To do so, each browser was configured to open new URLs from the command line into new tabs, with each previous page being kept accessible from the tabbed interface. After 30 URLs were tested in all four browsers, the software prompted the author to close all tabs in the browsers except one tab. Every three seconds the memory watcher program recorded the memory usage.
The results showed:
that Firefox (327.65 MB) had the smallest peak memory usage followed by Safari (517.00 MB), then Opera (554.11 MB) and then Chrome (1216.16 MB) with the largest peak memory usage
that Firefox (166.82 MB) had the smallest average memory usage followed by Safari (319.44 MB), then Opera (347.45 MB) and then Chrome (543.83 MB) with the largest average memory usage
that Firefox (106.66 MB) had the smallest final memory usage (=memory after all tabs are closed followed by Chrome (109.49 MB) , then Safari (349.62 MB) and then Opera (441.49 MB) with the largest final memory usage
From the results it can be concluded that Firefox 3.5 is the best in memory usage. Firefox 3.5 showed the best memory efficiency in the average, maximum and final measurements.
Read the results of this research in detail here
ubuntu-chic (664)
Canon LBP2900 driver for linux (534)
Knoppix (531)
On my system, Chrome with 10 opened tabs and 5 extensions opens 20 processes (chrome.exe) which use up 450 MB RAM. Firefox with 26 tabs and 32 extensions: 280 MB.