Safari worst bowser?

My iMac did some updates a week ago (a whole 1.3gig worth)

And I think it installed or updated to a really CRAP safari! Don't get me wrong I love the... um.. layout of it - simple, clean but it always stops loading pages, all the time.

Every time I use it I have problems with pages not opening, youtube videos not playing and it's not until I exit the page it completely loads all in one go but then closes because I exited it!!

I never had problems like this with Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome.

What's going on?

Could it be your connection? Is it wireless or ethernet? I use Safari all the time and have not had any of the troubles you mention. All my software is up to date as well, so I must have the same version that you do.

Oneironaut said:

Could it be your connection? Is it wireless or ethernet? I use Safari all the time and have not had any of the troubles you mention. All my software is up to date as well, so I must have the same version that you do.

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I doubt it's my connection, it's wireless but it says it has full connection and others in my family have no problems with it.

I've noticed with the latest versions of Safari that it is a HUGE memory hog. Now this doesn't seem to be an issue on my MacBook C2D but on my Quad G5 PPC desktop it's a big issue (and the G5 has more RAM than the MacBook). On the G5 I have to close Safari at least once a day or it gets dreadfully slow after a while.

I can't imagine with 4GB of RAm the OP would be having a problem but I've seen those symptoms before.

Baggss, interesting. On my 2.1 Ghz iMac G5 with 2.5GB RAM with 4 tabs open it was at 256MB after a few hours. That is quite high. Will have to try on my Intel Mac and see what happens. Seems like it's more of a Power PC code issue.

I'm not sure. Safari on my MacBook seems to eat a lot of RAM but it doesn't seem to slow the system down like the PPC machine does. I think it's Safari and it just depends on how the machine in question handles it.

Right now Safari on my MB is taking up over 536Mb or RAM (1/4 of the 2Gb it has), that's more than HB which is ripping a Movie.

I have one tab open which is this site and it's using over 100mb, is that normal?

I have to keep my Safari open for eight hours a day, and in that time it usually goes from ~200MB of RAM to around 400MB of RAM. It's disappointing that Safari still leaks RAM (and uses so much in the first place, albeit that's to support the Top Sites feature which I depend on), but I would have to say Safari is pretty far from the worst browser. Quite the opposite these days.

That is an excellent point about Top Sites and memory usage Chas. Did not even think about that. It's around 250-280 MB here on the Power PC G5 iMac. Still not checked on the Intel Mac but according to Baggss probably about the same.

safari worst b'o'wser oops

I just can't understand whats going on, why does it completely load once I have closed it?

screwed up again and made me double post.. grrr

I didn't even think about the top sites thing. Is there a way to disable them all together vice just not displaying them.

I hate Safari and never use it. It has never rendered any animated gif properly and just hangs, regardless of settings.
It's the worst browser by far IMO.

Memory hog

bradders said:

I have one tab open which is this site and it's using over 100mb, is that normal?

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That seems excessive - I have 11 threads running at the moment and that is using 298Mb - if you have AppleCare, I'd give them a call.

bradders said:

I have one tab open which is this site and it's using over 100mb, is that normal?

Click to expand...

Doesn't surprise me. Right after opening, Safari is using 80.3MB. I wouldn't be surprised if that crept up quickly to 100MB.

If you're interested, the WebKit people have a page on reporting leaks in memory here.

LOL took me 3 windows open in Firefox to get the same activity as Safari

Interesting. I had been complaining about the internet hanging on my new iMac. I was concerned it my be the computer, but now I'm thinking it is likely Safari given the comments here. Maybe I need to test out another browser.

I have 4 tabs open in google chrome right now and it is using 75mb of RAM. Lets try some more...


8 tabs open, 95MB. That's including nfl.com and espn.go.com - I do have adblock though. Maybe you should check it out?

jazzer said:

Interesting. I had been complaining about the internet hanging on my new iMac. I was concerned it my be the computer, but now I'm thinking it is likely Safari given the comments here. Maybe I need to test out another browser.

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I recommend Chrome.

Ugh... I don't like safari...It's probably not the worst browser out there.. But it definitely is a speed hog. And I don't have a lot of memory to begin with! I much prefer FireFox or Camino.