Avant Downloader (Beta)Which is the More Memory Friendly? Four Browsers' Memory Footprint Evaluation
BEIJING, Aug. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The browser war has heated up since last year and is still ongoing. Chrome gained popularity for its fast speed in loading Web pages. Firefox maintained the edge owing to abundant add-ons and functions as well as the high customizability. IE was praised for its good compatibility, varied third-party plug-ins, and furthermore IE9's surprisingly fast speed. Avant Browser was applauded by the huge and faithful advocates for its small size, full-featured functions, high stability and continuously improved memory strategy.
Nowadays, as Internet users, we are spoiled for choice, so how do we know which browser truly brings us the best experience? When it comes to performance, the advanced users may know that the browsers which use less memory can greatly improve the speed by reducing the number of disk exchange. Today we'll do some tests to assess which browser will come out on top with the lowest memory usage.
Tested Browsers:
System: Win7
App Name | Size | Download Link | |
Avant Browser 2011 build 30 | 3.20MB | ||
IE9 | 17.8MB | ||
Firefox 6.0 | 13.33MB | http://mozilla.mirror.ac.za/firefox/releases/6.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%206.0.exe | |
Chrome 13.0.782.112 | 22.84MB | ||
Testing procedures:
In order to imitate the common browsing practice, let's set a default homepage for each browser, for example: http://www.ask.com/, then open and close five groups of different web pages severally at the same time with each group containing five pages, and record their memory usage via Windows Task Manager. Each browser clears all history records (Temporary Files) before carrying out the test.
Testing results:
Home Page: http://www.ask.com/
Result of starting browser:
App Name | Action | Memory Usage(k bytes) | |
Avant | Start Browser | 68,384 | |
IE | Start Browser | 124,284 | |
Chrome | Start Browser | 110,864 | |
Firefox | Start Browser | 68,884 | |
Chart 1: Contrast of starting browser 
IE takes a relatively high memory; Comparatively Avant Browser and Firefox both use less memory.
Web pages in first group:
- http://www.youtube.com
- http://twitter.com/
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/
- http://www.tmz.com/
- http://download.cnet.com/windows/
Result of first group:
App Name | Action | Memory Usage(k bytes) | |
Avant | Open pages | 130,944 | |
Close pages | 60,608 | ||
IE | Open pages | 265,568 | |
Close pages | 201,104 | ||
Chrome | Open pages | 193,660 | |
Close pages | 108,536 | ||
Firefox | Open pages | 112,312 | |
Close pages | 87,692 | ||
Chart 2: Result of the first group 
Chart 2 shows both Avant browser and Firefox taking less memory comparing with Chrome and IE in opening pages; however, Avant Browser exceeds Firefox by freeing up more memory space after closing pages.
Web pages in second group:
- http://www.cnn.com/
- http://www.flare.com/
- http://www.usatoday.com/
- http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
- http://www.songtaste.com/
Result of second group:
App Name | Action | Memory Usage (k bytes) | |
Avant | Open pages | 115,072 | |
Close pages | 72,340 | ||
IE | Open pages | 276,264 | |
Close pages | 220,568 | ||
Chrome | Open pages | 267,676 | |
Close pages | 120,756 | ||
Firefox | Open pages | 118,024 | |
Close pages | 100,608 | ||
Chart 3: Result of second group 
Avant browser uses the least memory in both opening and closing pages. Firefox comes in second in saving memory but still shows poor capability in releasing memory. IE and Chrome apparently take more memory after opening pages but Chrome is excellent in freeing up memory space after closing pages.
Web pages in third group:
- http://www.nytimes.com/
- http://www.elle.com/
- http://www.discovery.com/
- http://cool.conservation-us.org/
- http://www.tucows.com/
Result of third group
App Name | Action | Memory Usage (k bytes) | |
Avant | Open pages | 149,652 | |
Close pages | 67,988 | ||
IE | Open pages | 348,196 | |
Close pages | 265,412 | ||
Chrome | Open pages | 308,448 | |
Close pages | 127,100 | ||
Firefox | Open pages | 137,404 | |
Close pages | 103,272 | ||
Chart 4: Result of third group 
Until now, IE's memory usage remains stubbornly high while Chrome's drops compared with the first two groups. Firefox doesn't show any significant improvement in memory releasing. Avant Browser maintains the edge with the lowest memory usage.
Web pages in fourth group:
- http://www.cwtv.com/
- http://www.vogue.co.uk/
- http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/
- http://www.brothersoft.com/
- http://www.myspace.com/
Result of fourth group:
App Name | Action | Memory Usage(k bytes) | |
Avant | Open pages | 148,828 | |
Close pages | 63,292 | ||
IE | Open pages | 344,828 | |
Close pages | 270,440 | ||
Chrome | Open pages | 340,028 | |
Close pages | 121,260 | ||
Firefox | Open pages | 143,680 | |
Close pages | 112,736 | ||
Chart 5: Result of fourth group 
Avant Browser still maintains the edge with the lowest memory usage. Firefox's memory usage has increased a little after closing pages compared with the testing result of the third group and it opens pages less fluently than before. Despite the high memory usage in opening pages Chrome frees up most memory space after closing pages.
Web pages in fifth group:
- http://www.cbsnews.com/
- http://www.5star-shareware.com/
- http://asia.wsj.com/home-page
- http://www.gossipnews.com/
- http://www.eonline.com/
Result of fifth group:
App Name | Action | Memory Usage(k bytes) | |
Avant | Open pages | 174,252 | |
Close pages | 59,328 | ||
IE | Open pages | 407,000 | |
Close pages | 230,772 | ||
Chrome | Open pages | 281,904 | |
Close pages | 131,108 | ||
Firefox | Open pages | 155,212 | |
Close pages | 121,964 | ||
Chart 6: Result of fifth group 
Comparison of all groups: 
Conclusion:
After several groups of testing, Avant Browser proudly stands out from the crowd due to its lowest memory usage even after a long-time use, and impressively it releases resource extremely thoroughly after closing pages. Following Avant Browser, Firefox is the second memory saving browser but its capability in releasing memory is disappointing. Chrome behaves great in releasing RAM but apparently it consumes much more memory whether before or after closing pages. High memory usage becomes its weakness.
Are you dying for a most memory friendly browser? Avant Browser is your best choice.
SOURCE Avant Force
