Five Ways to Speed up Chrome
After spending the better part of a decade being notorious for its RAM usage, Chrome is now on an apology tour of sorts. The browser has recently added a host of performance features to help limit memory usage, but Google’s efforts to improve Chrome’s performance go beyond that. Some features are purely designed to save RAM usage and increase speed, but some also limit resources to improve battery life, and there are features that help speed up the browser.
Unfortunately, some benefits come at the expense of privacy or other features. I’ve been testing them out for the better part of a week, including the new performance issue alerts feature, and here are my favorite tweaks and tricks for optimal Chrome performance.
Monitor tab memory usage
Chrome suddenly started caring seriously about Random Access Memory (RAM) usage. Even when you just hover over a tab, you can now see how much RAM it’s using. It is very useful to know when one tab is using more than 1 GB of memory.
For a more detailed list, use the Chrome Task Manager. Go to Menu > More Tools > Task Manager . You can also use the Shift + Esc keyboard shortcut in Windows , or right-click on an empty space in the tab bar and select Task Manager from the menu. From here, you can find all the tabs that are using too much memory and click the “End Process” button to get rid of them.
If you don’t want to see memory usage when you hover over a tab, you can turn off this feature by going to Settings > Appearance > Show Memory Usage in Preview Card when you hover over a Tab .
Pausing inactive tabs will help you save memory.
Memory saver mode used to be an on/off switch. But now you can customize Chrome’s RAM saver feature based on how you browse and how powerful your system is.
When enabled, Chrome automatically suspends inactive tabs, giving more resources to active tabs. Inactive tabs are displayed using a dotted ring icon around the website icon in the tab bar (you can turn off the ring under Settings > Performance > General > Inactive Tabs Appearance ). Hover your mouse over any inactive tab to see how much RAM was freed up by making it inactive. You can click on it to bring it back to life.
If you don’t want important work sites to be paused, go to Settings > Performance > General and add them to the Always keep these sites active list.
To adjust the timeline for when tabs become inactive, go to Chrome Settings > Performance > Memory Saver , where you will see three options: Moderate , Balanced , and Maximum .
Your choice will depend on the power of your PC or Mac and how you use the browser. If you’re really running out of active memory, you can switch to the “Maximum” setting, which will have Chrome install inactive tabs in the shortest amount of time possible.
But if you have a relatively modern computer and are looking for the feel of a fast browser, you should either switch to the Moderate setting or turn off Memory Saver altogether. Chrome does a great job of quickly resuming inactive tabs, but it still takes a while.
Unfortunately, Chrome doesn’t give you more specific options for pausing tabs, so you’ll have to trust the browser’s internal algorithms to do the heavy lifting for you. However, in testing, I found Memory Saver’s “Balanced” setting to be quite useful.
In testing, I found that allowing Chrome to suspend inactive tabs helped me resume my workday better. I almost never turn off my aging MacBook Air M1, and returning to work after a day of research and dozens of open tabs is now less daunting. Since most of the heavy tabs that take up more than 100MB of RAM are no longer active, my MacBook Air wakes up and starts working with virtually no lag. For this reason alone, it may be worth putting up with the sluggishness that can occur when waking up an inactive tab.
Use energy saving on your laptop
Performance and battery life are always a delicate balance. But here too, Chrome offers you a choice.
In Settings > Performance > Power you will find the Energy Saver toggle, under which there are two options:
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Turn on only when the battery level is 20% or less.
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Turn on when the computer is unplugged
To prioritize performance above all else, such as smooth scrolling and high video frame rates, turn off power saving completely. Alternatively, to prioritize battery life, turn it on and check the box to turn it on every time your computer is unplugged.
For most people, I suggest turning on power saving, but only turning it on when the battery level is 20% or lower.
When the power saving mode is active, you will see a green leaf icon on the toolbar. You can use this to quickly turn off the power saving mode at any time, especially during video calls or screen sharing when you may need extra power.
Use advanced preloading
This is one of those features that will make you feel like your browser is much faster than it actually is. Chrome has a feature called Enhanced Preloading , which can be enabled in Settings > Performance > Speed .
When this setting is enabled, a larger set of websites and web pages are preloaded before you even visit them. Preloading happens in the background through Google’s servers, so there is very little delay between clicking a link and opening the page. However, since this request is preloaded through Google’s servers, you sacrifice your privacy. Google will use your cookies to determine which sites you visit frequently and which should be preloaded in the background.
By default, standard preloading is enabled, which is suitable for fewer sites. To turn off preloading completely, uncheck the box next to Page Preload .
Get alerts about performance issues
Google Chrome’s newest productivity feature will proactively warn you when your browser’s tabs are taking up too much memory. Let’s say you’re watching a 4K video on YouTube, but it’s lagging even if you have a good internet connection. Google can figure out if the problem is due to low memory and can alert you which tabs are causing the problem with a speedometer icon next to the address bar. Simply click on the icon and then select “Fix Now” to make these tabs inactive.
The tabs will still remain in the tab bar, and you can always click them again to reload.
This feature can be enabled in Settings > Performance > General > Performance Alerts .