or the extension consumes the most RAM. You can even sort memory usage from highest to lowest in the “Memory” column. After that, you can select the processes that are consuming a lot of RAM or not currently in use and click ‘End Task’ to kill them.
2. Use a Chrome extension to manage tabs
Using the Chrome tab manager extension is another way to limit RAM usage and save some memory. You may be wondering why install another extension when there are already so many that affect your RAM usage. But these extensions solve your problem and help to customize Chrome. One such useful extension is The Great Suspender, which allows you to kill all processes that are consuming too much memory and ultimately reduces the memory used by Chrome. OneTab is another useful tab management extension that allows you to close all tabs in one go by clicking the OneTab button; it will provide all the links in a tab so you can open them at your convenience.
3. Management of extensions
You also need to know how to manage extensions so that you can disable the ones that are consuming a lot of power but not currently being used. Here’s how to reduce high memory usage in Google Chrome by managing extensions:
- Right-click on the extension you want to disable, then click “Manage Extensions”
- In the “Site access” section, select one of the two options “On click” or “On specific sites” for “Allow this extension to read and change all your data on the sites you visit”
- You can also use an extension manager like SimpleExt to manage all your extensions if you use a lot of them.
4. Enable hardware acceleration
You can also enable hardware acceleration to reduce high memory usage by Google Chrome. Here is how to do it:
- Once you open Google Chrome, click on the three-dot button at the top right corner; then click ‘Settings’.
- On the ‘Settings’ page, click on the ‘Advanced’ option.
- Next, go to the ‘System’ section and enable the switch for ‘Use hardware acceleration when available’.
- After that, restart Google Chrome and type chrome://gpu/ in the address bar; press Enter; Now check whether hardware acceleration or GPU rendering is enabled or not.
5. Check your device for malware
You may also experience high memory usage from Chrome when your device is infected with malware or adware and run an antivirus scan to fix it. If your device is infected with any virus, the antivirus will remove it and ultimately help reduce memory usage of Chrome.
6. Set up a new user profile
You can also resolve this issue by creating a new user profile for Google Chrome, as this can prevent Chrome from using too much memory; do this:
- Go to Task Manager and end all Google Chrome processes
- navigate to C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default in Explorer.
- Press CTRL+A to select all files and press Shift + Delete to permanently delete all files.
- After that, restart Google Chrome and then create a new user profile
Hopefully all these solutions will fix Google Chrome high memory usage.
Categories: How to
Source: HIS Education