Description of the issue:
The process “Brave Browser Helper (Renderer)” is consuming over 7GB of RAM and causing performance issues with my machine in the form of RAM exhaustion. I just upgraded Brave to the latest version
(Version 1.65.114 Chromium: 124.0.6367.60 (Official Build) (x86_64)). I did not notice any issues before the upgrade and my usage patterns of Brave have not changed. A few hours after the upgrade and with my regular usage (streaming videos, forum browsing, etc), MacOs warned me that I was running out of RAM and I noticed that the above named Brave process was the largest offender.
How can this issue be reproduced?
I’m not optimistic that someone else could reproduce the same results following the below steps, but I am including them here for completeness in case there is some known issue or others are also experiencing the same high RAM usage with the same version of Brave. Streaming video is the most intense thing that I was doing which might be related to a Brave process that claims to be a rendering helper might be working on.
Stream video on peacocktv.com for a few hours with Brave shields up
Wait until system memory is exhausted and MacOS warns that RAM is about to exhausted
Expected result:
I would have expected that the browser should not be consuming so much memory.
Brave Version( check About Brave):
Version 1.65.114 Chromium: 124.0.6367.60 (Official Build) (x86_64)
Additional Information:
MacOs version: Sonoma 14.4
Mac Model: 2019 Macbook Pro 13 inch
CPU: 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
I was able to reproduce the issue and believe the issue has to do with streaming
video from peacocktv.com. I closed and restarted Brave and open with only 2 tabs: peacocktv.com and this Brave forum. The “Brave Browser Helper (Renderer)” process is continuing to consume more memory and only increase. In 5 min of streaming video, the process is already consuming 1.4GB of RAM.
Thanks for linking the related issue thread. I’m not ruling out that the issues might be related to GPU decoding and offloading to the CPU, but my issue is specifically focusing on the RAM consumption instead of CPU clock consumption.
In this case where RAM exhaustion is the issue as I am reporting, I think this needs to be addressed with high priority by Brave as a legitimate bug. Streaming video is a very common workflow for many users and having one Brave process eat up 8GB of RAM after only 1 hour is unusable. A runaway process continually eating more memory and never freeing it until Brave is quit is a very serious bug that affects usability.
Recent data updates:
7GB+ after 50 minutes of video streaming
8GB+ after 60 minutes of video streaming
In my testing, it does not happen with YouTube. Only peacocktv.com
Yes, in Private Window Mode and no extensions, the same issue happens with peacocktv but not YouTube. Using peacocktv it reached 7GB+ of RAM usage in about 45 minutes
I don’t have Brave Beta.
Based on the issue happening with peacocktv in regular and private, I think there’s enough info to identify the issue is a Brave issue with certain streaming sites. The process “Brave Browser Helper (Renderer)” is continually consuming large amounts of RAM and not freeing any of it until Brave is quit.
Please escalate this to the team to investigate and fix.
CPU Use varied between 10-40, But regarding Ram after 39mins; I am asking if anyone else can replicate this. But in a clean profile on W11 seems fine so far.
All this niggling from the Kiwi trying to overwhelm the question at hand with tech jargon. Just fix the issue instead of grasping at straws trying to tell me why I’m wrong for having raised the question. Fact is, there’s an issue here that remains inadequately addressed.
Since it doesn’t reproduce on Windows 11, it’s possibly a MacOS specific issue. Does the Brave team have the means to test the issue on MacOS? I have reproduced the issue on my system consistently
Yes, it appears on other sites! And mine shot up to 7GB of RAM, and over 96% of CPU Consumption, almost immediately! This is not how a browser should operate, streaming a video does not take rocket science to run without causing my Activity Monitor to max out, and I have 64 GB of RAM, but it still slows everything down. This is obviously some sort of bug, and I just updated Brave yesterday to the current version (1.65.123), so if anything, operations should have improved, not gotten worse…
Thank you for confirming you’ve also reproduced the same issue, @StevenCee! Could you also confirm which sites you reproduced the issue with? I’d also be very helpful to get your system info like I posted mine at the top (Brave Version, MacOs version, Mac Model, CPU). I’d like to get as much info here as possible so we can give the Brave Team the right info to get a fix going.
