100 Tabs vs Microsoft Edge & Google Chrome - Ram Usage Test 2023

In this video, we put Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome to the test by opening up to 100 tabs in each browser to see how they handle the stress on system RAM. We first open 10, 30, and 50 tabs in each browser and check the RAM usage. Then, we open 100 tabs. We use a list of the top 100 most visited websites from a blog and a Python script to automate the process of opening the tabs.
We also show the memory usage for each browser and discuss how they perform when memory usage is high.
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#chrome #edge #browser

[johanhenrique]

You took the test that everyone wanted to do nice job, I always thought it would give me a blue screen

[samblethen]

With the latest version of Chrome I find that it uses less RAM and CPU than the latest version of Edge even with sleeping tabs.

[jeffc]

I'm a power multi-tasker, so to speak, and have been a bit obsessed about this in recent months as I typically have 20 tabs open and also some apps outside the browser that use a lot of memory such as a video editor, CAD program, or GIS program. I was getting frustrated seeing how much memory Chrome was "stealing away" from my CAD program and slowing it down. Let me also say I've been a HUGE Google Ecosystem (Google Chrome/Docs/Sheets) person for as long as Chrome has been out. MS ruined their browser reputation with IE, but Edge is NOT IE. Yet you still find a lot of people fall into different browser camps more like a cult following than actually doing any sort of controlled testing like this. When I tell people Edge is better (has Bing Chat built-in, copies the title of site links instead of the long http URL for sharing in an email, Android version has a built-in ad blocker, Chrome doesn't, usage less memory than Chrome, runs perceivably as fast if not in some cases faster, etc etc.)

So a few months ago I switched to Edge and sync with all my devices through my MS account just like I did with my Google account on Chrome. It brought my bookmarks and extensions in from Chrome beautifully. I tested memory usage less technically than this video and in most all cases Edge used less memory. In some cases quite a bit, like approaching 15% less memory. That's memory for my video editor to use!

However I like other users are finding Gerative AI to save a ton of time getting information that using search results and having to go through links and read pages. In a lot of cases a generative AI response based on my search query gives me a summary of the info I was looking for in about 30 seconds where it probably would have taken me 5 minutes reading a couple web pages and digesting the information. That's a HUGE time savings when you multiply that over 20 or 30 or 50 searches a day.

So Google released SGE (Search Generative Experience) which if you go to Google Laps with a non-workspace Google account you can sign up for it and enable it. It sometimes automatically gives you AI results for your search and sometimes prompts you if you want them. It's SUPER USEFUL. BUT, although initially it was published any Chromium Browser would get it, they since locked it down to only work on Chrome.

Google SGE on Google Search is SO USEFUL that I had to go back to Chrome just to have that feature. Strangely, I did a test on about 15 tabs and compared Edge to Chrome and Chrome was using LESS memory!

The problem with the RAM tests though is it can depend on how much memory your machine has. Windows tries not to leave free RAM wasted. It also depends on what you are doing inside the tabs all day. So a memory comparison of the exact same 15 tabs initially may look different a couple hours later and different again many hours later.

The best way to really measure this is if you limited it to the exact same tabs and measured the memory of one browser using your computer over a week or two and were able to log the average RAM usage, then you switched browsers and did the same thing for a couple weeks and measured average RAM usage. This spot check right after an initial tab load does give a sort of "prediction" which browser will be more memory efficient but over time it could flip flop.

My understanding though is "on average" Edge should maintain the "edge" because it is doing something with memory management at a lower level with Windows than Chrome is. I forget what it is called. But so far after switching back to Chrome my RAM usage looks similar to Edge. If I could get SGE on Google Search using Edge though I'd switch back to Edge in a heartbeat. And this is coming from a former HUGE CHROME FANBOY.

[BlendIdea]

great vid this came in my feed and btw great effort in edition mate

[hyakkimaru]

nice vid, for me I use edge as my browser, there is no need to do such things as uninstalling edge then use another browser. It just for personal preferences, I guess. Still for me, edge is good enough for daily usage and chrome on the other hand offers nothing that edge doesn't have..

[tedczvn]

I think you did not look at the best ram usage number. What is more relevant then the "private bytes" i figured out is "private workspace". Windows Task manager is pretty crappy compared to System Informer. I agree with the result of your analysis though. I have found Edge to consume less memory then chrome which brought me to this video to verify if my suspicion that Edge browser. This was true in my case at least in my configuration with the many activated but different plugins activated in both browser. But as this video revealed this seems to be actually true in general. Thank you for this analysis.

[aigriffin]

Microsoft Edge because it reminds me of Internet Explorer!❤🎉😁😊

[mr.diontoahmed]

Edge still is bullshit. After hearing some people say how good it is, I decided to give it a try and the first page I tried to open, made it "not responding".

Shit will always be shit, no matter how many times you rebrand it.

[vanshbindal]

Sir I request you to put that command and file in description. So nerds can pull out the test themselves.

[kratosgod-citq]

Always include Firefox in tests. If people like you will ignore Firefox, what do we expect from normies? Firefox needs to survive.