Carryover from the BBS. Screenshot of the spreadsheet I put together after another round of tests. This are memory only. CPU was inconsequential last time so I didnt bother this time. My main focus is Safari vs Firefox, I threw Edge in just to see. I already removed Brave from my system so I didnt test it. The sheet tallies all the processes related to the Browser. Where there are multiples of the same process, they were collapsed into 1 entry with all the values included (Helpers, Renderers, Web Content IIRC). I also removed (completely) the theme I had on Firefox during the last tests.
My system is Apple PowerBook 14" with 32GB LPDDR5 memory and M1 Max processor (12 core CPU, 32 core GPU) @3.2Ghz.
Safari still beats out Firefox, but not Edge with the same 2 tabs open. I tested with extensions I use, rather than just vanilla browsers. Safari using 1Blocker and 1Password. Firefox using Ghostery and 1Password. Edge using nothing. I suspect Edge would be higher with Ghostery and 1Password extensions loaded.
Safari and Firefox performance is pretty on par. Sometimes I think Firefox may be a bit faster, but not loading time. Firefox is sliightly slower to load, and Edge takes an eternity compared to Safari.
With Firefox on Strict and Ghostery combined, a few things still slip past. Safari with 1Blocker does a great job preventing annoyances. With 2 tabs open, Firefox is essentially double the memory footprint (unless the Activity Monitor is lieing). Interestingly Safari has processes running even when its not open, at least they dont grow in size!
I guess it doesnt matter for the most part since there are plenty of resources to throw at it. One thing I'm not sold on is having to stay logged into Firefox account in order to sync. I'll most likely use Firefox as a primary browser since it will also work across platforms.
Wade