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Eug Wanker · Oct 8, 2005, 08:55 AM

Safari still seems to eat memory like mad for me, especially if it's been up and running for a while. Sometimes it can get up to several hundred MB. How much real memory (not VM) is your machine devoting to Safari right now?

cybergoober · Oct 8, 2005, 09:14 AM

48.52 Mb

Eug Wanker · Oct 8, 2005, 10:07 AM

With only 3 open Safari windows, I'm already over 150 MB, and I reset & relaunched Safari this morning.

Grrr · Oct 8, 2005, 11:00 AM

Real memory or virtual memory?
Mine usually sucks up a ton of both. Particularly virtual memory. Ive seen it taking close to a gig of VM before. Gets awfully sluggish by then..

Eug Wanker · Oct 8, 2005, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by Grrr

Real memory or virtual memory?
Mine usually sucks up a ton of both. Particularly virtual memory. Ive seen it taking close to a gig of VM before. Gets awfully sluggish by then..

Real memory is what's important, and once on my iMac it ate well over half a Gig. (Safari had been loaded for weeks.) Heh. I guess 512 MB isn't enough for Tiger after all.

Right now with just a single open window, Safari is taking up more than 150 MB.

chabig · Oct 8, 2005, 12:04 PM

It's not at all important how much memory Safari is using. If the memory is available, it's a good thing that the OS makes it available to running apps. When other apps need memory, the OS manages that too.

d.fine · Oct 8, 2005, 12:19 PM

84 MB real and 405 MB virtual ... with 11 threads, 1 window

Lew · Oct 8, 2005, 12:54 PM

161.6MB real and 591MB virtual.

Grrr · Oct 8, 2005, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Real memory is what's important, and once on my iMac it ate well over half a Gig. (Safari had been loaded for weeks.) Heh. I guess 512 MB isn't enough for Tiger after all.

Right now with just a single open window, Safari is taking up more than 150 MB.

My macs (Including a G5 imac) go for a long long time without restarts too. Although tiger and safari seem to require a few more regular restarts than panther ever did.

Either way, Safari is definitely borked and has a memory issue for sure.

TETENAL · Oct 8, 2005, 01:01 PM

Currently it's using 62 MB. I still have 555 MB free so it's not an issue.

I have never seen it use several hundred MB of RAM. If it did I didn't notice, but maybe you are using some add-on with a severe memory leak?

albook · Oct 8, 2005, 01:01 PM

0 (zero)
Safari is not running...

gururafiki · Oct 8, 2005, 05:22 PM

36.4 Mb

Apfhex · Oct 8, 2005, 05:39 PM

85MB Real, 265MB Virtual, 8 threads. I have 5 tabs open and have had Safari running for few hours probably.

wataru · Oct 8, 2005, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by albook

0 (zero)
Safari is not running...

Ditto

jay3ld · Oct 8, 2005, 05:57 PM

150 mb real

dru · Oct 9, 2005, 08:16 AM

Whoa! 215MB Real, 595MB Virtual.

david_copperfield · Oct 9, 2005, 08:49 AM

300M. Amazing...

the_glassman · Oct 9, 2005, 02:06 PM

Safari must have a memory leaks, cause it's a resource hog. I'm loving the latest builds of Camino though.

SSharon · Oct 9, 2005, 02:11 PM

96 real with one window (one tab). 450 virtual. I quit safari pretty often but I haven't restarted my ibook in months. 768mb total, btw.

Eug Wanker · Oct 10, 2005, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by chabig

It's not at all important how much memory Safari is using. If the memory is available, it's a good thing that the OS makes it available to running apps. When other apps need memory, the OS manages that too.

The problem is that it seems Safari will continue to eat memory even if there isn't much available. There has to be something wrong when just a few windows of Safari are using more than half a Gig (or even a quarter of a Gig) of memory.

bradoesch · Oct 10, 2005, 06:42 PM

I usually quit and relaunch Safari once a day. It doesn't seem to let go of memory even with no tabs/windows open.

Randman · Oct 10, 2005, 06:48 PM

Deactivate the cache and flavicons, empty unread RSS feeds and edit down (or disable) Autofill entries (especially Autofill > Others) and Safari will run smoother. Limiting animated gifs also helps.

It could run smoother but it's still too far better than any other browser.

81.43MB with 7 tabs open.

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 10, 2005, 07:29 PM

It's a real problem...and it won't be fixed until the Safari team decides to release what they've been working on during the last few months.

