64-bit Browsers: Who's Using One?

[CenSin]

I got tired of the 32-bit Firefox bullshit and switched to Waterfox (which is identical to Firefox except it's 64-bit). The 32-bit version would crash after going over 3GB of RAM usage. At the moment, I have 5 browser windows with 412 tabs fully loaded and humming along in the background using 7.2GB of RAM and around 10% of my CPU constantly. Some of these tabs, I keep open to reference while I'm doing my work. Others, I keep open so I can reference them occasionally for updates (like price changes for products).

 

Does anyone find a 32-bit browser insufficient?

[Turbo19]

I got tired of the 32-bit Firefox bullshit and switched to Waterfox (which is identical to Firefox except it's 64-bit). The 32-bit version would crash after going over 3GB of RAM usage. At the moment, I have 5 browser windows with 412 tabs fully loaded and humming along in the background using 7.2GB of RAM and around 10% of my CPU constantly. Some of these tabs, I keep open to reference while I'm doing my work. Others, I keep open so I can reference them occasionally for updates (like price changes for products).

 

Does anyone find a 32-bit browser insufficient?

I personally find that the mainstream browsers out there are very much full of lag. Personally I'm finding that Firefox suffices for most of my applications. While it's not the best it's what I'm accustomed to using for most of my day to day material. Perhaps I'll check out a 64 bit browser in the future.

[peacemak3r]

I've been using Google Chrome since it came out and I really had no problems ever..the most tabs I ever had open was probably 12 at most.  Still had no problems of crashing and freezing or what not.

 

Sheer luck for me eh?

[realizm]

I got tired of the 32-bit Firefox bullshit and switched to Waterfox (which is identical to Firefox except it's 64-bit). The 32-bit version would crash after going over 3GB of RAM usage.

 

Does anyone find a 32-bit browser insufficient?

 

Good topic for discussion. We can all use your input and suggestions as a fellow highly knowledged IT professional, I'm still youth to the IT field myself, making decent money now with the contracts I am awarded and still learning.

 

I've had the opposite experience with Firefox 32 bit, that is the main browser that I use for all the work that I do as it does not (at least for me) hog up resources ridiculous like the rest of them.

 

Google Chrome is a different story. To me,in my humble opinion, it's a memory hogger, as the way the browser works,  for every browser master there is one process for each tab plus one for each extension and one for each plugin at it's bare minimum. That's alot of background processes for a single master window with only one tab open. Overkill.

 

The task manager in Chrome allows us to tweak the plug-ins and other processes that takes up unnecessary usage of memory and CPU usage but it still crashes on many occasions. If I even check out CPU usage sometimes it can go up to 100% on one of my laptops and I'm talking about an Intel Core i7 with 6 GB of RAM only on Win 7 on a 64 bit system (Can't stand Windows 8, terrible OS and not tech friendly for image deployment from network drive if techs and admins are deploying images remotely via remote desktop.)

 

Mozilla Firefox 32 bit however does'nt give me the same problems. At work I always use Firefox, performance is still good with several tabs open even if all I have to work with is 4GB of RAM installed on a given client's desktop.

 

One thing's for sure, with browsers it is not usually the OS that's the problem, (unless the space on the HDD for virtual memory for Windows to run is low) it's the browser itself, including Google Chrome which can be flawed and subject to vunerabilities with malware.

 

I have'nt bothered with any 64 bit browsers as of yet, I'm a happy with Firefox, works for me.

 

That's my humble opinion on browsers as you have the high level programming skills, I'm just a mere level 3 helpdesk tech for the record.

[peacemak3r]

How are you having troubles with Chrome with a system like that?

 

My laptop with a 3rd Gen i5 and 8GB of RAM with Win7 has no problems with Chrome.

 

I currently have 10 tabs open, 2 are YouTube and I have some other programs on and my usage is only sitting at 20-22%, so I don't understand what's wrong with your system.

[realizm]

^^^ It's interfering with the third party antivirus software installed, that's probably the problem. I just need a RAM upgrade to fix that to improve the performance on that laptop. Easy fix. Just too lazy to do it right now. lol.

