Here are 6 different steps on how to speed up chrome on Windows, Mac and Linux so that you can get a smoother browsing experience.
Chrome is the most popular web browser on the planet. This is due to the simplicity and also compatibility with various operating system. Another major reason for Google Chrome being so popular is Android. All Android phones come with Google Chrome as their default browser.
Chrome is fast and fluid in all operating systems, and integration with Google ecosystem makes it best for people who use Google services. Even though Chrome provides good performance, it is a resource hungry browser. When you run Chrome on Windows or Mac, you can check the system monitor to check the amount of resources that the browser is using.
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This also depends on the number of tabs open in the browser. When we use Chrome in a PC or laptop which is low on resources, it would create lags and as in case of laptops, we can experience battery drain. Following are some tips and tricks that you can apply to speed up chrome in any operating system.
Ways to speed up chrome on Windows, Mac and Linux
Use less number of tabs in Chrome
Tabbed browsing has changed the way we browse the internet. When it was a single tab browsing earlier, it was really hectic as we may need to option separate windows for each link and switching between them was a hectic job.
Even though it is good to have multiple tabs open at the same time, this could tax the CPU and RAM of the system. Each tab in Google Chrome would need certain amount of RAM as it is considered to be a process running in the background.
When we minimize chrome with many tabs open in it, the browser keeps using the memory and CPU in, which could cause lag while using other apps in the system. It also increases battery drain when it comes to laptops.
Due to low resources, the opened tab may crash and cause data loss as well. So based on your system config, keep the number of tabs limited.
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Clear browsing data once in a while
It is convenient to keep the browsing data, which helps in easily loading the pages that we have visited in history. In time, this data gets build up in the cache and eating up more memory. As we know, all the websites update their contents regularly, keeping outdated content on our cache memory has no use. Cache and cookies use resources in the background.
Cookies of a website get stored in the system without your knowledge. They keep syncing with the internet to provide promotional offers and information to you. Over time this will slow up the browser and system.
Clearing cache and cookies will help speeding up the system and the browser also provide a faster browsing experience. To clear cache and cookies on chrome, follow the steps below.
- Go to “chrome://settings/privacy” in your Chrome browser, or click on the 3 vertical dots shown to the side of your profile picture at the top right.
- Now click on settings and then select Privacy and Security
- Check through each section on the list shown in this page, or directly click on the “Clear Browsing Data” button.
- In the next page, click on the “Clear Data” button. Make sure that you have selected all data that is needed to be cleared.
- Doing this will clear all your browsing history, cookies and unwanted cache files.
Enable memory saver mode in chrome
As we discussed in previous points, when tabs are left open for long time in background, they eat up your system resources, leading to slowness. To avoid this, it’s good to close all the unwanted windows and tabs in a browser. If you cannot do it manually, there is an option built in chrome which can handle it.
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It is called memory saver mode. It can be enabled in settings. When a tab goes inactive, this mode frees up the memory used by that tab and the memory will be available for the tab that is active. This will make the performance better and also smoother browsing experience.
To enable memory saver mode in Google Chrome, follow the steps below
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click on the 3 dots in the top right and go to settings.
- Select the “Performance” tab from the sidebar.
- Here you will find “Memory saver mode” listed.
- Turn it on
You can add a specific website where you want to disable this mode. It can be done by adding the URL after clicking the “Add” button in the page.
Turn ON GPU rasterization feature in chrome
Google Chrome comes with a lot of hidden features that you can’t access directly. There are many flags that and feature that you can enable by going to advance settings of chrome. One thing to note here is that, you should be careful before turning ON different flags and features. Only do it if necessary and you are sure about it.
GPU rasterization helps to switch the process of loading HTML, CSS to the GPU of the system, freeing up the CPU. By default, these processes are handled by CPU and enabling this feature will make it better as GPU can handle these things better.
Once you have enabled this feature, check if all the websites load as expected in your browser. If you see any issues here, revert the change. To enable this feature, enter chrome://flags in the URL bar and hit enter.
In this page you will find various hidden settings. In the search box, enter “GPU rasterization” and there will be an option listed. Click on the dropdown shown on the right and select the value as “Enabled”.
Once done, this feature will be enabled and there will be a boost in performance of chrome.
Enable Hardware acceleration in Google Chrome
This feature helps chrome to assign tasks based on the needed resources. If the page has lot of graphical elements, the process is given to GPU instead of CPU, which makes the page to load faster on chrome.
By doing this, CPU can work on other tasks, making the browsing experience smoother. With this way, the resources of your system are handled in a better way. Here is how you can enable hardware acceleration in Google Chrome
Click on the 3 dots at the top right of the browser > Click on Settings > Select the “System” option from the sidebar.
Here you will find a toggle to turn on hardware acceleration. Turn it ON and your Chrome will perform better.
Removed extensions from chrome
Extensions come handy while using Google Chrome. They help to make our work easier, but we install some extensions for specific need and forget about them later on. Extensions are same as apps installed in any PC or Laptop. They use your storage space and also keeps syncing in the background without your knowledge.
This will tax, your CPU and GPU. Also, they will use your data as well, resulting in slowing down the web browsing. You should always keep track of the extensions installed and remove them if they are not needed.
Follow the steps below to remove extensions from Google Chrome.
Open Google Chrome > Click on the 3 dots on the top right > Select more tools and click “Extensions”. Here you will find all the extensions installed in your chrome app. To uninstall the extension, click on the remove button shown with each extension, and it will be removed.
Removing some of them may need to close and reopen your Chrome browser. Once done, your Google Chrome will speed up.
Even after doing all the above steps, if Google Chrome is laggy, then there will be issues with the amount of system resources. You can try increasing the RAM or Switching to SSD from HDD. As a final step, you can reset the chrome installed in your browser.
Here is how to reset Google Chrome
The process of resetting chrome on Windows, Mac and Linux is similar. Click on the 3 dots at the top right and go to settings. In this page you will find an option called “Reset Settings” Click on it and then click on “Restore settings to their original defaults” followed by “Reset Settings” in the resulting popover.
After this all the extensions, cookies, cache and settings of your Chrome browser will be reset to default which will resolve any issues and make it faster. One more thing to consider is to make sure if the Chrome version that you have installed in the latest version. If not, update it to latest version.
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