The WebKit builds have fixed most memory leaks. There are a few remaining but Safari rarely goes above 80MB with 8 tabs open unless I repeat the thing that leaks memory.

Rob van dam · Oct 10, 2005, 07:52 PM

I have 5 tabs open and it's consuming 87.05mb.

Doc Juansinn · Oct 10, 2005, 08:53 PM

Safari 1.3.1. 31MB real, 252MB virtual. Only this window open. Some of the above memory figures are mind-boggling.

Eug Wanker · Oct 10, 2005, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by Dr. Wahnsinn

Safari 1.3.1. 31MB real, 252MB virtual. Only this window open. Some of the above memory figures are mind-boggling.

Did you just launch Safari recently? I note there are a lot of sub-50 MB votes, but the only time I'm below 50 MB is the first 10 minutes after a relaunch.

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

It's a real problem...and it won't be fixed until the Safari team decides to release what they've been working on during the last few months.

The WebKit builds have fixed most memory leaks. There are a few remaining but Safari rarely goes above 80MB with 8 tabs open unless I repeat the thing that leaks memory.

What is the thing you do that leaks memory (in the new builds)?

Don Pickett · Oct 11, 2005, 01:25 AM

Code:
PID COMMAND      %CPU   TIME   #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT  RSHRD  RSIZE  VSIZE
 4495 qtimageser   0.0%  0:00.43   2    58    63   576K  1.39M  2.01M   130M
 4478 mdimport     0.0%  0:01.02   4    65    82  1.14M  4.14M  3.76M  61.6M 
 4365 YIM!         0.6%  1:11.24   8   171   228  8.35M  21.4M  19.1M   195M 
 4360 slpd         0.0%  0:00.08   6    31    33   244K   828K   992K  30.2M 
 4355 lookupd      0.0%  0:05.17   2    34    37   764K   932K  1.53M  28.5M 
 4251 DashboardC   0.0%  0:46.60   5   117   363  28.6M  14.1M  33.0M   182M 
 4170 netmonitor   0.4%  1:17.85   2    43    34   516K  2.12M  1.64M  37.2M
 4169 Net Monito   1.2%  3:43.78  10   133   188  4.57M  14.4M  23.1M   168M 
 4167 WeatherPop   0.0%  0:16.98   3   136   113  5.91M  11.6M  12.7M   156M 
4141 Safari      17.3%  9:31.47   8   185  1948   212M+ 40.9M   229M+  500M

Safari's always been a memory hog for me. I usually quit and relaunch it at least once a day.

Doc Juansinn · Oct 11, 2005, 01:51 AM

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Did you just launch Safari recently? I note there are a lot of sub-50 MB votes, but the only time I'm below 50 MB is the first 10 minutes after a relaunch.

It was a fairly recent launch, but probably longer than 15-20 minutes.

Right now I've ben browsing and DL-ing for over two hours and the memory usage is 52MB real and 332MB virtual. That's up a little bit.

mpancha · Oct 11, 2005, 08:34 AM

RPRVT: 38.5M
RSHRD: 30.1M
RSIZE: 52.8M
VSIZE: 167M

That's with one Safari window with 8 tabs open. No graphics/flash/java/special effect intensize site. Just news/blog sites.

Maflynn · Oct 11, 2005, 10:00 AM

I really don't care. Safari works for me, and I'm able to do everything I need, including running office apps and photoshop while safari is running.

Sometimes I think the focus on memory consumption is a little overstated and over focused. it works I don't care if it takes a 1 byte or 1 terrabyte as long as it works.

Eug Wanker · Oct 11, 2005, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by Maflynn

I really don't care. Safari works for me, and I'm able to do everything I need, including running office apps and photoshop while safari is running.

Sometimes I think the focus on memory consumption is a little overstated and over focused. it works I don't care if it takes a 1 byte or 1 terrabyte as long as it works.

Overstated? How can Safari using 300 or 600 MB of real memory not be important? That's a major problem IMO. Have you ever tried running a 1 GB Mac with multiple apps open, when Safari is taking up several hundred MB itself? The machine slows to a crawl, because Safari won't let go of the memory.

The advice to restart Safari at least once a day is a good one.

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 11, 2005, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

The advice to restart Safari at least once a day is a good one.

True. With 412.5, I have to restart every hour or two...it's ridiculous how fast it leaks and bogs the whole system down.

