Microsoft releases beta Edge browser with hard RAM limiter to improve multitasking performance especially during gaming

Microsoft has released a new version of its Edge browser with a hard RAM limiter setting. Edge version 125 beta can be set to use RAM from as high as 16 GB to as low as 1 GB. This helps prevent heavy browser use from impacting other applications, especially on systems with lower amounts of RAM.

In the early days of the Internet, HTML and Javascript to describe web pages were much simpler. Data connections were also slower and often used 56 kb modems. This combination resulted in smart optimization of web pages, email, chat, and social media sites, and pages rarely exceeded 100 KB in size. However, lazy web programmers along with faster internet connections and expansion of HTML and Javascript have resulted in bloated web pages that often exceed 2,000 KB, an explosion over 20x in data usage.

Coupled with code for advertisements and cookies, fancy fonts, and client-side Javascript/CSS graphical elements, browser tabs can easily use hundreds of megabytes per tab. Simply opening two to three modern web pages can consume over 4 GB using a web browser like Chrome, greatly impacting performance when gaming or multitasking heavily.

Microsoft switched from using a proprietary web rendering engine used in Internet Explorer and Edge Classic to the same used in Chrome with the current version of Edge, so the browser has similar issues with using too much RAM. Microsoft earlier introduced Sleeping Tabs as an attempt to free RAM, but the browser can still use up all 4 GB of physical RAM simply browsing a few heavy websites on systems meeting minimum Windows 11 system requirements.

A new section called Resource Controls can be turned on to limit RAM usage during only gaming or at all times. A slider allows users to select 1 GB to 16 GB of RAM as the hard limit. While a low RAM setting can impact browser performance, more free RAM allows the system to multitask better especially while gaming.

Readers who want to try the beta Edge browser can visit the Edge Insider webpage today or simply wait a few more releases for this feature to be added to the regular releases. Those who don’t want to tweak RAM settings can simply buy a powerful notebook with 128 GB RAM (like this one at Amazon).