Why is Chrome so awful on OS X?

Question

Having just a few tabs open eats up ~2GB of RAM and causes constant system stuttering, even if memory usage is low on other applications. Friends with newer Macbooks (I'm on a 2017 Air with 8gb mem) have the same issue. Why does it suck so much?

TechBro8615 · Accepted Answer

There is a flag in chrome where you can force it to unload tabs. I haven't needed it on my (newer) computer recently, but I used it on my old laptop. The downside is that if a tab unloads, you'll need to refresh it to open it again, possibly losing state. But it significantly reduces memory footprint.
I think it was this that I was using: https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/09/tab-discar...
But I'm pretty sure they've rolled this into mainline now. You can go to chrome://discards/ to see the status of your tabs.

CallMeMarc · Answer

I'd call myself a power user when it comes to browsers and tabs.
I had exactly the same thoughts a few months ago, but having 500+ tabs open and getting a few system freezes for a few seconds I thought that's how it is. Even though I'm running it on a 2019 Pro with 16 GB.
But then I gave Firefox a new shot and it's amazing. I'm currently sitting at 547 tabs and I can even play YouTube videos via the picture in picture mode without any problems while building an Docker image.
However you should definitely use an addon for discarding tabs. I'm currently using "Auto Tab Discord"[1] which is kinda the same what "The Great Suspender" was. Additionally I can recommend "Tab Session Manager"[2] if you're having an addition to tabs like me. Both are available for Chrome and Firefox.
[1] https://github.com/rNeomy/auto-tab-discard
[2] https://github.com/sienori/Tab-Session-Manager

speedgoose · Answer

Chrome has some overhead with a lot of isolated processes. It's also not the lightest web browser.
But 2GB of ram is not much nowadays. While it's what you have on your laptop, or a brand new MacBook pro, 8GB is also what you have on a common high end smartphone in 2021, and some even have 12 to 16gb of ram. But unlike iOS or Android, Mac OS is not very good at managing ram because it's based on an older model where it can't really close apps or background services when necessary.
My advice would be to stop using Chrome or getting a laptop with at least 16gb of ram, preferably 32.

alphaomegacode · Answer

I can't speak to the details of RAM usage like speedgoose did below but it does seem at times that Google decides Mac users are second-class citizens.If you see some of their products on Mac OS versus the same products on Windows, you'll notice the UX and performance differences.

max_hammer · Answer

It is awful in other OS as well. Try using Tab suspender extension.https://www.tab-suspender.com/Better to use firefox or edge browser.

i_have_an_idea · Answer

I'm on a mid 2015 MacBook Pro and I don't have this issue. Yes, it eats RAM, but it does not degrade my system's overall performance.

Why is Chrome so awful on OS X?

Having just a few tabs open eats up ~2GB of RAM and causes constant system stuttering, even if memory usage is low on other applications. Friends with newer Macbooks (I'm on a 2017 Air with 8gb mem) have the same issue. Why does it suck so much?

I can't speak to the details of RAM usage like speedgoose did below but it does seem at times that Google decides Mac users are second-class citizens.
If you see some of their products on Mac OS versus the same products on Windows, you'll notice the UX and performance differences.

It is awful in other OS as well. Try using Tab suspender extension.
https://www.tab-suspender.com/
Better to use firefox or edge browser.

I'm on a mid 2015 MacBook Pro and I don't have this issue. Yes, it eats RAM, but it does not degrade my system's overall performance.