Today's (yesterday's) build fixes a major leak that I was talking about earlier (there are still at least another that I'm aware of when I spend a few minutes on www.ytmnd.com) but the ones that relate to my normal web activities are gone AFAICT.

I'll report back after heavier web usage...so far it hasn't gone above 80MB with 7 tabs open.

Maflynn · Oct 11, 2005, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Overstated? How can Safari using 300 or 600 MB of real memory not be important?

I typically have safari, mail, photoshop iView Pro open at once. by the way I only have 1 gig of ram and I don't notice any problems. I also typcially have two to five safari tabs.

Like I said even if safari took a gig of ram, it wouldn't bother me as long as I could do what I need to. I'm not incurring any problems and/or speed degredation running safari and my other apps side by side. So I'll say it - Its not a problem and its not important if safari is taking 300 or 600MB of real memory.

Mike

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 11, 2005, 11:59 AM

Originally Posted by Maflynn

Like I said even if safari took a gig of ram, it wouldn't bother me as long as I could do what I need to.

Depends on the point of view at this point.

If you only got a gig of RAM and Safari is taking up 1 gig of real memory, you'll still be able to do what you need to...you always will...OS X will just start paging like mad and everything will get slower...waaaay slower.

So as I said...it's a matter of how tolerant you are to slowdowns and disk thrashing (which definitely reduces the life of your HDD.)

Also, keep in mind that not everyone has 1 gig of RAM. There are still a lot of us with 512MB or less...and trust me, you can feel it right away when Safari starts to misbehave.

Eug Wanker · Oct 11, 2005, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

Today's (yesterday's) build fixes a major leak that I was talking about earlier

Glad to hear it.

There are still at least another that I'm aware of when I spend a few minutes on www.ytmnd.com

OK that is one weird site.

Originally Posted by Maflynn

I typically have safari, mail, photoshop iView Pro open at once. by the way I only have 1 gig of ram and I don't notice any problems. I also typcially have two to five safari tabs.

Like I said even if safari took a gig of ram, it wouldn't bother me as long as I could do what I need to. I'm not incurring any problems and/or speed degredation running safari and my other apps side by side. So I'll say it - Its not a problem and its not important if safari is taking 300 or 600MB of real memory.

Do you restart every day? Cuz if you do, you probably won't run into the problem very often. ie. You WON'T be hitting 300-600 MB usage. My 600 MB was after leaving Safari running over a week. (I don't do full shut downs of my machines very often.)

If you did hit 600 MB in Safari, your machine would run like @ss with the apps you run. You'd definitely notice it. Photoshop likes lots of RAM too, especially if you have large files.

BTW, I'm at over 300 MB on my Cube right now, and that Safari's been active for less than a week. I only have 1 GB in this machine too, and if I were to load up Photoshop, iPhoto, and PowerPoint with some reasonably sized files, this machine would slow to a crawl. I've noticed this behaviour several times. Exit Safari, and everything is hunky dory.

Basically, at this point, running Safari with a 1 GB machine is roughly equivalent to running a 768 MB machine with apps having no memory leaks.

Maflynn · Oct 11, 2005, 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

Depends on the point of view at this point.

If you only got a gig of RAM and Safari is taking up 1 gig of real memory, you'll still be able to do what you need to...you always will...OS X will just start paging like mad and everything will get slower...waaaay slower.

that's my point, I'm not noticing any slowdowns, besides my using the gig was just hyperbole. I truly have no idea what the memory consumption of Safari (or any other app) is.

So as I said...it's a matter of how tolerant you are to slowdowns and disk thrashing (which definitely reduces the life of your HDD.)

No tolerance here as my disk isn't thrashing.

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Do you restart every day? Cuz if you do, you probably won't run into the problem very often. ie. You WON'T be hitting 300-600 MB usage. My 600 MB was after leaving Safari running over a week. (I don't do full shut downs of my machines very often.)

Nope, my G5 goes to sleep at night like his owner

The only time I typically reboot is when the OS tells me too, which is when an update comes, other then that she stays own or in sleep mode.

Mike

Eug Wanker · Oct 11, 2005, 06:46 PM

Maflynn, I'd be interested in seeing how much memory Safari is using on your machine, assuming you haven't restarted Safari in weeks.

I would also guess it would depend on what sites you visit. Certain sites will cause more memory usage (and leaks) than others. Now, you can blame the sites, but IMO, the browser shouldn't be susceptible to this in the first place.

