Google Chrome is the most popularly used web browser on operating systems such as Windows 10 and macOS across the world. The Chrome High RAM usage has been a persistent issue among many daily avid users of the Google browser. Chrome gives a phenomenal user experience with many positive reviews except for the Google Chrome high RAM usage issue on many low-end systems.
Albeit, there are many occasions where Chrome churns out much of your RAM. This leads to the system getting slower at times. These issues of Chrome high RAM usage have a few nifty fixes. Even though Chrome uses a lot of memory, it gives a faster experience to the user. The Google Chrome browser since its launch has been a go-to option. They made it possible to compete with other well-known browsers such as Firefox and Safari by providing every feature while being quick.
Reasons for Chrome high RAM Usage issue
Chrome operates differently while managing its processes on the RAM. The browser divides each of its processes into sub-processes. This is done by providing a faster and steady experience to the user. This is a unique way of differentiating each process into sub-processes. Every tab or the window opened on the Chrome browser uses sub-processes on RAM.
The way Chrome differentiates its activities fill up the RAM very fast and eventually workflow slows down. Some of the tasks that use the portion of RAM even if you just open a webpage are key. Take an example of logging in to your Gmail account for example. The load on your memory occurs when you sign in, using GPU for loading up the web page’s design elements.
Even the extensions that you use daily unknowingly will make use of the memory at the end. The small tasks that take place during your surfing time on the browser use a meager amount of memory. The prerendering feature present on the Chrome browser uses a higher amount of memory for loading up pages faster. These are some of the main and crucial reasons why chrome uses a higher amount of memory.
5 Solutions to Fix Chrome High RAM Usage
1. Physical fix for low-end PC’s with lesser memory
The users that have low memory have only one solution for this issue to get fixed. You need to purchase a new set of higher memory sticks for your computer. That’s the only way where you can increase your memory of your PC and enjoy a faster browsing experience. This requires you to purchase a memory stick that is supported by your motherboard.
There are some important things to keep in mind before you upgrade your memory sticks. Always go for RAM sticks that are of the same speeds. You need to configure your PC with a Dual Memory channel setup for even better results. Suppose, you are upgrading to 8GB RAM go for two sticks of 4×4. This is a fix that you can apply for a low memory issue on your system and for the Chrome High RAM usage.
2. Update your Google Chrome Regularly
The easiest way to fix or at least boost up your performance at a minor means is by updating the browser regularly. You can mostly get your problems of getting slowed down or having issues solved by updating. Google has a very good track of solving problems on their software by giving out OTA updates. The updates may help minorly for the Chrome high RAM usage.
These updates make sure of fixing those minor bugs for better performance. This is a basic solution because an outdated version of Chrome may have unfixed bugs. These bugs can make a lot of unaware glitches and errors and mellows down your experience. The updating of your browser to the latest addition is a simple and effortless fix for the Chrome high RAM usage issue.
3. Deleting Useless Extensions on the Browser
One of the major issues for Chrome using high amounts of memory is because of too many extensions in the background. As mentioned in the reasons section, Chrome makes its processes to sub-processes, and extensions are the utmost responsibility for the act. The browser has many individual processes shown up on task manager and many of them are unused extensions.
They bogart huge amounts of memory to use and even end up using additional resources to function. The single best way for fixing the extensions is by disabling the unwanted ones for freeing up the memory. Check out the steps below for disabling your extensions and to overcome the Chrome high RAM usage issue.
- Firstly, open your Google Chrome browser on a new tab
- Head over to the three-dot menu ⋮ on the upper right corner
- Float your cursor on “More Options” for a drop-down menu to appear
- Select the “Extensions” option from the list of items
- Now you can see a new tab with all the “Extensions’’ installed on your browser on one page
- You can disable the Extensions by toggling them off
- Or you can Delete them permanently by clicking on the delete option.
4. Manually Ending the Processes on Task Manager
Google Chrome uses a technique of producing sub-processes for its tasks on the memory. The memory loads up pretty quickly due to this but still, the browser provides a quicker experience. The memory gets filled up more when you open higher tabs and windows on your browser. This tends to use a lot of memory and has chances of memory leaks.
The process for ending the processes of unwanted or highly used tabs or windows for Chrome is very simple. Open “Task Manager” and search for Google Chrome in the list of processes. Select Google Chrome and you can see a list of processes in a sub-list pattern. Identify the process that is using high memory from the lot and end the process.
5. Enabling Hardware Acceleration
This is an easy and intriguing fix for users with a dedicated graphics card installed on their computer. This step will help you to move some of the load from the memory to your GPU. This will help you to shift the processes from the main memory to GPU’s memory. The hardware acceleration can be enabled from the options provided on the Google Chrome settings menu. This fix may ease out your situation on the Chrome high RAM usage.
- Firstly, open your Google Chrome browser on a new tab
- Head over to the three-dot menu ⋮ on the upper right corner
- Select the Settings menu and this invokes a new tab with options
- Scroll down and enter the ”Advanced settings” and view the “System” section from the menu
- Now, enable the “use hardware acceleration when available”.
Note: Enable the hardware acceleration only when you have a dedicated graphics card on the system. If not the option can emerge unwanted issues on the browser.
Fixing Chrome High RAM Usage
Chrome high RAM usage has been a contemporary issue after the betterment of visuals on web pages and using of high graphics related visuals as well. You can even overcome this issue of Chrome high RAM usage issue by simply using a lesser number of tabs and windows on the browser.
These were some of the simpler and fuss-free solutions of the Chrome high RAM usage. Furthermore, if you still face the issue even after applying these fixes try out other browsers. There are many browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Brave that provide the same experience. The browsers are based on chromium and can be a good alternatives for Google Chrome.
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