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Is there a good browser alternative to both Firefox and Chrome?

2K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  dimta 
#1 ·
I switched to Chrome recently, I didn't want to but firefox just crashes constantly and it seems to have a big memory leak lately. I watch a video either youtube or pr0n or something like that and it just eats up all my ram and the whole pc freezes.

With Chrome, so far I have had the following issues.

- Had to install new USB drivers because going to Settings in Chrome would cause BSOD (How this has anything to do with Chrome makes me wonder how deep into my PC Google has roots? - worrying)
- Had to disable Auto Hide Taskbar because Chrome sits over it like it is in Full Screen and no way of getting it back without hitting windows key. If other apps need my attention I don't see them flashing because Chrome covers it.
- Every time I start Chrome it starts windowed and half of it off the screen even with chrome.exe" -start-maximized enabled as well as "Start maximized" ticked.
- When I watch above videos, the seek bar etc in these Flash video applets autohides then pops up every 1 second, so I have to put the mouse down on the menu and watch it with the full seek and info menu in fullscreen.
- It doesn't function great with lastpass. It autofills where it shouldn't and it tries to log me in with credentials that it seemingly makes up on the go.
- Their support is useless, people have been having all these errors for years and...no solution.

So I can either use FF and not watch videos, period, or I can use Chrome and have a ton of issues but it won't crash and it is far faster.

Is there anything else out there?

You can't even run an old FF because even with updates turned off, it updates anyway. http://www.overclock.net/t/1622324/is-mozilla-forcing-firefox-updates-on-us-even-if-we-dont-want-them/0_100

Literally tearing my hair out here.

Win 7 Ultimate x64

Thank you
 
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#4 ·
My third go-to is Opera, has a similar UI to Chrome and seems to handle memory much better.

Honestly, it's not something you want to hear, but I'd seriously consider looking at the stability of your overclocks with those BSOD's and freezes, slightly off OC's can cause all kinds of funky shizniz to happen.
I'd also double check for Spyware and other naughties because pr0nz.
biggrin.gif
 
#5 ·
It's not the overclock. System has been 99.2% stable for over 4 years now. Firefox didn't crash until it updates past v47. It used to update once every few months but since v47 it seemingly updates every few days. But if I go back to v47 it just auto installs the latest one even though I tell it not to, or it pesters me to do so constantly.

It went like, 47.02 - 49.01 after a good four months, then 50.0.1 then 50.0.2 and so on every day after, ridiculous.

I will look into Waterfox...
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by 86JR View Post

It's not the overclock. System has been 99.2% stable for over 4 years now. Firefox didn't crash until it updates past v47. It used to update once every few months but since v47 it seemingly updates every few days. But if I go back to v47 it just auto installs the latest one even though I tell it not to, or it pesters me to do so constantly.

It went like, 47.02 - 49.01 after a good four months, then 50.0.1 then 50.0.2 and so on every day after, ridiculous.

I will look into Waterfox...
My Firefox does crash when I open a lot of tabs.
Might try replacing my 3GB Radeon graphics card with something with 8GB of memory.
 
#7 ·
There are many browsers out there, but there are only 5 that are used by >90% of all users.

Chrome
Chromium
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Edge (win10 only) <- pretty decent browser if you'd ditch the 7 year old OS.

I'd suggest trying out Chromium and seeing if you still have issues.

The proper flag for starting Chrome/Chromium maximized is

Code:

Code:
--start-maximized
Note the two hyphens.

You can also try these instead

Code:

Code:
--window-size=800,600 --window-position=40,30
Your overclock is probably what's causing your BSoDs. You're running a 5 year old Sandy Bridge at 5GHz. Chips typically don't get better with age.

What did your dump files say about the BSoD? Are they spurious (aka overclock related) or were they consistent?

All of your drivers should be up to date, which means ignoring most of ASUS's drivers they offer on their site, and instead going directly to the
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tacoboy View Post

My Firefox does crash when I open a lot of tabs.
Might try replacing my 3GB Radeon graphics card with something with 8GB of memory.
you need more RAM, not more VRAM
 
#10 ·
Well for one thing... almost no computers made anymore have that little RAM. It's partly because RAM is given out like free candy now, and partly because programs are more complex and require more RAM.