Fusion · Oct 11, 2005, 08:09 PM

Safari still has memory leaks, that is for sure. Hyatt's blog tells all about it.

I remember hearing however that they were fixed in the latest build of WebKit so if you download nightshift or compile them yourselves, you should see the problem go away.

Eug Wanker · Oct 11, 2005, 11:01 PM

Originally Posted by Fusion

Safari still has memory leaks, that is for sure. Hyatt's blog tells all about it.

Excellent!

"A week ago run-webkit-tests --leaks was reporting over 4000 leaks. Today, it usually reports less than five leaks. Many leaks that were found other ways have also been fixed."

I remember hearing however that they were fixed in the latest build of WebKit so if you download nightshift or compile them yourselves, you should see the problem go away.

I'll wait for the final release since I'm not into compiling stuff myself. I just hope it's not too long.

P.S. Here is somebody's top showing Safari's memory usage:

KP* · Oct 12, 2005, 12:09 AM

Yeah, I get huge memory leaks sometimes, and I'm pretty sure Safari is the culprit. Hope that gets fixed soon.

Maflynn · Oct 12, 2005, 07:05 AM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

Maflynn, I'd be interested in seeing how much memory Safari is using on your machine, assuming you haven't restarted Safari in weeks.

I'm at work right now, but I'll see if I can remember to take a looksie and post back here.

I don't remember when I last rebooted, it could have been a couple of days, or a week I really don't remember.

cybergoober · Oct 12, 2005, 08:56 AM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

I'll wait for the final release since I'm not into compiling stuff myself. I just hope it's not too long.

NightShift does all the work for you. You don't have to compile a thing. I have mine setup so that everything is fully automated. I launch NightShift, it automatically checks for the latest nightly, downloads it, copies it to /Applications, launches WebKit.app then NightShift quits itself.

Maflynn · Oct 12, 2005, 08:21 PM

As promised

Safari Real 62Mb, Virtual 417.30

I currently have open, iTunes, VPC, Mail Quicken and of course safari (two tabs open at the moment)

btw I have 1.5gig not a gig as I mentioned in a prior post.

Laurence · 02:07 PM

Deleted

Laurence · Oct 13, 2005, 02:06 PM

Code:
  PID COMMAND      %CPU   TIME   #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT  RSHRD  RSIZE  VSIZE
 4108 Safari      13.3%  8:14.27   7   155  1169   120M+ 48.2M+  132M+  393M+

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 13, 2005, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by Maflynn

As promised

Safari Real 62Mb, Virtual 417.30

I currently have open, iTunes, VPC, Mail Quicken and of course safari (two tabs open at the moment)

btw I have 1.5gig not a gig as I mentioned in a prior post.

You're not using Safari 2.0 or Tiger are you?

62Mb is impossible unless you do very light web surfing and you've used Safari for only 10 minutes. Please use it for at least an hour or two and report back.

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 13, 2005, 02:20 PM

That said...nobody needs NightShift anymore. You can download the nightlies on the official Safari blog site.

http://nightly.webkit.org/builds/

Eug Wanker · Oct 14, 2005, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

That said...nobody needs NightShift anymore. You can download the nightlies on the official Safari blog site.

http://nightly.webkit.org/builds/

Thanks! I've been using it since yesterday, and my memory usage is way down. No funkiness with my usual website too, and it seems stable and fast. I don't know if it's faster, but it feels that way. Maybe it's placebo, but I'm very happy with it in any case.

I also like the gold-rimmed icon too.

Eug Wanker · Oct 19, 2005, 11:49 PM

The latest Webkit does not work properly on Apple's Aperture profiles page:

http://www.apple.com/aperture/profiles/

Clicking on a profile just loads the same page in a new window. Very annoying. The progress bar for the video doesn't work either. Works fine in the release version of Safari.

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 27, 2005, 10:48 AM

Today's build seems to fix pretty much all of the memory leaks. Every complaint I had about leaking in the nightly builds are gone.

One of the biggest leak was plugged several days ago and was caused by simply closing a browser window or tab. I don't know what exactly changed today but Safari always returns to 78ish MB of real memory after I close a window with 8-tabs in it. I've been using the build for over 3 hours now with pages that make heavy use of CSS, Flash, etc. and Safari is behaving very, very well releasing all the memory it took for those pages.