I posted the Brave version, my Mac OS is Ventura 13.6.6, iMac, CPU is 3.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, 64 GB RAM…
This high usage by the Brave GPU happens no matter what site I’m playing an video on, not just one site.
And my Activity Monitor shows all my RAM is in use (actually more than the 64 GB I have). If I close any videos playing, the CPU usage goes down, but the amount of RAM used by the GPU remains above 7GB, and all my RAM is still shown as in use. Well, 51GB in use, and 14GB cached. And even though I constantly delete browsing cache, it never shows more than 300MB at most, so it never puts a dent in the amount of cached memory shown in the Activity Monitor
This issue (now nearly 8GB RAM, and still 95% of my CPU, & that’s not counting the browser & other windows also open) is really slowing my computer down! Sometimes, like right now, typing lags way behind, which is very annoying. Why is this browser using so much memory & energy, to stream even a single video???
Hi @fanboynz ,
Can we get an update on whether this issue can be escalated for a fix? We have multiple users in this thread other than myself that can confirm this is an on going issue on MacOs that can be reproduced.
Buddy I would advise you to hold off until you are about to expire; perhaps then, a solution will present itself. I use a Mac as well, and I’m experiencing the same problem—but I’m viewing a stream rather than actually streaming. This guy has shown a great deal of reluctance to provide a clear picture of whether or not the issue can be handled. One day, he simply responds, and then vanishes for nearly a week. During that time, the majority of his responses have been variations on the theme “this issue is not seen widely, kindly do the testing on your end.”
I gave him the results 3.5 days ago in my own complaint, and he still hasn’t responded. He asked me to conduct some testing so that he could create/isolate profiles on Brave Beta with shields up and down and other things. I always feel like I shouldn’t be upset because it’s his job and I don’t want him to get a headache, but then he decides that he wants the headache and the client’s painful response to ruin our day.
You can see for yourself that he hasn’t responded to you in the last 11 days. It is likely that he will respond to you within the next two days if you bring him up and give him the impression that you are really irritated. If you are reading this, @fanboynz buddy, do respond. We are not just a group of people waiting for a solution; if you have some free time, feel free to respond to both my post and this guy’s.
With lack of testing, even when asked to test in other Brave builds. I do prefer not to repeat myself. I own 2 macbooks, one m1 and one m2, and have asked one other internal user of mac Intel to test. None of us saw any issues.
Also no exact details on the memory, no screenshots from Brave Task manager. Activity monitor won’t give enough specific details. Again test within other Brave builds with accompanying screenshots.
If there is a fault sure it needs to be investigated or possibly fixed, but currently its isolated to a few people in this thread. Is it the common thread everyone one is on MacOS/Intel?
As you requested, @fanboynz brother, I tested in Brave Beta with shields enabled or disabled, aggressive or standard, and all that. The outcomes were the same as before, which I had informed you about three to four days prior in my post. You have never requested a screenshot or anything similar from me.
In other words, my advice is to be a little more proactive if you require additional information about the matter. You should inquire about information from the posts you are managing and respond to people’s questions and queries more quickly. Doing so should help you pinpoint the issue more quickly.
While I personally dislike being impolite to others, you should be aware that you typically respond back to someone after they’ve become irritated with you for not responding. Therefore, I humbly ask that you respond to the posts a bit more frequently. This will benefit both Your Team (by removing problems and having a better and happier customer base) and Us (by resolving our concerns and enabling us to have a Smooth Experience).
Its not helpful for a passive aggressive nature of this thread, or lumping blame on people rather. In the end all I wanted is more testing here rather make assumptions, so we can see if there is a common thread.
For me its disabled!! Also, to bring to your notice, i also use Insta on Browser and it has also started using High Memory Usage. Attached the Screenshot below. This much memory usage was just 5 minutes after using this site!!