[Turbo19]

^^^ It's interfering with the third party antivirus software installed, that's probably the problem. I just need a RAM upgrade to fix that to improve the performance on that laptop. Easy fix. Just too lazy to do it right now. lol.

I'd hate to see you run IE or anything else on it. I used to have a shitload of problems that were seemingly corrected overnight once I was able to download Firefox.

[SoSpectacular]

If you're still using a 32-bit operating system you're doing yourself a HUGE disservice because anything that is 32-bit cannot allocate more than 4 GB of available RAM at any given time.

 

Windows 7 and 8 should both have 64-bit capability (as well as most other software) but your computer should be able to support that (i.e; your computer's processor)

[realizm]

The content in all your posts got me thinking. Good information and feedback.

 

If you're still using a 32-bit operating system you're doing yourself a HUGE disservice because anything that is 32-bit cannot allocate more than 4 GB of available RAM at any given time.

 

Windows 7 and 8 should both have 64-bit capability (as well as most other software) but your computer should be able to support that (i.e; your computer's processor)

 

I got a question: Does this cap on RAM usage apply only with an x86 system running on a Home Edition on Windows, or all editions of Windows 7 or 8 ?

 

My understanding is that if a user has a Home Edition of Windows on a x86 system then it will not use more that 4GB at at time (As you stated) because it cannot support PAE. However Win 7 Professional/Win 8 Pro and above will support PAE, allowing the unit to 'see' more than 4 GB. In fact the user can max it out to 64 GB if they like on a given x86 based system. Of course as you mentioned again, if it was a x64 based system then it will take in more than 4 GB of RAM no problem, such as with the units I have. That should be how it works, if I'm correct. I dunno, ask Microsoft why they have the operating systems like that. *shrugs*

 

I fixed my problem btw with that laptop, it was a desperately needed defrag I did'nt do in almost a year. That was it! lol. Google Chrome is working fine now with 10 windows open at once after also editing some of the extensions in the browser, and uninstalling one of the antivirus suites. (I had two running, I forgot to mention that)

 

I still cannot understand why it seems that Google Chrome (IE for that matter) is a magnet for malware while FireFox is not?

[CenSin]

The content in all your posts got me thinking. Good information and feedback.

Too many posts to respond to… I'll start with this one and go back up a few.

 

 

My understanding is that if a user has a Home Edition of Windows on a x86 system then it will not use more that 4GB at at time (As you stated) because it cannot support PAE. However Win 7 Professional/Win 8 Pro and above will support PAE, allowing the unit to 'see' more than 4 GB. In fact the user can max it out to 64 GB if they like on a given x86 based system. Of course as you mentioned again, if it was a x64 based system then it will take in more than 4 GB of RAM no problem, such as with the units I have. That should be how it works, if I'm correct. I dunno, ask Microsoft why they have the operating systems like that. *shrugs*

I cannot say what functionality is missing from what, but I can say that market segmentation is total bullshit. It costs Microsoft 0¢ to allow the operating system to use all of the memory made available by the processor (4GiB/64GiB on a 32-bit CPU or whatever the implemented limit is on a 64-bit CPU). In fact, extra code has to be written, tested, and maintained to artificially limit what your operating system can do if, let's say, it's a Starter Edition. I don't mean to start a holy war, but the free operating systems don't do that…

 

 

I fixed my problem btw with that laptop, it was a desperately needed defrag I did'nt do in almost a year. That was it!

Get a solid state drive (preferrably from SAMSUNG or Plextor) and all of your storage worries will be swept away. Solid state drives simply do not need defragmentation or protection from vibrators (if you're using a laptop or a desktop in an industrial setting).

 

EDIT: Did I really say that?

 

Get a solid state drive (preferrably from SAMSUNG or Plextor) and all of your storage worries will be swept away. Solid state drives simply do not need defragmentation or protection from vibrators (if you're using a laptop or a desktop in an industrial setting).

