GPU process using 3.3GB of RAM and rising

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon x86_64
Opera 99.0.4788.13
I was getting massive lag spikes lasting more than 10 seconds every few minutes, so I took a look at system monitor to check what was up. Then I saw that some Opera process was taking up 3GB of RAM, so I opened up Opera's "GPU process", whatever that means, was taking up 3GB of RAM.
If the thing taking up all the RAM was a tab, I just would have killed that specific tab and loaded it again, but it isn't a tab so I'm not sure if I can close it or not. I assume that closing and reopening Opera itself will fix it, but I have a bunch of tabs open right now that I'd really rather not lose. Also, having to restart my browser every few days would be quite annoying, so I'd rather find a proper fix than restart and wait for the RAM usage to build up again.
Can anyone please explain what's going on? And hopefully how to fix it? The RAM usage is going slowly up even now, I think it'll hit 4GB in about 4 hours at the pace it's going and I kinda need my PC to be not stuttering when I go to school tomorrow.
Thanks.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by A Former User

The lag got really bad so I clicked "end process" on the GPU process in Opera's Task manager, and nothing happened. Browser seems to be working fine for now, but I don't know if the GPU process will come back on its own yet.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by leocg

nope. Do not do what i did. do not force quit gpu process.
Youtube thumbnails stopped loading, Google Docs stopped working, it became a nightmare. Eventually just reinstalled a clean version of Opera. Don't do what I did, just restart Opera like a normal person.