why do web browsers use so much ram, while the average size of an entire webpage is 2mb?

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From what I understand, one could cache 100 web pages (obviously, 2mb is average, but there are much smaller and much larger than that) in about 200mb. 1GB could cache literally 500 web pages.

How come web browsers use so much ram then?

In: 3000

25 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The earlier era of “computing”, relied on large backend resources.

When PCs became ubiquitous but before the explosion of today’s Internet, PCs were not all that powerful, so companies would use webpages that would load backend programs to offload some of that horsepower needed.

Applications, what we call “fat apps” were the order of the day back then. Browsers, were still quite simple compared to today.

By todays era/time, PCs are now extremely powerful in comparison, so web designers and the platforms they build web applications upon, now rely upon the “horsepower” from your local machine.

Since most “work” or “play” is being done by web browser based websites, the horsepower is local to your browser. Also, “tabs” have allowed people to have several sites open at the same time, and multiply how much RAM is being held in stasis until you go back to that tab.

*well written code, and new “snooze” tab behavior has lessened the amount of RAM required at any given time unless you regularly hop between tabs frequently (which just negates the savings in RAM your browser and OS are controlling).

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