Firefox uses a lot of RAM. It is the number one complaint about this otherwise awesome web browser. So what can you do to solve this issue? Well there are a few rumored fixed out there in the wild.

Here is the nitty-gritty about:config solution to the problem:

• Open up about:config by typing it into your Firefox address bar.
• Right-click, go to new and then integer and name it this: browser.cache.memory.capacity
• For the integer value, enter in 15000 if you have 512MB to 1GB of RAM. For those with less (between 128MB to 512MB), try a value of 5000.  You’re done!

Then all you should need to restart Firefox for it to take effect.

Check out the Mozilla Firefox Tips page for more information on this (and a few more tweaks).  The RAMBack extension for Firefox also looks promising.

RAMBack will cause Firefox to issue an internal notification to free up memory that is otherwise held for performance purposes. Additional items will be hooked into this notification in the future.

Here are a few more links to help you reduce your RAM usage:

• How to Reduce Memory Usage?
• Popular Firefox Extensions Leak Memory
• CyberNotes: Firefox Extensions cause Memory Leaks and Crashes
• Solving Firefox Memory Leak Problems – Step by Step Guide

Another solution to help Firefox from feeling bloated is to check all of your extensions and themes to make sure they are not the culprit for your RAM overages. You might also look into restarting Firefox from time to time.