Memory Saver and Energy Saver are two new performance options that Google revealed today for its Chrome browser.
Modern browsers consume a lot of memory, which is not a problem if you have 32GB of RAM, but if you’re using a system with lower specs, Chrome utilizing multiple gigabytes of your memory can quickly slow down your computer. The Memory Saver mode promises to lower Chrome’s memory usage by up to 30% by putting inactive tabs to sleep. When you need the tabs again, they will just reload. When your laptop’s battery level falls below 20%, the Energy Saver option disables background activity and visual effects for websites with animations and movies.
In the following weeks, the functionalities will be made universally accessible for Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS with the release of Chrome 108. You can either entirely disable these functions or exempt specific websites from going to sleep.
Google’s disclosure comes a day after Microsoft disclosed that its Edge Browser put 1.38 billion tabs to sleep in September alone. Microsoft claims that when a tab is asleep in Edge, it often saves 83% of the RAM it would otherwise need.
A couple of years ago, the company launched its version of these features, which can put tabs to sleep automatically after five minutes of inactivity (and can reduce this down to just 30 seconds), and then improved it once more with the release of Edge 100 earlier this year. When Edge recognizes that you are playing a game on your PC, it can automatically reduce CPU consumption. Edge also has other capabilities.
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