The relationship between Chrome and RAM is not one of the best. The love for RAM by Chrome is very toxic that it destroys laptops and their battery life. Moreover, it makes laptops sluggish, and this frustrates users. However, there is some good news for all Chrome users out there. Google might have found a lasting solution to Chrome’s RAM guzzling tendency that makes laptops slow. This is the Chrome 57, the newest version of Chrome. The company is scheduled to introduce a new feature in the upcoming Chrome 57, which will be in a position to pause background tabs to save RAM. This will go a long way to allow the computer to rest. Additionally, it will help save the battery.
What Makes Chrome Use A Lot of Ram?
The web browser uses a lot of RAM because it works by splitting every extension, plugin, and tab into an individual process. This ensures that in case one thing crashes, such as Flash, the entire web page isn’t brought down. Usually, this leads to a lot of RAM usage because the web browser has to duplicate tasks for individual tabs. However, it also makes things more convenient.
Multiple other processes occur in the background as well. For instance, Chrome’s pre-rendering feature has the tendency of causing higher memory usage. However, it also helps web pages load faster. Additionally, certain websites or extensions might as well leak memory, which isn’t cleaned up once the user is done with it. Over time, this causes higher RAM usage. Note that the more extensions, plugins, and tabs you have installed, running or open, the more memory the web browser is going to use. Although Chrome will consume a lot of RAM, it has good reasons to do so, which is your convenience.
Although it is okay for Chrome to use lots of RAM, slowing down the computer can be very frustrating. The best way to go about this problem is to lower the RAM usage of the browser. Alternatively, you might want to purchase additional RAM for your laptop. Purchasing additional RAM is very easy especially if you are using a desktop computer. However, it is more difficult in the case of a laptop computer, since memory is usually not easy to upgrade. This implies that if you are a laptop user, you will have to sacrifice a few of your conveniences to save RAM.
Chrome 57 Is The Solution To Slow Laptops
Background tabs have tremendous and negative effects on the performance of a browser. Most importantly, background tabs have been shown to affect battery life more than any other thing. To bring this problem to an end, Chrome has been looking for ways to place various background restrictions on the browser to improve performance. According to Google, it has been working closely with its developers to completely end the Chrome and RAM toxic relationship over the last several years. Google announced that it is introducing Chrome 57, a further timer extension mechanism to place additional background timer CPU usage limit.
This implies that whenever there is a tab on the background, the web browser will pause all the tab’s activities. This will make sure that the tab doesn’t play flash animations, or load unseen stuff. According to Chrome, here is how the new feature will work:
- Every background tab contains a time budget for running background timers. The time budget is always in seconds.
- Pages are subjected to time budget restrictions after being in the background for 10 seconds.
- Timer tasks are allowed to run when and only time budget is non-negative.
- Immediately a timer has executed the runtime is automatically subtracted from the budget.
- The budget is usually under a continuous regeneration with time, which is set at the rate of around 0.01 seconds per second. It should be noted that the current budget regeneration rate can be changed as Google Chrome collects additional data related to throttling behavior.
Also Read: Google Continues to Make New Chromebook Pixel but You can’t Buy One
Conclusion
As a consumer, the most important aspect to bear in mind is the fact that if the new feature is used properly, it will make sure that Chrome functions better and run light on desktop or laptop. This will directly make sure that the web browser does not use a lot of RAM. Also, battery life will be saved in the process. It is also important to note some of the exceptions. Audio in the background tab will count as active. Therefore, you will be in a position to listen to your favorite song on a site such as YouTube and at the same time browse through an e-commerce site. In as much as the new feature appears promising, it should be remembered that this isn’t the first time the company is trying to bring to an end Chrome’s RAM eating tendencies. Previously, Google has come up with ways to try making Chrome lighter, but all the attempts have been futile so far. It is the hope of every user that the new feature works.
