Efficiency Benchmarks: Memory Usage And Management
Memory Usage: Single Tab
There are measurable differences in total memory usage between the contenders in this benchmark. First place clearly goes to Internet Explorer 9, which uses only 27 MB to display a single tab. Close to the IE9 score is Google Chrome, needing 30 MB. Safari is in third place, using 50 MB. Mozilla's latest browser follows up in fourth place at 57.5 MB, while Opera still uses the most memory, totaling 63.6 MB.
Memory Usage: 40 Tabs
As usual, each tab had to be loaded individually in Safari, otherwise Apple's Web browser would find itself in an infinite loop of loading.
Uncooperative Apple Safari comes in with the lowest memory usage when all 40 tabs are open, beating Mozilla Firefox by 25 MB. In third place, Opera is the last browser to use less than 1 GB to display 40 tabs (a measurable advantage over previous versions of the Norwegian browser, this time only 5 MB behind Firefox). Chrome is in fourth place at around 1 GB, while last-place finisher IE9 uses 150 MB more than the 1 GB barrier.
Memory Management: -39 Tabs (5 minutes)
After closing 39 of the 40 tabs and waiting five minutes, the memory usage of IE9 and Chrome drop near their single-tab totals to take first and second place, respectively. In third place, Firefox 5 drops down to around 200 MB, still four times its single-tab usage. Fourth place Safari still hangs onto 250 MB after closing 39 tabs, which is about five times this browser's single-tab total. Opera again comes in last, keeping more than 350 MB, less than half of its 40-tab memory usage.
Memory Management: -39 Tabs (10 minutes)
After waiting five more minutes, the order and totals remain the same, except for Opera which drops another 70 megabytes. While this is not enough to move Opera out of last place, it is a significant improvement in memory management over previous versions.
