To satisfy my curiosity regarding browser resource use (RAM), I ran a few quick tests on my setup to see which browser(s) worked most efficiently.
Here’s what I’m running (inxi -Fxxxz):
mark@ArchLabs:~
$ inxi -Fxxxz
System: Kernel: 5.6.4-arch1-1 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: dwm 6.2
dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: ArchLabs Linux
Machine: Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E5470 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 9
serial: <filter>
Mobo: Dell model: N/A serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.21.6 date: 10/02/2019
Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 43.4 Wh condition: 43.4/62.0 Wh (70%) volts: 8.3/7.6
model: LGC-LGC4.20 DELL HK6DV type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M510 serial: <filter>
charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging
CPU: Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-6300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake rev: 3
L2 cache: 3072 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20004
Speed: 700 MHz min/max: 400/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 700 2: 700 3: 700 4: 700
Graphics: Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:1916
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: intel unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa
compositor: picom resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
Message: Unable to show advanced data. Required tool glxinfo missing.
Audio: Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9d70
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.6.4-arch1-1
Network: Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: f040
bus ID: 00:1f.6 chip ID: 8086:156f
IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Dell
driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel port: f040 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 168c:003e
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Device-3: Qualcomm Atheros type: USB driver: btusb bus ID: 1-8:6 chip ID: 0cf3:e007
Drives: Local Storage: total: 1008.18 GiB used: 585.21 GiB (58.0%)
ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 model: SD32G size: 30.09 GiB serial: <filter> scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT1050MX300SSD4 size: 978.09 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
serial: <filter> rev: R031 scheme: GPT
RAID: Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 port: f060
bus ID: 00:17.0 chip ID: 8086.282a rev: 21
Partition: ID-1: / size: 57.89 GiB used: 36.35 GiB (62.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
ID-2: /boot size: 299.4 MiB used: 57.7 MiB (19.3%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Info: Processes: 181 Uptime: 1d 16h 01m Memory: 23.39 GiB used: 1.92 GiB (8.2%) Init: systemd
v: 245 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.16 running in: sakura inxi: 3.0.38
What I did was test the following browsers:
- Firefox
- chromium
- otter
- surf
On each test, I opened three windows (or tabs) accessing the same sites:
On each ‘standalone’ test I measured my RAM use via conky & htop. Here my results:
Baseline (no browser running):
- conky: 1.07G
- htop: 1.1 GB
Results with browsers accessing 3 sites (run with only 1 browser active and a clean reboot between tests).
- Browser… conky… htop
- Firefox:…1.66G…1.7G
- Otter…1.83G…1.9G
- Chromium…1.87G…1.88G
- surf…1.5G…1.54G
For my purposes I plan to use FF. The additional functions like tabs, fvd speed dial, lastpass, lack of google connection make it the best choice (not to mention I know how to use it).
FWIW, I was shocked that otter & surf did not do much better…