 

If you're still using a 32-bit operating system you're doing yourself a HUGE disservice because anything that is 32-bit cannot allocate more than 4 GB of available RAM at any given time.

Each process on a 32-bit system can only use 3GiB (if compiled for it), or 2GiB (which is the typical limit since memory is address using signed 32-bit integers in most programming languages). Here's the math:

• 32-bits signed means your memory addresses range from −2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, since 2³² gives you 4,294,967,296 addresses, and a little over half of them are used to represent negative addresses. Negative addresses are not useable anyway, so that leaves you with 0 through 2,147,483,647 or 2,147,483,648 bytes in total.
• 2,147,483,648 bytes is equal to 2,097,152 kibibytes.
• 2,097,152 kibibytes is equal to 2,048 mebibytes.
• 2,048 mebibytes is equal to 2 gibibytes.

^^^ It's interfering with the third party antivirus software installed, that's probably the problem. I just need a RAM upgrade to fix that to improve the performance on that laptop. Easy fix. Just too lazy to do it right now. lol.

See my previous comment about getting a solid state drive. Upgrading from a platter-based hard drive to a solid state drive is the best investment you can ever make. Every dollar you spend on a solid state drive does more for you than a dollar spent on RAM or a CPU (because pretty much all CPUs you can get your hands on today are sufficient for general purpose tasks).

[realizm]

Too many posts to respond to… I'll start with this one and go back up a few.

 

I cannot say what functionality is missing from what, but I can say that market segmentation is total bullshit. It costs Microsoft 0¢ to allow the operating system to use all of the memory made available by the processor (4GiB/64GiB on a 32-bit CPU or whatever the implemented limit is on a 64-bit CPU). In fact, extra code has to be written, tested, and maintained to artificially limit what your operating system can do if, let's say, it's a Starter Edition. I don't mean to start a holy war, but the free operating systems don't do that…

 

Get a solid state drive (preferrably from SAMSUNG or Plextor) and all of your storage worries will be swept away. Solid state drives simply do not need defragmentation or protection from vibrators (if you're using a laptop or a desktop in an industrial setting).

 

EDIT: Did I really say that?

 

Each process on a 32-bit system can only use 3GiB (if compiled for it), or 2GiB (which is the typical limit since memory is address using signed 32-bit integers in most programming languages). Here's the math:

• 32-bits signed means your memory addresses range from −2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, since 2³² gives you 4,294,967,296 addresses, and a little over half of them are used to represent negative addresses. Negative addresses are not useable anyway, so that leaves you with 0 through 2,147,483,647 or 2,147,483,648 bytes in total.
• 2,147,483,648 bytes is equal to 2,097,152 kibibytes.
• 2,097,152 kibibytes is equal to 2,048 mebibytes.
• 2,048 mebibytes is equal to 2 gibibytes.

See my previous comment about getting a solid state drive. Upgrading from a platter-based hard drive to a solid state drive is the best investment you can ever make. Every dollar you spend on a solid state drive does more for you than a dollar spent on RAM or a CPU (because pretty much all CPUs you can get your hands on today are sufficient for general purpose tasks).

 

 

My laptop's kicking ass now. 

 

Screenshot, 13 windows open on Chrome and IE Explorer simultaneously:

 

 

 

Vibrators. lol. LMAO. Thank you all for the suggestions. My laptop is hauling ass now.

 

 

Yeah SSD drives have extremely fast write speeds. The laptop had one, it can boot up past the welcome screen in a matter of seconds.

[realizm]

Bleh what am I talking about, I mean read speeds. Sheesh. Hung over on my final two weeks of my vacation. ....

[CenSin]

Hmm… your photo/screenshot doesn't load. Perhaps it's time to get a cheap host just for your own stuff. Some will go as low as $3 a motnh for "unlimited" bandwidth (which is slower and shared amongst hundreds of other clients).

[realizm]

Long story but I did that on purpose because the screenshot had my old avatar on it of someone I did not want to be bothered with anymore, so I deleted the screenshot. Sending you a PM. Moved back to NYC btw....