256424 - When browsing graphics-intensive webpages like www.deviantart.com, Firefox hogs system memory and the system lags.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 249469

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Becky Roney]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803 Firefox/0.9.3

Under the performance tab in the Windows Task Manager, the Page File Usage
History and the Kernal Memory (Paged) both climb and do not go back down when I
browse graphics intensive webpages.  When I browsed the same webpages in IE,
both climbed, but would drop back down when I closed whatever browser I had been
using.  Firefox does not do that.  I have to close all browsers down to release
the memory and keep the system from lagging.  In addition, Internet Explorer
never caused the Page File Usage History line to climb up to 900+ MB.  Firefox
has done this all three times I've looked through several galleries on
deviantArt.  The system lags to the point where it will take several minutes to
load a few tabs that would otherwise load in less than a minute.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load a graphics intensive webpage.  (In my case, www.deviantart.com)
2. Browse through large image files for a while.  (I opened every picture in a
couple deviantArt galleries in my case.)
3. Check the Windows Task Manager.

Actual Results:  
System lagged, affecting all programs.

Expected Results:  
System lagged, affecting all programs.

I can provide screenshots if wanted.

Comment 1

[Richard Schwarting]

I also experience this in Linux.  I showed my top command results and described
my own actions (lots of Slackware wallpapers :) at
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259713
in comments.

Comment 2

[Richard Schwarting]

(In reply to comment #1)
> I also experience this in Linux.  I showed my top command results and described
> my own actions (lots of Slackware wallpapers :) at
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259713
> in comments.

The above bug I mention is unrelated to my problem.  I am not sure if this one
is either. When opening up many images, my firefox virtual memory usage will go
up from 50MB by about 20MB, but X virtual memory increases from 170MB by about
60MB where at Firefox is killed and memory usage for X returns to 70MB. Memory
usage of X does not decreased when images are closed.  

Comment 3

[Richard Schwarting]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > I also experience this in Linux.  I showed my top command results and described
> > my own actions (lots of Slackware wallpapers :) at
> > https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259713
> > in comments.
> 
> The above bug I mention is unrelated to my problem.  I am not sure if this one
> is either. When opening up many images, my firefox virtual memory usage will go
> up from 50MB by about 20MB, but X virtual memory increases from 170MB by about
> 60MB where at Firefox is killed and memory usage for X returns to 70MB. Memory
> usage of X does not decreased when images are closed.  
> 

I think I should be banned for flooding bugs. 
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=256424 better describes my problem,
so unless Firefox's abuse of memory resources in X and Windows stems from the
same source, ignore me :|

Comment 4

[Richard Schwarting]

> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=256424 better describes my problem,

My idiocy runs deep, I meant https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=257016
I will never post under this bug again.

Comment 5

[Bruno Laturner]

I confirm the bug. After visiting deviantart.com's pages for a while, the memory
used here hits 50 MB Physical and 150 MB virtual. Even if I close all the tabs
and load a blank page, that memory usage remains. Closing the browser makes it
release the memory, but the process to release it is also really slow.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; pt-BR; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041118 Firefox/1.0

Comment 6

[Ajmer Phull]

OS: W2K v5.00.2195 SP4 
Chip:Intel P3 750MHz
RAM: 512Mb

Viewing Gallery sites (web sites that display images) causes VM to grow, which
is expected, but when the page or tab is closed, the VM is not free'd. Even
closing the browser does not free the VM, until every FF browser is closed.

This is a problem, since i have to close all browsers once every 24hours.

This is my normal session of browsers and you can try these to reproduce the
problem:

Note the VM level.
1. Open DWMX (v7.0.1), Fireworks (v7.0.2), a few Windows Explorers

Note the VM level.
2. start 1 ff browser and open a few tabs to normal sites, such as yahoo mail,
google and other stuff i need for access - usually about 4 or 5 tabs.

Note the VM level.
3. start another ff browser and open a few tabs to forum sites and other
reference sites - usually about 4 to 5 sites.

Note the VM level.
4. start another ff browser, which i use for searching when i am working, like
php.net, dev.mysql.com, google, etc, so this can grow from 1 to about 10 to 15 tabs.

Note the VM level.
5. start another ff browser and using Flash Got (see note below to install Flash
Got) i may build a gallery to search for images to use in forums, for example.
Try this in Build Gallery http://www.itv-f1.com/ImageLibrary/3[1000-2000;1]_2.jpg

Flash Got - installed from http://www.flashgot.net/getit

You will notice the VM grow, but when you close the tab, the VM is not released,
nor when the 4th ff browser is close. Only when you close all of them does the
VM drop.

Comment 7

[Rich Muchoney]

Ever since Mid-march, approx 3/12, Firefox & Thunderbird have become unusable 
especially when any type of graphics are involved.  I'm reporting this using 
IE6 because of the slowness.  First thought it was due to some MS pacthes 
(KB888113 & KB891711)...uninstalled them & then uninstalled & reinstalled 
Firefox 1.0.2 beta & now the finalized version today.  
But FF is still extremely slow even without the MS patches.  I'm running Win98 
Gold & Panda Internet Security 2005 (which is updated daily)...checked for 
viruses but everthing's clean.  I'm using DSL & Firefox is slower than even 
when I had a dial-up connection.  No other system / software changes have been 
made...anyone have any solutions?  I thought 1.0.2 was supposed to fix gif 
buffer overruns...but I'm not seeing any visible signs of anything with 
graphics being fixed.  Been running FF since last July w/o issues, now IE 6 is 
at least 10 times faster on any given web page with graphics.

Comment 8

[Ryuichi KUBUKI]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 249469 ***