Chrome resource hog

stphnstevey

I have 5 tabs pinned - 3x work email, calendar, To Do app

Is this too much?

I like to see emails as they come in. I get a desktop notification, but not sure if that works without the tab open. Maybe I would be more productive if checking them intermittently?

Calendar I get notifications on phone for meetings, so maybe dont need open constantly?

To Do app can open in as a desktop app, but not sure how much resource that takes up vs a tab?

I have looked at using OneTab and also Workona as maybe an upgraded OneTab?

I often have YouTube Music playing in backgroud, as this plays youtube videos, I imagine this is the biggest resource hog. Is there any internet music that uses less resource?

dipsomaniac

no not too much. i often have >20 tabs open with no problems on my old 7 year old desktop

ctrl + alt + delete > task manager to see what processes are hogging resources

DoaM

Why the question? Are you having problems with slow responses to actions on your PC?

stphnstevey

DoaM wrote: »

Why the question? Are you having problems with slow responses to actions on your PC?

Its never been that quick and as mentioned, I realise the hardware upgrade could have the most effect

I watched how much resource the different chrome tabs I opened took up today and minimised the ones I need open to just the 3 email ones

I also trialling The Great Suspender chrome extension. I like that you can suspend tabs after a certain time, initially 5m was too short so now trying 10m. They reload when you click on them. This way I can leave tabs open for quick access, but they are suspended after a time period, so not constantly using resource if I am not accessing them. I should be able to close tabs I am not using myself, but leaving the tab open sort of leaves a easily accessible bookmark I can flick too when needed. I checked and the suspended tab is using no resource.

grumpycrab

The popular browsers do take up loads of memory these days. How much memory does your computer have? Guessing 4GB which may be a little on the low side for your use.

stphnstevey

grumpycrab wrote: »

The popular browsers do take up loads of memory these days. How much memory does your computer have? Guessing 4GB which may be a little on the low side for your use.

Yes, 4GB and Chrome takes up 1GB normally, its running around 70% Memory from Task Manager

grumpycrab

stphnstevey wrote: »

Yes, 4GB and Chrome takes up 1GB normally, its running around 70% Memory from Task Manager

4GB should be adequate then.

psychic_teabag

stphnstevey wrote: »

I watched how much resource the different chrome tabs I opened took up today and minimised the ones I need open to just the 3 email ones

I also trialling The Great Suspender chrome extension. I like that you can suspend tabs after a certain time, initially 5m was too short so now trying 10m. They reload when you click on them. This way I can leave tabs open for quick access, but they are suspended after a time period, so not constantly using resource if I am not accessing them.

If you want notifications of new incoming email, suspending the tab will probably break that. Though it depends a bit on whether the suspension can be smart enough to disable idle-time busy-ness without affecting network events.

psychic_teabag

stphnstevey wrote: »

I have 5 tabs pinned - 3x work email, calendar, To Do app

Is this too much?

Only you can say. Why 3 for email ? 3 different accounts ? 3 different folders to keep an eye on ?

I like to see emails as they come in. I get a desktop notification, but not sure if that works without the tab open. Maybe I would be more productive if checking them intermittently?

Only you can say. If your job is all about responding to emails as soon as they come in, and you need the notification to take you away from playing freecell, then notifications make you more productive. If your main job is doing something else, and email is a distraction, then reading email in batches would make you more productive.

Calendar I get notifications on phone for meetings, so maybe dont need open constantly?

Only you can say.

To Do app can open in as a desktop app, but not sure how much resource that takes up vs a tab?

You'd have to try it to see. It's a balance between running javascript (presumably) in a fully-general-purpose environment, vs running native code (presuambly) in a separate app. The latter could be smaller, but the browser tab can in principle share memory with other tabs.

Did you consider a native app for your email ? I use a thing called claws-mail (on linux, but also available on windows) and it's way smaller and more responsive than a browser-based interface. (And also a lot smaller than thunderbird.) It can handle multiple accounts if that's needed.

I often have YouTube Music playing in backgroud, as this plays youtube videos, I imagine this is the biggest resource hog. Is there any internet music that uses less resource?

Probably. Reducing the quality of the youtube video would almost certainly reduce the load on your browser.