Why does Safari use so much memory?

Question

Level 1

14 points

Why does Safari use so much memory?

Below is a screenshot of the "Safari Web Content" process using 2.57GB of ram! When I took a screenshot yesterday at 1.7GB I thought that was a lot!

It seems Safari will use as much ram as can be thrown at it. I had a lot of windows and tabs open, but really doubt I had more than a few hundred megs of content loaded in those windows and tabs, never mind 2.6GB!

My experience with Macs and OS X would pretty much be perfect if it weren't for Safari. It brings my system down to a slow grind because the virtual memory/swap is always thrashing so badly.

Apple goes on about the "magical" performance updates they make to Safari - well guess what? They mean nothing when Safari has all your ram tied up and the swap file is thrashing like crazy.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Glossy), Mac OS X (10.7.3), Mid 2010

Posted on Feb 25, 2012 12:30 PM

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Answer 1

HACKINT0SH

Level 5

5,804 points

Feb 26, 2012 1:19 PM in response to Doc_

Safari has been known to have run-away issues with memory.

I'm wondering, if you could empty the cache and let me know if memory usage drops.

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Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

68,612 points

Feb 26, 2012 4:18 PM in response to Doc_

Are you running any third-party browser extension or add-ons? What about anti-virus or internet security programs? Most of the AV/Security programs that cost money really drag Mac performance down. We need to get those culprits out of teh way, if installed, before seeing if there is another cause.

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Answer 3

Doc_ Author

Level 1

14 points

Feb 26, 2012 5:27 PM in response to Allan Jones

I had three extensions installed: Ghostery, Adblock Plus, and another that disabled flash content.

I've turned off extensions all together, we'll see how it goes.

I don't have any AV software installed.

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Answer 4

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Feb 26, 2012 7:23 PM in response to Doc_

Yes, but do you empty your Safari cache regularly? & the History List?

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Answer 5

Doc_ Author

Level 1

14 points

Mar 11, 2012 6:51 PM in response to Doc_

I followed the suggestion to disable extensions, and have since reenabled extensions with the exception of Adblock Plus. The "Safari Web Content" process doesn't seem to use more than ~490MB of ram now.

Massive memory leak in ABP I guess?

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Answer 6

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Mar 11, 2012 8:27 PM in response to Doc_

Glad it's better now, Doc. I'm still wondering if you empty your Safari cache regularly.

I use GlimmerBlocker, and love it. From what I've read here, it's less problematic than ABP, and it's built so it doesn't get out of date, with an OS/Safari upgrade. Just a thought for ya.

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Answer 7

Mar 14, 2016 4:14 PM in response to Doc_

Hunting for a solution... I ended up with an old thread from 2012. And here we are in 2016. Safari still memory hungry.

The solution for me – I'm on El Capitan 10.11.4 and Safari 9.1 – was... turning off top sites for new windows and safari tabs + restart Safari. Doing this Safari doesn't go crazy on memory. At the moment it only takes op 35 mb. When top sites are turned on it'll slowly eat all memory above both 2, 3, 4 gb. Then it'll slowly start to eat up the remaining around 26 gb harddisk space... until nothing is left. A restart solves the problem – but Safari will repeat the top sites memory problem.

Safari has a problem with memory (ram + harddisk) when top sites are turned on for new windows and / or new safari tabs. It probably has something to do with your top sites... if some of them are memory hungry. Note... I have no safari plugins installed. I deleted all in the hunt for a solution.

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