On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 1:02 PM, <keithgallis...@gmail.com> wrote: > Why do you developers keep insisting breathlessly that 64-bit builds are > memory hogs? I'm a power user who has 3 windows and 1,565 tabs open. I have > a 4 GB laptop and a 16 GB desktop replaced a 6 GB desktop. I like to think > that I use Firefox close to its breaking point. On any given day, Firefox > takes between 2.4 GB and 3.1 GB no matter whether it was the 32-bit build > or is the 64-bit build. Only one time while I was using the 64-bit build > did I notice it climb on its own all the way up to 5.9 GB, but then the > memory was released and it settled down to 3.l GB again and, I repeat, that > was only ONE TIME. Microsoft has a 64-bit version of Edge that I use. Also, > I downloaded the 64-bit beta version of Google Chrome and use it with > little problem compared to its 32-bit version. Under what I consider normal > circumstances, I just don't see 64-bit versions eating memory like Mozilla > developers keep insisting they do. >
On 64-bit systems, pointers take 8 bytes of memory instead of 4. A lot of the contents of memory is pointers. Thus a 64-bit build consumes more memory for a given workload. It isn't as bad as, say, twice as much memory, but it is enough that if you are close to the limits of your system it could cause problems. Andrew > > Now to be fair, I understand not wanting to put the 64-bit version of > Firefox on low memory systems. I left the 32-bit version on my 4 GB laptop. > I would personally say that x64 OS's with 6GB or more memory should be able > to be upgraded to the 64-bit version of Firefox. After NPAPI support goes > away, there really should be no excuse to leave such systems on the 32-bit > version as the 32-bit version doesn't take advantage of all of the 64-bit > OS features and 64-bit processor's features. And as I have said previously, > the 64-bit version is way more stable than the 32-bit version. > _______________________________________________ > dev-platform mailing list > dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org > https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform > _______________________________________________ dev-platform mailing list dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform
