Firemin – Optimize Firefox Memory Usage

The relationship between Google Chrome and RAM has been a meme for years. With two million background processes, the situation doesn't seem to have improved much, and many users have moved their sessions to Firefox looking for more reasonable consumption. Now, the truth is that the red panda doesn't work miracles either, and it can be very picky on systems with limited physical memory. A possible solution comes through Firemin, a classic memory manager for Firefox that forces the browser to stay within the configured parameters.

Developers have presented several technical arguments in recent years to justify the high memory usage in their browsers… but the general user opinion remains the same: They take too much RAM. Both Chrome and its variants have adopted different suspension and saving techniques, however, we also find similar resources in Firefox. The difference is that the user can perform a much more aggressive memory optimization with the help of an external tool, and that way we arrive at Firemin.

Firemin: Tool to Optimize Firefox Memory Usage

Let's start with the obvious: If your computer has a good amount of RAM, you don't need Firemin or any similar tool. As with Windows Memory Cleaner, Firemin shines in environments with 4 GB of RAM or less. I know many systems got stuck in the 'netbook era' with only 2 GB of RAM and no expansion possibility: Firemin is not revolutionary, but each free megabyte will help improve overall performance.

Firemin allows us to modify the interval with which Firefox is ordered to reduce memory usage (the shorter the interval, the greater the pressure), define the 'ceiling' to activate (say, 300 MB or more), and specify the path to Firefox's main executable, very convenient if we use builds.

One of the most interesting aspects of Firemin is that it was designed for Mozilla's browser, but it should work with any other executable (courtesy of the EmptyWorkingSet function). If you want to define additional processes, you'll need to activate the Extended Processes mode, and enter each one manually in the General tab within the Preferences menu. The rest is up to you: If you think Firemin can be useful, below you'll find a traditional build and a portable one. Give it a try!