Google Chrome is undoubtedly one of the browsers to browse the Internet, not only because it is fast but for its continuous and incessant development that always brings new interesting functions.Many forums and posts on the Internet describe what could be understood as Chrome's main flaw: consumes a lot of RAM on your computer.
Other browsers also take up 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 freezes on Chrome, crashes or slowdowns, especially on the heaviest pages.
Let's find out in this guide how to save memory and optimize Chrome to consume less memory.
ALSO READ: 8 Ways To Make Chrome Faster To Open Sites
1) Check the task manager
On Chrome the possibility of view the RAM used by each extension, tab and plugins via the Google Chrome Task Manager; we can quickly recall it using the keyboard shortcut Shift + Esc or by right clicking on the top of Chrome.
Each tab open on Chrome will be shown as a process, as well as any extension started and any plugin currently active (Flash for example).
If we see some process consuming too much RAM, we can also close it by right clicking on it and using the key End process.
Among the main processes is 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 are not used too much, we can also remove or disable them.
To support the Chrome task manager, you can use an extension called OneTab to free the memory occupied by Chrome with one click.
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 prevent it from consuming too much RAM.
If we think the extension will be useful in the future, let's disable it; if we never use it, let's 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 press on Remove to eliminate them entirely.
3) Replace extensions with bookmarkelts
A good way to optimize Chrome is to use bookmarklets instead of extensions. Bookmarklets don't consume memory and take action immediately, leaving no background processes.
They are in effect snippets of code that, once executed, perform some operations on the browser in place of any extension.
Obviously, you have to pay close attention to the bookmarklets you add, but many of them are really very useful and effectively replace the extensions they are inspired by.
Being saved on the bookmarks bar, taking into account that Chrome synchronizes bookmarks 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) Forcing 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, thus 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 chrome: // flags in the address bar and activate the experimental item Override software rendering list.
Chrome will now ignore the default settings and will use the graphics card (if present) to its full potential, so as to significantly reduce the use of RAM and speed up Chrome like never before.
There may be more errors or crashes, but in proportion the benefits definitely outweigh any problems 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 memory is Auto Tab Discard (replacing the now disappeared The Great Suspender), downloadable from here -> Auto Tab Discard.
With this extension activate the unused and not in the foreground 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 really very useful, especially if we often open many tabs on PCs with low RAM memory.
other extensions like The Great Suspenderer to suspend inactive Chrome tabs to save memory
6) Reset Chrome
We've tried them all, but is Chrome too slow? Maybe restoring it to the initial settings will solve the problem, deleting any customization or problem related to our profile used so far.
To restore Chrome, simply click on the three dots at the top right, then bring us to the menu Settings -> Advanced -> Restore.
Everything will be deleted, including the cache, favorites, history, extensions, plugins and most of all the created user profiles.
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 Chrome.
7) Other tricks to optimize Chrome I'm in the guide for speed up Google Chrome if slow or heavy.
