Jump to content

Best browser for Windows


adc.

Recommended Posts

As you all know, I have a really crappy laptop, it's not the best thing for gaming either, so I'm trying to reduce every single load I can find on it, even the smallest of margins mattered to me, to make my laptop as fast as possible.

 

Unnecessary rants on spoilers, only for the curious

 

 

 

I've downloaded only a few programs, and most of them I've used for a lot of years and are trusted. I've reformatted my laptop about five times since I've started using it, I regularly clean it, organize a lot of things, and use only about 20% of my total 448 GB hard drive space, when it exceeds, I start deleting stuff I rarely use.

 

So I'm currently playing Dark Souls 2, I love it, despite the horrible, horrible framerate drops in the game. I've tried everything to optimize it, from GeDoSaTo to processor affinity, but those damned framerate drops won't go away, I get about 30 fps average, but when I go to certain places, it goes down to 15 fps. I'm fine with 15 but low fps on the game makes it stutter and choppy rather than just slowing down.

 

Yes so I've been using Opera for years, because only a few people know about it, I won't elaborate much. So I'm reading a guide as I play DS2. Either from Primaguides or IGN, because it won't spoil you much. Like I've said earlier, even the smallest margin matters, so I want to get the most advantage from this game, looking at the guide tells me there is a treasure under my bridge, or an important weapon I've just overlooked, or a Human Effigy/Humanity that will turn your beef jerky yucky undead body to a much better one.

 

I'll cut it from here.

 

 

 

Like I've said, I want a light browser that uses the least memory/RAM/CPU/Disk or whatever you people call it. You know, a browser that runs barebones and only loads pictures and texts, nothing more. If it exists that is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use Chrome on my crappy laptop because they do a good job making it "feel" light, even though it's probably the heaviest browser.

 

If you're looking purely for actual lightness, Firefox can be configured quite a bit. There are also a bunch of super minimalistic browsers like Midori, but most of them (including Midori) are not stable yet and can have trouble with things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know if this is useful, but there's a text FAQ on Dark Souls II (for the Xbox version, but it could apply for your PC version) on GameFAQs. You should be able to open it up using Notepad/WordPad, and it shouldn't take up a lot of your memory. Of course, maybe you've tried that FAQ already and dislike it...?

 

Here's the link: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/693333-dark-souls-ii/faqs/69278

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(for example now Firefox uses ~225k of memory with only this page open).

 

Really? That's a lot if you ask me. My Opera uses only about 20-50 mb of memory with this tab opened. Checking my task manager, there are 4 Opera exes opened, idk why there's four instances, but one uses 56 mb, one 44, one 32, and one 22 add that up and you get 154 mb in total. Even with that usage, I'm still paranoid with the values, even though it's only about 3% of my total ram.

 

There are also a bunch of super minimalistic browsers like Midori

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll probably try it out when it gets stable or mainstream :p

 

+1 Thanks Misc Staple, I'm going to check it out now. I like walkthroughs that point out nearby treasures or the "be careful because this enemy can" types. I hate guides that are too much detailed and spoils too much that it can turn into a novel. I've searched for Dark Souls 2 Walkthrough in the net and everything that appears is the pdf guide you have to pay or IGN and Prima's.

 

Thanks again guys for your great help :3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First off, you might want to use something like Process Explorer:

 

http://technet.micro...s/bb896653.aspx

 

to see where the bottleneck occurs. It might be RAM like you're thinking, or it might be something like disk I/O, or something more obscure like CPU cache misses.

 

Re the browser, I'd encourage using a Javascript blocker extension, or disabling Javascript for all sites except trusted ones (Chrome and Opera can both do this). Javascript is responsible for most of the memory and CPU load on modern websites, and third-party JS content is also one of the largest security risks.

 

Edit: err, I didn't realize Dark Souls II was released this year. What are the specs on your laptop? At a guess, I'd say the hardware may simply be inadequate for a graphics-intensive game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Edit: err, I didn't realize Dark Souls II was released this year. What are the specs on your laptop? At a guess, I'd say the hardware may simply be inadequate for a graphics-intensive game.

 

Yeah, I barely reached the minimum requirements for it. My laptop is:

 

HP Intel Core i5

Intel Graphics 4000

4GB RAM

Windows 8

 

In the lowest settings with the GeDoSaTo enabled, I get about 30-40 fps on average. But in some instances, it goes down to 15-20 fps. But there's nothing I could do about it, and it's not a very good PC port either *shrugs* The heavy stuttering starts when I go to narrow pathways, dark chambers lit by flickering torches, or the draw distance of Majula.

 

Oh well, so much for that. I knew those Javascript things are hogging memory. I'll keep that in mind, for future use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really? That's a lot if you ask me. My Opera uses only about 20-50 mb of memory with this tab opened. Checking my task manager, there are 4 Opera exes opened, idk why there's four instances, but one uses 56 mb, one 44, one 32, and one 22 add that up and you get 154 mb in total. Even with that usage, I'm still paranoid with the values, even though it's only about 3% of my total ram.

 

1/10th of what your opera used at least. Ofcourse I had still several other pages visited in browser's history (for example Seamonkey uses bit over 90k memory with only google's search results and sw's mainpage in memory).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i'm sure there's a windows or cygwin port of lynx out there somewhere

 

go big or go home right

Edited by sylae
but for reals, i love firefox to death, but even if it has vastly improved its memory usage since the 2.x days, it's still a hog compared to chrome (i currently have 9 tabs open and a double-handful of addons, and i'm sitting at 0.8 GiB ram)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lightweight and snappy, I'll go ahead and recommend Chromium.

 

http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/download-chromium

 

Chromium is a cousin to Google Chrome, which is also suitable to what you want, but Chromium is a little less invasive if you're worried about that. I use it for general browsing.

 

 

You may also take a look at PaleMoon. They take Firefox, strip out some of the junk and re-optimize and repackage it. It's the browser I use for work-related things: http://www.palemoon.org very efficient running browser.

 

And sounds like you already know about Opera. It's the browser I use for gaming type stuff... Steam, GoG, etc, and what I'm postin ghere from.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...