Really, unless you have no money there's no reason to have less than 8GB of RAM. I'd try to get 8GB of RAM before I spent money on a dedicated graphics card or nice keyboard/mouse/monitor.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHorse View Post

Well for one thing... almost no computers made anymore have that little RAM. It's partly because RAM is given out like free candy now, and partly because programs are more complex and require more RAM.

Really, unless you have no money there's no reason to have less than 8GB of RAM. I'd try to get 8GB of RAM before I spent money on a dedicated graphics card or nice keyboard/mouse/monitor.
I think the point they are making is that having more memory on your graphics card isn't the answer...
 
#12 ·
Eh, your computer only needs as much memory as it needs. Plenty of computers built today and in the future have under 8GB of RAM. Most computers built today are actually equipped with 1GB - 4GB.

Only midrange to high end systems come with 8GB standard.

The point is, having more than 2-4GB of graphics memory on a gaming graphics card is useless. If you want to render stuff, get a workstation class card which have 32GB+ memory and don't have useless soundcards and intentionally gimped drivers.
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#13 ·
I've been using Vivaldi, and have had no issues or hang-ups. I love how you get make the tabs/title bar match the main color of the webpage. Gives it that full screen effect.

I still bounce back and forth between Vivaldi and Firefox. Firefox has been a RAM hog for me. Only leaving it up for a couple of hours tends to burn 1.5GB. It can't run past 2.2GB before it starts to freeze.
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by thenailedone View Post

I think the point they are making is that having more memory on your graphics card isn't the answer...
You thought wrong. You probably don't realize which post I was replying to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hydranix View Post

Eh, your computer only needs as much memory as it needs. Plenty of computers built today and in the future have under 8GB of RAM. Most computers built today are actually equipped with 1GB - 4GB.

Only midrange to high end systems come with 8GB standard.

The point is, having more than 2-4GB of graphics memory on a gaming graphics card is useless. If you want to render stuff, get a workstation class card which have 32GB+ memory and don't have useless soundcards and intentionally gimped drivers.
thumb.gif
Sorry, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Only the cheapest of the cheap laptops have 4GB or less, usually ones that don't run windows. 99%+ of computers built come with at least 8GB now.
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHorse View Post

You thought wrong. You probably don't realize which post I was replying to.
You are correct sir, there was no quote or post snipped to identify so I assumed (a mistake on my part) that you were replaying to the posts before that was discussing the confusion between vram and ram earlier in the thread.
 
#17 ·
Been having some issues with Waterfox. Occasionally it seems to just load a blank screen and if you scroll down on an existing window, it scrolls down replacing all the content with blankness. It then crashes, you have to manually end all 3 processes (why it runs 3 seperate waterfox processes is beyond me).

It also seems to run out of ram but only using 700MB of ram out of 16GB.

I addressed these issues on their sub reddit and it just got downvoted out of existence.
 
#18 ·
Your system is not stable. I have Chrome, IE, and Firefox installed on all of my machines, and they all run every browser just fine, not a single hiccup.

My preference is for Chrome because it seems to be the lightest and the quickest and has all those adblocker extensions.

Try uninstalling Flash, and running Chrome. Get the Magic Actions extension for YouTube and in the options, you can force HTML5 as the player, and run auto-HD and all that good stuff. That should help you out a lot with YouTube compatibility. Chrome has Flash support built in so if you need to see something Flash-based, you can just launch Chrome to view it but IMO Flash sucks.

But I agree with another post in that your system or your overclock is no longer stable. BSOD is a clear indicator that you have a driver issue, or a hardware issue.

Finally, if you're not running a real, paid-for antivirus like Norton or Kaspersky or Webroot or AVG, you are taking more of a risk than you think with the pr0ns.
 
#20 ·
Hydranix of course he needs more VRAM as well. The post started with FF - and this browser is eating a lot of VRAM. Is eating more VRAM than RAM. With 20 - 25 tabs open for ebay amazon and alibaba it eats 2,2 GB VRAM and 1,7GB RAM... Better GPU you have better it uses it. That's why you need to close FF, Vivaldi and couple of other browsers, when you play games. Those softwares today are using every resource from your system avalible - good thing as general. Bad for some situations - you need to mess with configurations.
 
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