Ads on this site getting unbearable on newest Waterfox

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
10,225
126
I don't know if it's the site ads specifically, or Waterfox's code changes, but on both of my DeskMini units, which have Desktop-class Kaby Lake G4600 3.6Ghz dual-core with HyperThreading CPUs, and used to take very little CPU time (ok, still do), but for some reason, leaving even just one or two active tabs open to AT forums, causes the browser's RAM allocation to bloat up to 6GB or more (I've measured over 10GB of RAM usage!).

When RAM usage for the browser goes above 3GB or so, it suffers a marked decrease in responsiveness. For example, I'll have to hover the mouse cursor over a link for like 3-4 seconds, before it turns into the hand icon and allows me to actually click it.

Loading new tabs in this state is also affected.

Basically, it makes my desktop CPU, which is otherwise fairly powerful, to run like absolute crap.

I'm using the Intel HD 630 iGPU, the most powerful iGPU available from Intel, short of their special "Iris Pro" iGPU.

This is a fairly recent issue, that started not more than a couple of weeks ago.

Around then, and more recently, I've noticed that if I leave tabs open on this site, some of them are CONTINUALLY displaying a "loading" circle.

But I've also noticed that Waterfox's tab back-button history is also affected, by this constant reloading.

It used to be, that I could browse the main index, click a sub-forum, and open a thread, then click back twice, and get back to the main index.

Now, sometimes, my entire back-button history is FILLED with the SAME URL, because it was constantly re-loading, and I have to MANUALLY go back to the URL bar and delete the suffix on the URL to get back to the main index.

That's a minor pain, though, compared to the RAM bloat, and the browser unresponsiveness that comes with it.

I may be forced to use an ad blocker, again.

I did that once before, when this site had Flash ads, from IBM, that literally caused the browser to pause for like five seconds when loading. Such things are unacceptable to me.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
10,225
126
Waterfox is doing this too, on my new Ryzen 5 1600 system with 16GB DDR4, and an Nvidia GTX 1050ti 4GB.

So, it's either Windows 10, or Waterfox, in conjunction with the ads on this site, or Newegg.
 

Malogeek

Golden Member
Mar 5, 2017
1,390
778
136
yaktribe.org
I tried AT for awhile with ads but it's just ridiculous. The performance on low powered devices is horrible so I block them. On mobile it's very difficult to browse the forums as I constantly get "Rats! Open WebGL hit a snag" or something from the ads.

As per my suggestion when I joined, provide a subscription service for ad-free experience. It's very easy with XenForo which I run on my own site. I have a subscription with Beyond 3D for exactly that, and I know it is going towards keeping the site running.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,804
6,361
126
I started blocking Ads here about a month ago for the same reason on FF. Pages would take minutes to load and was bogging FF down.
 

Fardringle

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2000
9,200
765
126
It's a problem with the ad provider. There was a big problem with it several months ago and they did fix it for a while but the ad provider is letting garbage ads back in again. There are some that try to install programs or browser ad-ons, and (my favorite) security trust keys that would let the ad creator have full permissions to do anything it wants on the computer. Definitely not something that we should ever see on a tech site...
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,739
13,855
126
www.anyf.ca
Most ad networks now days are basically spyware/malware. I block ads for that reason more than because of the ads themselves. It's time for site owners (not just this one) to stop supporting these companies and run their own internal ads.
 

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,948
126
i try to leave ads up for anandtech but now these autoplay videos with sound are gonna stop me and im gonna block ads.
 
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Malogeek

Golden Member
Mar 5, 2017
1,390
778
136
yaktribe.org
The problem is that the worse the ad company, the more they pay generally as they allow more nefarious content through.
 

Herr Kutz

Platinum Member
Jun 14, 2009
2,545
242
106
After getting the scrolling Bestbuy ad every time I went to a new page on the mobile site I had to install an ad blocker. No joke, that thing takes about 5 seconds to scroll through.