Multi-Threaded Browser? Firefox?

I'm sure I've asked this question before, but it really bothers me. I have found Firefox to be the best browser. I haven't tried Chrome yet, but figure it's too new to become a primary browser. I've already tweaked Firefox and it loads pages much faster now, but I can still run into some lag. I often have many tabs open, and after a few weeks I could have a few windows with a few tabs open.

I'm often scrolling and middle clicking to open pages in new tabs, and after I middle click there is a little bit of a lag as it creates the new page. I'm usually clicking more than one link in that second, so the lag is compounded. I can live with it, but I'd rather not. I don't think there is anything I can do, but it would just be so great if each tab could be its own thread, or something to that affect. When I have these little lags hundreds of times a day it really adds up.

Any ideas?

My guess is that with so many pages open at once, you're hitting the swap file.

Also, when I was running FileMon, I was surprised to see that many programs still quietly create and delete temporary files on virtually every memory intensive operation.

IE, for example, seems to make one for every page you visit to use as scratchpad space when composing the page. IE is based on some very old code created at a time when a computer with 64 MB of RAM was considered an enthusiast platform, *when even swapfile space would be too small to hold the largest web pages*.

So thats my guess, swap file, temp file, or something equivalent to a phishing filter can induce that momentary lag we are all so familiar with.

I sure hope programs get hip and drop the temp file nonsense in the coming age of SSD.

Edit

I just saw you had 22GB, is that for real?

I would look for issues elsewhere as I don't have any lag in FF whatsoever and I typically keep my PC running (and FF open) for 7-10 days at a time. Considering your specs whoop mine, I don't have much clue as to why you have lag aside from perhaps the firewall?

chrome is still new but already in version 2.0. i use it at work all day and it works well. much crash scenario improvement over other browsers. it's fast. i would give it try

edit: oh and it's not as fancy with add-ons and plug-ins as firefox but thats how i like it. just need a window to the world

I really think it's a CPU thing. Go find five pages or so, open them up in tabs, and quickly click all but one of them, pressing F5 to refresh each one. While they're all refreshing, try maneuvering in the last tab that's open. I have a delay, before it allows me to srcoll. I can max out a core on Firefox no problem.

This happens whether I've had my system on for a minute, or a month, it doesn't matter how many windows I have open. I've tweaked Firefox so that it's supposed to use something like 250mb of RAM for rendered pages. I don't want it using my hard drives at all. I do not have any add ons or plug ins installed. It is not a firewall or AV doing it.

I think it's that very few people refresh as many pages as I do, as frequently as I do. I simultaneously refresh many pages, then quickly scroll through them to see changes. Other people do it one at a time, and take their time. I didn't mean to make it sound like it lags forever, it's just not instant, and dammit, I want it to be. It looks like it uses as much of that core as it possibly can to render the tab, so for a fraction of a second it doesn't let switch tabs instantly, or let me scroll smoothly, if at all for that brief moment of time. I think that it's just not made to be instant, no one is as picky as me.

I enjoy using multiple browsers simultaneously because it's sooo much smoother. I can tell 5 pages to refresh, then just go to another monitor and fiddle with other things in a different browser. It's a CPU power thing, and I think that 3.2Ghz should be enough. I would imagine that an internet browser would be the simplest program to program as multi-threaded.

Yes, I have 22GB of RAM, the specs in my sig are accurate. It's very hard to find PC2-6400 FBDIMMs, and when I came across 4GB sticks, I picked them up quickly! I really wish things were multithreaded better. To be honest, games are multithreaded better than anything else, haha.

Maybe you should try Chrome as each tab runs as it's own process (IIRC)

Foxie3a said:

I really think it's a CPU thing. Go find five pages or so, open them up in tabs, and quickly click all but one of them, pressing F5 to refresh each one. While they're all refreshing, try maneuvering in the last tab that's open. I have a delay, before it allows me to srcoll. I can max out a core on Firefox no problem.

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for clarifying that. The only other thing I can contribute to the conversation is that the web browser might be waiting for something (blocking socket perhaps?) to finish before it lets other pending operations happen. This would certainly be a more apparent problem if one thread has to do it all.

I suppose if each page/tab had it's own thread, that would be better but as far as I know of, only Chrome can do that, and I don't like chrome for other reasons.

AFAIK, IE and FF were both from the same old code base, and if their initial design doesn't allow for them to be cleanly multithreaded, then that's going to be a hindrance to that ever happening in any optimal sense, without a full rewrite.

I have a solution, but you're probably not going to like it. I just tried what you suggested with Hulu, Youtube, Tomshardware, Overclockers, Mininova, Btmon, and eztv open in tabs. Hid "reload all tab" and noticed the problems you described. Repeated the same test in IE8, no problems switching tabs and scrolling while tabs were reloading. IE does launch extra processes for extra tabs, so that might make it a little smoother even if the engine itself isn't as efficient as FF.

I will try Chrome later then, I didn't know it had a new process for each tab, that sounds good. I use IE8 also, but I just can't navigate it as well as I can Firefox.

What do you mean by a blocked socket? A software or hardware socket?

Foxie3a said:

I will try Chrome later then, I didn't know it had a new process for each tab, that sounds good. I use IE8 also, but I just can't navigate it as well as I can Firefox.

What do you mean by a blocked socket? A software or hardware socket?

Click to expand...

A blocked socket is a software thing.

When a socket is created by code, it can be blocking or non-blocking. Non-blocking means that the OS call comes back right away and does not wait for the operation to complete (an event then fires later when the operation
is complete). Or a socket can be blocking in which case the call to OS code won't return until completed.