Firefox 3.6 vs. Firefox 8

[v.laurie]

If you have ever wondered how Firefox 8.01 compares to Firefox 3.6, here is a link with some numbers.

[Anupam]

Good one Vic . It does pay to stay with the latest versions of software

[wdhpr]

I still have reservations when it comes to FF8. On my computer while using WinXP, FF8 is unstable and does not support all of my favorite add-ons. I was surprised to see no mention of memory usage in the tests.

I'll stick with FF3.6 besides I use Linux Mint 95% of the time and FF is plenty fast.

[eyeb]

hm... i'll stick with ff3.6 lol

it's fast enough for me, and the main thing in the link for comparison are javascript tests... and i tend to block them with noscript. since javascript is #1 (imo anyways) way of getting malware from a site, why would i want to load it any faster? and on sites that use it, i unblock the ones i want and without rest it's fast enough to load without me seeing much delay if any

[George.J]

If you're running WinXP or a having a low end system it's better to stay a mile away from FF8 or recent versions of FF. The performance results at Best Free Web Browser were done on a high end system. Using FF on low end desktop is like a virus that eats up chunks of memory and spins your hard disk like a mad guy running on a tread mill. It doesn't release memory when it's not active which is the major disadvantage it can have on a low end system. FF3.6 is the best if you opt to use FF on these systems and Opera will run slick and smooth as if your processor is tranquilized. The performance of FF is charming on a fast processor when a number of tabs are used.

[Anupam]

I have been using Firefox 8 on my XP SP3 system, and having no problems at all. Runs very good.

[George.J]

Originally Posted by Anupam

I have been using Firefox 8 on my XP SP3 system, and having no problems at all. Runs very good.

Having 1GB RAM is fair and makes life easier for you on FF8 than most others using WinXP on a low end system. Try running FF with 10 tabs and your media player running an HD movie. You'll see the much awaited performance dip. Have you noted that Firefox uses the same memory when its active and when it's not, when most others shed around 70% of resources.? On my low end test system WinXP 256MB I can run barely one tab in FF8.

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by George.J

Having 1GB RAM is fair and makes life easier for you on FF8 than most others using WinXP on a low end system. Try running FF with 10 tabs and your media player running an HD movie. You'll see the much awaited performance dip. Have you noted that Firefox uses the same memory when its active and when it's not, when most others shed around 70% of resources.? On my low end test system WinXP 256MB I can run barely one tab in FF.

Well yea, mine can be considered a fairly good system, running on P-IV with 1 GB RAM. I do run Firefox with a few tabs open, while playing HD movie on VLC. Things remain fine. I don't keep open too many tabs anyways.

However, I agree about the use of resources by Firefox. Even when not active, it uses up quite some memory. But, Firefox has always been like that I think, and I don't know what differences might be there in FF3 and FF8 in terms of that.

Since Firefox 8, they have claimed to decrease memory usage. Its been claimed to improve on this aspect more in future versions. Lets see.

But yes, on lower end system, like lower than P-IV, running the latest version might not be good.
Running only with 256 MB and XP, will be like killing the system .

That said, I have installed Firefox 7 on an old PC running Celeron with 512 MB. It runs OK .

[George.J]

Originally Posted by Anupam

Well yea, mine can be considered a fairly good system, running on P-IV with 1 GB RAM. I do run Firefox with a few tabs open, while playing HD movie on VLC. Things remain fine. I don't keep open too many tabs anyways.

However, I agree about the use of resources by Firefox. Even when not active, it uses up quite some memory. But, Firefox has always been like that I think, and I don't know what differences might be there in FF3 and FF8 in terms of that.

Since Firefox 8, they have claimed to decrease memory usage. Its been claimed to improve on this aspect more in future versions. Lets see.

But yes, on lower end system, like lower than P-IV, running the latest version might not be good.
Running only with 256 MB and XP, will be like killing the system .

That said, I have installed Firefox 7 on an old PC running Celeron with 512 MB. It runs OK .

Yup this system is a base model of PIV with 256MB RAM running WinXP. Howeever on my gaming laptop with 4GB RAM , i5 processor and Win7, FF8 runs like a sweet chic...

[Remah]

Thanks all for the useful info. I think I'll take the plunge into v8 Firefox for our old XP systems at home.