Google Chrome is undoubtedly one of the browsers for surfing the Internet, not only because it is fast but because of its continuous and incessant development which always brings interesting new functions. In many forums and in many posts on the Internet, what could be understood as the main flaw of Chrome is described: it consumes a lot of RAM on the computer .
The other browsers also occupy RAM (obviously), but Chrome tends to consume significantly more RAM than its competitors, especially if we abound with customizations.
These high RAM consumption could lead to crashes on Chrome, crashes or slowdowns especially on heavier pages.
We find out in this guide how to save memory and optimize Chrome to consume less memory .
READ ALSO: 8 Ways to Make Chrome Faster to Open Sites
1) Check the task manager
On Chrome the ability to view the RAM used by each extension, card and plugin through the Google Chrome Task Manager; we can quickly call it up using the keyboard shortcut Shift + Esc or by right clicking on the top of Chrome.
Each tab opened on Chrome will be shown as a process, as well as any extensions launched and any plugins currently active (Flash for example).
If we see any process consuming too much RAM, we can also close it by right clicking on it and using the End Process button.
Among the main processes there is also the GPU Process, which allows the Chrome browser to use the resources of the GPU and a video card to lighten the load on the CPU.
Using this window we can realize if there are heavy active extensions and, if they were not overused, we can also remove or disable.
To support the Chrome task manager you can use an extension called Onetab to free up the memory occupied by Chrome with a click, explained in another article.
2) Disable or uninstall extensions
As can be guessed from the previous point, we will have to avoid installing too many extensions on Google Chrome to avoid consuming too much RAM.
If we think that the extension will be useful in the future, disable it; if instead we never use it, uninstall it without problems.
We can remove or uninstall an extension by clicking on the three-dot symbol at the top right, then opening the menu Other Tools -> Extensions .
As soon as the extensions window opens, we identify those that are too heavy and remove the check mark to disable them; alternatively we can click on Remove to delete them completely.
3) Replace extensions with bookmarks
A good way to optimize Chrome is to use bookmarklets instead of extensions. The bookmarklets do not consume memory and act immediately, without leaving processes in the background.
For all intents and purposes, they are fragments of code which, once executed, perform some operations on the browser to replace any extension.
Obviously you have to pay close attention to the bookmarklets that are added, but many of them are really very useful and effectively replace the extensions to which they are inspired.
Being saved on the bookmarks bar, taking into account that Chrome synchronizes your favorites online, your bookmarklets will always be available, whatever computer you use with Google Chrome.
To find out the best bookmarklets we can read the article available here -> Best Bookmarklets to add functions and buttons on browsers .
4) Force the use of the GPU on Chrome
Another very effective trick to optimize Chrome is to make sure that some of the processes or elements generated by the browser are managed by the GPU, therefore also using part of the video memory.
To force the use of the GPU on Chrome simply open a new empty tab on the browser, type in the address bar chrome: // flags and activate the experimental item Override software rendering list .
Chrome will now ignore the default settings and will use the graphics card (if any) to its full potential, so as to significantly reduce the use of RAM and speed up Chrome like never before.
There could be multiple errors or crashes, but in proportion the benefits are certainly greater than the possible problems that this option can cause.
5) Use The Great Suspender extension
Although we had advised against using too many extensions, one of the most useful to save a lot of RAM is The Great Suspender, downloadable from here -> The Great Suspender .
With this extension, active unused and not featured Chrome tabs will be "frozen" releasing much of the memory they occupied on the PC, optimizing the use of Chrome and its RAM consumption.
When we return to the page, a click will be enough to reload it and return it as before.
This extension is very useful, especially if we often open many tabs on PCs with little RAM.
other extensions like The Great Suspenderer to suspend idle Chrome cards to save memory
6) Reset Chrome
We tried them all but Chrome is too slow "> reset Chrome just click on the three dots at the top right, then take us to the Settings menu -> Advanced -> Reset .
Everything will be deleted, including cache, favorites, history, extensions, plugins and above all the user profiles created.
In order not to lose any data, we use synchronization with the Google account, so that we can restore everything very quickly on the cleaned up Chrome.
7) Other tricks to optimize Chrome are in the guide to speed up Google Chrome if slow or heavy .
