Two code changes will make the next version of Chrome the fastest ever

Code optimizations and tab throttling will increase Chrome’s performance by 10% and make background tabs less of a resource hog.

What you need to know

• Google has used optimization techniques to make the next version of Chrome load pages faster.
• Tab throttling is coming to the beta channel and it should give Chrome a lighter footprint.
• Google plans to continue improving Chrome, making it use fewer resources and load pages even faster than ever.

Chrome was designed to be fast, not light on resources. Changes coming with milestone 85 of the Chrome browser will make it even faster while cutting down on the number of system resources it uses.

The first change is what’s known as Profile Guided Optimization. In a nutshell, this means that the most important bits and pieces of Chrome will run faster through streamlining the code Chrome is built from. PGO was first built for milestone 53 version for Windows using Microsoft’s Visual C++ coding language. That’s now changed, and milestone 85 will see PGO rewritten for Windows and Mac using the Clang programming language.

PGO works by looking at the data of how we actually use Chrome to surf the web. Google are pros when it comes to reading and interpreting data and this should be no different. Who doesn’t want a web browser that’s 10% faster, right?

Tab throttling is also coming to the beta channel, and it works by limiting resource usage for tabs you have kept in the background for a long time, freeing them for use by the system. This will make Chrome use less memory, less battery power, and make the tabs we’re actually using faster.

Chrome is a huge project and like most programs of its size, it can tend to get bogged down over time as features are added. These two changes should make a significant impact and future improvements will make Chrome run even faster and smoother on every computer.

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