Hi,
Opera has become a total mess, even more so since the last update. I used to work with Opera because it was slim so that it was possible to have 40 or 50 tabs opened in the browser at the same time and because I extensively use bookmarking where I like(d) the many options.

Now, with a bookmarks file of about 50 MB and about 45 tabs open I realize that Opera uses about 4 GB RAM alone (sometimes even 4,5 or more) of 8 GB RAM total. Every new bookmark slows down the browser for a while. Setting several bookmarks in row increases RAM usage even more, sometimes by 500 MB withing less than a second. Over time, RAM usage increases little by little even without any new tab opened.

Not long after, Opera breaks down (or Windows stops it because of a 'problem'). This usually occures when about 85 percent of total RAM is employed.

Even worse than that, relaunching Opera takes about 10 min until it is really completed (all tabs fully loaded etc.).

If compared to Chrome with also about 30 tabs opened or Mozilla at a comparable state I find Opera's performance unacceptable. Who does also have similar experiences? I don't think that 8 GB RAM on a notebook not even three years old is already outdated for secure and normal speed operation of a browser (especially when practically no other app is in operation).

Thanks.

Hi,

I'm not sure if I understand all new comments correctly and inhowfar they would refer to the original problem described, but I can tell that I also have the bookmarks' icons (or the particular bookmarks icons feature in Opera) under suspicion for causing the high RAM use and also the long time it takes for relaunching Opera.

Background is that this feature is important for me, because I like to indentify bookmarks and especially different bookmark types with icons. In that, this is a crucial feature for me.

There are at least two indications for this as a major root of the problem.

1: When setting a new bookmark I mostly have to change the icon of the bookmark in a 'second step', i.e. basically an additional setting of the very same bookmark. This slows down Opera twice in short time, which burdens RAM use as well as the operarion of the CPU (you can hear it clearly). Furthermore, such bookmarks setting of more than one bookmark increase RAM use little by little as described above.

2: Relaunching Opera after a breakdown or regularly seems time-consuming because of this particular feature (i.e., loading all bookmarks WITH correct icons assigned). This is obvious as it is one of the processes during the relaunch that seems to last forever).

So, considering the very high number of bookmarks creating a large bookmarks file, this might explain the high resources consumption by Opera. If there are indeed such things is background update of icons of bookmarks, i.e. even for tabs not opened, this seems to be even more plausible. Similarly, if Opera works in a way to have ALL booksmarks with correct icon 'ready' when Opera is open I should probably not wonder at all ...

I have one addtional small problem since today for which I'm not sure if it is relevant for a new discussion:

Opera has changed some settings, but not the entire language, from the language I use in Opera to English. This would not worry me that much. However, I'm wondering if it could indicate a more relevant bug. But perhaps it disappears with the very next update.

Thanks.

@ joshl: Your ideas resemble proposals I got from an IT expert. Malware could be a problem, but I don't think so (I have Sophos, firewall software etc. always kept up to date). But, of course, one never knows.

If closed, Opera really closes.

I will try it with a second installation and here sort of 'stepwise' alternative configurations as you suggest, but since I have no second computer I will have to ask my brother or so. What would be the particular advantage of running Opera with cleaned cookies or cookies disabled? Or a cleaned profile in general? As mentioned below, I don't think that extensions are the root of the problem.

leocg:

I only use three extensions that actually do not use that much RAM (according to Opera task manager). I have also not installed new extensions in the last year or so.

@ cestfatiguantopera: Your comment is very interesting, because it would indicate that it is a general problem. I'm also considering switching to another browser.

What I found today is that the problem is at least to a large extent caused by the bookmarks system (or the internal resources usage linked to it). Yesterday, a tv livestream (which I do not do that often) also increased RAM use coming close to 85 percent in total (with Opera using about 4,5 GB of RAM even slightly more sometimes). However, Opera remained stable. No breakdown.

Today only reordering bookmarks within one bookmarks folder only (!), i.e. without setting any additional bookmarks nor creating new bookmark folders increased RAM use by more than 1 GB within two min. or so peaking in total RAM use of close to 7 GB (of 8 in total). Then - same procedure - Windows stops Opera. Breakdown.

No, no particular tab uses extremely more RAM than the others. Hower, I detected that some use way more than even 40 MB. I don't consider this 'normal' even if other might say so.

For me, even with about 50 tabs opened, a browser is not supposed to use 4,5 or more GB of RAM. I have asked a couple of other persons, some of them professional IT experts, and everybody doubts that this is normal even for extensive use.

However, suggestions for deleting the cache etc. which I implemented did not help at all.

I don't know where the problem is.

Yes, I can do this, but here I simply see the amount of RAM used by every tab. I find this simply incredible. Even inactive tabs use up to 40 MB RAM! The entire logic of using RAM for the software as such as well as for every tab is already very annoying.

Worse than that: Setting one further bookmark results in the creation of a temporary bookmarks file, often even several of them if more than one bookmark is set which burdens RAM and swap file usage even more, especially if each of the files is of about 50 MB in size.

I might offend people here, but the simple truth is that Opera has totally betrayed its original vision (or mission) and developed into a resource feeding software. In that, it has turned into a crappy tool for beyond average use.

It seems that for JUST operating Opera only a little more professionally one needs: 5 GB of RAM plus a free swap file capacity of the same size (i.e., for Opera alone to yet including swap file capacity for Windows or other processes.). This means keeping free disc capacity of 5 GB for Opera alone.

I would really appreciate a comment on this by one of the responsible developers.

Hi,
Opera has become a total mess, even more so since the last update. I used to work with Opera because it was slim so that it was possible to have 40 or 50 tabs opened in the browser at the same time and because I extensively use bookmarking where I like(d) the many options.

Now, with a bookmarks file of about 50 MB and about 45 tabs open I realize that Opera uses about 4 GB RAM alone (sometimes even 4,5 or more) of 8 GB RAM total. Every new bookmark slows down the browser for a while. Setting several bookmarks in row increases RAM usage even more, sometimes by 500 MB withing less than a second. Over time, RAM usage increases little by little even without any new tab opened.

Not long after, Opera breaks down (or Windows stops it because of a 'problem'). This usually occures when about 85 percent of total RAM is employed.

Even worse than that, relaunching Opera takes about 10 min until it is really completed (all tabs fully loaded etc.).

If compared to Chrome with also about 30 tabs opened or Mozilla at a comparable state I find Opera's performance unacceptable. Who does also have similar experiences? I don't think that 8 GB RAM on a notebook not even three years old is already outdated for secure and normal speed operation of a browser (especially when practically no other app is in operation).

Thanks.