Google Chrome has had a bad reputation on the Mac for over a decade. Its fame stems from the fact that it is a resource pig that can eat up so much more memory than you would think in a web browser. Those days may be over.
Chrome product manager Mark Chang outlined the changes in a Google Chrome blog post focusing on the gains found in Chrome M89. This version, which is currently available (we just looked, it’s on our MacBook Air with M1), uses a lot of Google’s own performance improvement technology – on both macOS and Windows 10 machines.
Chrome enhancements on Mac
It starts with a lower memory footprint, with savings of up to 8% or more than 1 GB in cases tested by Google. Your mileage can of course vary.
You’ll probably hear the difference, as Google finds up to 65% better Apple Energy Impact (a measure seen in Activity Monitor) results for background tabs – which, according to Chang, translates to cooler systems that keep your fans running. This means that anyone who has dozens of background pages (no judgment) can see that they play a much lesser role in the performance of your system.
If the news is that this new Chrome is so much better for your Mac, it could help Google eliminate the 36% share of MacOS desktops (according to NetMarketShare). But performance is just one of the big features Apple promotes for its browser: higher privacy is the other, and one that Chrome apparently doesn’t have on its to-do list.
Chrome on Windows 10 enhancements
Over Windows, where Chrome is king (~ 71% according to Netmarketshare), there are even bigger improvements. Chang broke up the memory saving into three different sections: up to 22% improvements in the browser process, 8% in the version and 3% in GPU.
It is activated with Google’s memory allocation PartitionAlloc, which is optimal for efficiency. Previously, Chrome only used PartitionAlloc for Blink, the delivery engine. Now it uses PartitionAlloc anywhere in Chrome on 64-bit Windows and Android.
In our testing of Chrome, Firefox and Edge memory management last February, on Windows, we saw that each of the browsers takes up a lot of memory. Firefox was the worst offender in all but one of the tests, often taking up 200 MB more than Chrome and up to 1 GB less than Edge. In just the 20 tabs, Chrome consumed more memory and took 1.8 GB to Firefox’s 1.6 GB.
How to get Chrome M89
Here’s how to keep Chrome up to date on your Mac:
- Click the … button right top.
- Choose About Chrome in the left menu.
- Install updates if available – and click Restart if offered.
On the computer it is just as easy:
- Click the … button right top.
- Choose Update Chrome in the left menu.
- Install updates if available – and click Restart if offered.