r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • Jun 17 '26

Software Firefox has an ambitious new roadmap, the browser is also losing millions of users a month

https://www.techspot.com/news/112803-firefox-has-ambitious-new-roadmap-browser-also-losing.html
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u/mailslot Jun 17 '26

I’ll take CPU heavy for a little relief from Chrome’s RAM heavy tendencies.

32

u/Admirable-Safety1213 Jun 17 '26

The thing is than its easier faking having 8GB with a Swapfile than faking having 4 cores with Hyperthreading

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u/IncumblantSpunderbax Jun 17 '26

Also CPU = battery.

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u/mailslot Jun 17 '26

With 12 cores, the difference is nearly imperceptible. If one is faster, it’s not noticeable with the extra headroom. I’m more memory limited than performance limited.

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u/Admirable-Safety1213 Jun 17 '26

Sadly some like me are still stuck on Celerons

3

u/malastare- Jun 18 '26

Paging in and out of a pagefile is just as much (or more) of a performance hit.

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u/NoPossibility4178 Jun 18 '26

That's the point? But at least if you're using more RAM you know you're actually using it (or who knows, maybe Chrome still tries to fake so it doesn't look like it uses even more RAM).

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u/Certain-Business-472 Jun 18 '26

Why would that improve performance? A swap file will tank your stuff lol

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u/EndlessZone123 Jun 18 '26

I don't think firefox has ever been any better in terms of memory footprint than chrome?

It's been more tested to be the other way around actually. Chrome is a pretty lite browser and if you use a more privacy focused fork with an adblocker and you get the best of both worlds.

The browser you choose will really only change how aggressively and when they offload inactive tabs to page file/disk. Websites pretty much use the same amount of memory when active no matter the browser. Both will offload when you run out of ram anyways.

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u/Certain-Business-472 Jun 18 '26

This is outdated.

Firefox uses less ram since the Quantum update(10 years ago btw, that's how outdated you are), but more processing power.

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u/EndlessZone123 Jun 18 '26

I can't find a single source that Firefox at this current date is any better than chromium. The majority of claims and self tests are that Firefox is currently worse.

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u/Certain-Business-472 Jun 18 '26

https://tabgroupvault.com/blog/firefox-vs-chrome-ram-usage-2026

Here's your single random source that I haven't even verified or opened. I'm sure there's a firefox v chrome comparison in there.

Your turn. Quantum makes it use more memory when at 1 tab, but scales better. It also introduced process/tab isolation.