Google Chrome vs Opera: Memory Usage

I have a pretty powerful computer so memory usage is generally nothing to worry about. However, I do get some rare crashes here and there, so I wanted to measure the memory usage that each browser took. In my tests, I measured the usage of “set 1″ and “set 2″. Set 1 were the sites from my previous speed test:

http://lifehacker.com/

http://lifehacker.com/

http://theunashamed116.lefora.com/

http://misterswag.wordpress.com/

http://docs.google.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.esvstudybible.org/search

http://www.weather.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

Set 2 was made by searching the term “Google Chrome” into Google, keeping the search page open, and tabbing the first 5 results. A YouTube video was one of the results, which should really show how browsers also handle flash. For each set, I had one with addons, and one without addons for Google Chrome. It is my belief that keeping addons on is more accurate, because if you were actually browsing using that browser, they would be enabled. In Opera, I kept Opera Link, Mail, RSS, etc. connected all the time. The following is a graph of the memory usage.

The results sort of surprised me. Opera was always better when addons were in consideration. This is a more accurate statistic for me, because if I end up sticking with Google Chrome, I will be keeping my addons. Without addons however, Opera won set 1, and Google Chrome won set 2. This may be something I want to do more tests with in the future, just to see what wins without addons. The following are the data from my tests:

Set 1 – 8 Tab Load – Set For 2 Minutes with addons:

GC: 298460 K

Opera: 192672 K

Set 1 – 8 Tab Load – Set For 2 Minutes without addons:

GC: 229216 K

Opera: 184472 K

Set 2 – 8 Tab Load – Set For 2 Minutes with addons:

GC: 247928

Opera: 138200

Set 2 – 8 Tab Load – Set For 2 Minutes without addons:

GC: 128920 K

Opera: 187508 K

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