The amount of RAM usage plays a major role in browser performance. Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are the best browser for Win 10. On a desktop or laptop, we browse many sites.

More the number of tabs, more will be the amount of RAM usage. To make the files open faster, computers store important information in short-term memory called RAM. Only the essential data is stored in it.

Hard-Disk and RAM are the important bits in browser tabs working efficiently. If we want to save any web pages on a hard-disk, then the new type of drives like SSD play a role in faster performance.

Best Browser for Windows 10

The most popular operating system in the world is Windows 10. Several PCs, laptops and tablets use it. But to know the best browser for Windows 10 users, you need to do a performance test ! Lot of parameters are considered while choosing a browser like speed, security, privacy, features and compatibility.

In this article we will compare the best browser for memory usage for Windows 10 and help you pick the right one.

Google Chrome

According to StatCounter, Google Chrome is the popular browser in the world. It has over 60% market share. Fast performance, sleek design and integration with Google services are its strengths. Chrome also has lot of extensions that can better your browsing experience and features with additional customization and functionality.

However, Chrome is not without its drawbacks. Chrome can be resource-intensive and consume a lot of memory and battery life on your PC.

Chrome is notorious to collect lot of data about browsing habits and preferences. It was also fined for selling customer in-private mode data. It raised privacy concerns. In addition, some sites may not display well in Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox

One of the oldest and most trusted browsers in the market is Mozilla Firefox. It’s pros are the security, privacy and customization options. Firefox blocks many tracking features by default. Various other feature are helpful to protect your data and identity online.

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On the con side, Firefox may be not as smooth as Edge or Chrome on some websites. Firefox also has fewer add-ons. It may not support newer web technologies or standards. Also, too much security can prevent some javascript and other elements from loading. Being open source browser, it’s community support is based on freelance members.

Microsoft Edge

It has improved a lot in Windows 10. With ChatGPT, Open AI and Bing integrated into Microsoft Edge it has become more powerful. There are lot of features like vertical tabs and tab sleeping that help improve productivity and performance. Also, the smoothness and fluidity of browsing also helps Microsoft Edge as a competitor to Chrome.

Edge is designed to be compatible with Windows 10 and offers a seamless integration with Microsoft services such as Cortana, OneDrive, Office 365, etc. Edge also has some unique features such as Collections (which lets you organize web content into groups), Immersive Reader (which simplifies web pages for easier reading), Vertical Tabs (which lets you switch between tabs more easily), etc.

However, Edge may not be as popular or widely used as Chrome or Firefox. Edge also has fewer extensions than its competitors and may not offer as much customization or flexibility as other browsers.

Amount of RAM – Performance Test

Browsers open quickly when you have an SSD kind of disk.

But when you open 30 to 60 tabs at once, it will be a resource hog on the other applications and apps. This will slow down the program usage. For example, if you are using 40 tabs and Adobe Photoshop with 8GB of RAM, the system may still perform poorly.

The way to find out the best browser in Windows 10 that uses less RAM is testing them with the same number of tabs and sites. In this Tomsguide test, the RAM performance was put to test for Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

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Test Case Scenario

All the programs were initially closed. Then 10 common tabs with sites like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, YouTube etc were opened on all the 3 browsers. Then the amount of RAM taken by each browser was calculated.

In the second test 20 tabs and 60 tabs in the third test were done. Finally, 2 instances per 20 tabs a piece were tested to see the effect of the same site performing twice.

Results

The following are the RAM usage results.

Chrome Vs Firefox Vs Edge Ram Usage Results 2020

In the first 3 cases, Microsoft Edge used the least amount of RAM.

Firefox was using the highest amount of RAM.

Though Google Chrome was expected to be a resource hog, it took the middle route.

In the first case, 79MB of RAM memory was the difference between Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

The second test with 20 tabs, shows a difference of 200MB between Edge and Firefox.

The final test with 60 tabs was the most critical test.

In this test too, Microsoft Edge came out to be the winner.

The nearest browser (Chrome) was using more than 800MB.

Case-Study – Best Browser for Win 10

In order to cross-check the results of the above scenario, I tried to do a small test on my computer configuration.

Summary

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 @ 2.93GHz 71 °C
Wolfdale 45nm Technology

RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 533MHz (7-7-7-20)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. G41MT-S2P (Socket 775) 64 °C

Graphics
LG IPS FULLHD (1920×1080@60Hz)
1024MB NVIDIA GeForce 210 (ASUStek Computer Inc) 56 °C

Storage
223GB Western Digital WDC WDS240G2G0A-00JH30 ATA Device (SATA (SSD)) 43 °C
111GB Western Digital WDC WDS120G2G0A-00JH30 ATA Device (SATA (SSD)) 45 °C
74GB Seagate ST380211AS ATA Device (SATA ) 44 °C

I closed all the programs on my Windows 10 computer. Some of the background apps were still working. Then I opened Microsoft Excel, NotePad++ and Task Manager. This was to check if other programs usage has any influence on the RAM performance of the best browsers in Windows 10.

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Browser Version

  1. Google Chrome – 88.0.4324.150
  2. Mozilla Firefox – 85.0.2 (64bit)
  3. Microsoft Edge – 88.0.705.68 (64bit)

Initially I opened 12 tabs in Google Chrome. I closed the browser. Then I restarted it. I checked the RAM usage in Task Manager, after the CPU % came to a stand still and there was stability in memory value.

There were also some extensions and apps like AdBlock Plus, Evernote Web Clipper,  CSS Viewer that were installed on this browser. Similarly Microsoft Edge and Firefox had some of the extensions and add-ons installed.

The same 12 sites or tabs were opened in Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox to test the efficiency of these browsers in RAM usage. I initially opened the same tabs in these browsers and then closed them and restarted them.

One interesting fact I observed was when I restarted Microsoft Edge, it was opening the tabs in sleeping mode. This is a new feature in this browser. So I expected that it would give better results compared to other browsers.

Test Results

In my findings I found that Mozilla Firefox was using the least amount of RAM of 335MB. The maximum amount of RAM was used by Microsoft Edge with 858MB. Google Chrome was in the middle with 704MB.

I also observed that Firefox was opening the tabs more quickly and sites loaded super-responsive compared to other browsers. Sometimes, Chrome tabs or sites were hanging up and slowing down things.

Firefox Ram Usage

Microsoft Edge was the slowest to regain the tabs that were in sleeping mode. This was in contrast to the above findings.

Though there can be several reasons for this, it is interesting to find that Mozilla Firefox came out as the best browser in Windows 10 when it comes to usage of RAM.

Best Browser For Win 10
Chrome Ram Usage

The best theory is the computer configuration and the type of extensions, add-ons play a major role in determining the best performing browser of Windows 10.

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