New Chrome Update Hogs More Memory Than Before

Google Chrome might be the most popular web browser in the business, but it is also notorious for being a huge memory hog. This has caused some minor grumblings from users over the years, but it was never enough to knock it off its perch. With the release of Chrome 63, however, the browser is now using up more memory than before.

The biggest contributor to the increased memory usage appears to be the new feature called Site Isolation, Tech Times reports. It basically makes browsing more stable as well as improve the browser’s resistance to exploits by giving tabs separate processes, according to the support document to go along with the update.

"When you enable site isolation, content for each open website in the Chrome browser is always rendered in a dedicated process, isolated from other sites," the document reads. "This creates an additional security boundary between websites."

By doing so, Chrome makes it harder for malware to infect computers or for hackers to breach the security of users’ devices. Unfortunately, the extra protection comes at the cost of an additional usage of RAM by up to a whopping 20 percent.

Before users take up arms in outrage, it’s worth noting that the feature is actually turned off by default after upgrading to the new Chrome, Hot Hardware reports. It’s essentially intended for users with a need for extra protection such as corporate users, business owners, tech engineers, and programmers.

Those who only use Chrome to browse the web can certainly turn it on if they want to, but if they don’t have high-end PCs with a lot of RAM, some slowdowns should be expected when using other programs. Even with this new feature, it’s also best not to test the security capabilities of the browser and still play it safe when surfing the web.