Chrome will consume more RAM due to Spectre Security Fixes

Chrome is one of the popular browser used by millions of users. While there are other browsers in competition, Chrome is still favorite for many. This week Google revealed that Chrome will consume more RAM due to spectre security fixes. Google published a blog post revealing what Site Isolation is and how is it working on improving security of browser. For chrome browser fans this could be a bad news. Not to worry, Google will improve the browser performance in coming months.

Site isolation is a security feature added to Chrome. It was in version 63 when Google started testing this feature. Most of all Site isolation offers more protection between websites behind the scenes. It doesn’t create extra renderer processes, but there is about a 10-13% total memory overhead in real workloads due to the larger number of processes.

Chrome memory usage will increase across Windows, Mac, and Chrome OS as a result of this change, but Google is working to reduce the impact. “Our team continues to work hard to optimize this behavior to keep Chrome both fast and secure”

Chrome will consume more RAM due to Spectre Security Fixes

As per Google Site Isolation will be available in Chrome 68 for Android. In addition it can be enabled manually on Android. For desktops if you update your Chrome browser to version 67, it comes with a security feature called Site Isolation. This is common for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS. The site isolation is enabled by default. So if you notice your Chrome eating up more RAM, don’t be surprised.

Google is planning to add site isolation feature for Android. Today chrome is installed on most of the android phones. On some phones Chrome browser is a default browser installed. To improve site isolation, Google is also rewarding security researchers who submit security bugs through the Chrome Vulnerability Reward Program.