Web browsers are the programs of common and daily use that consume the most resources on our PC. We are usually used to opening several websites at the same time, in tabs, and browsing all kinds of websites at full speed. And that comes at a price, a price that basically translates into RAM memory usage . Google Chrome, as the most used browser, is one of the ones that accumulates the most complaints due to its high consumption of memory and processor, especially in low and mid-range PCs. But luckily, it just changed.
Google has been experimenting with new functions for some time that allow the browser to save resources on users’ computers and run faster without losing functionality. One of the latest features Google has been experimenting with is PartitionAlloc. This feature allows a much more efficient use of RAM , optimizing memory allocation, reducing latency and using space more efficiently.
Chrome Canary users have been enjoying this feature, in the experimental phase, for many months now. And after a long way, the new Chrome 89 has brought PartitionAlloc to all browser users.
Up to 20% less RAM usage in Chrome
The latest version of Google Chrome has been with us since last week. In addition to many fixes and various security bugs fixed, it finally enabled the use of PartitionAlloc for all users.
Thanks to this new feature, the main browser process now consumes up to 22% less resources . In addition, Google has managed to save up to 8% in the memory used by the web renderer, as well as 3% in the use of the GPU.
Now, Chrome is able to save up to 100 MB for each tab that we have open, which for the main websites that implies around 20%. This is achieved whenever we move a tab to the background, since that is when the JS codes that run on the tabs and the largest images on the webs are discarded. When the user reopens the tab in question, the discarded images and codes are automatically reloaded so that the page works normally again.
Other performance improvements in the browser
The use of PartitionAlloc is not the only improvement that has come to the browser. With the arrival of the latest updates, the browser has been optimizing the use of resources more and more. For example, with the release of Chrome 87, Google optimized overall browser performance, resulting in 25% faster startups and up to 7% faster web page loading , using less memory. And with Chrome 85, a new optimization technique was introduced, Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) , which sped up the loading of websites by up to 10%.
Google is taking its browser optimization seriously. In Android , the loading times of the webs have also been improved by spending 5% less RAM in Chrome, and in macOS many other optimizations have also been included. And it is very likely that we will soon see new news related to the consumption of Chrome. It seems that in the end, the browser has gone on a diet.
