Here is some news on this front, but only for Chromium at this point in time:


Google Chrome Gets Option To Free Up Memory

The memory usage of modern web browsers has increased quite a bit over the years which can be attributed to the increased functionality but also to plugins and extensions that use computer memory as well when the web browser is running. Google Chrome and Chromium make it easier for the user thanks to the build in task manager to find out those components and plugins that are responsible for the largest memory usage.

The keyboard shortcut Shift Esc will open the Google chrome task manager that will display the memory usage of the plugins, tabs and core browser. The task manager displays the page or plugin, the memory usage and cpu usage. Initially Google Chrome users had only the option to end a process listed but the latest Chromium builds outline an improvement.



The developers have added a purge memory button to Chromium which will eventually be included into Google Chrome builds as well. For now it has to be activated with the startup parameter –purge-memory-button.

A click on the button will free up memory in Chromium which can be very interesting for users who work with the web browser all the time. Firefox users have a similar option with the third party program Firefox ultimate Optimizer which can drop the memory usage of the web browser significantly.

Users who are interested in this new feature have to download a Chromium build for now as this is the only version that supports the purge memory startup parameter currently. (via Download Squad)


Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2009/12/02/goo...ree-up-memory/

Cool thanks for the heads up.
Will be eager to try this once it makes it to the dev version.

the correct comand line should be

--purge-memory-button

In the meanwhile, you can use this: http://www.koshyjohn.com/software/memclean.html

It works great and reduces the memory used by the extensions also.

I use this tool to reduce cpu and memory usage for google chrome or chrome plusChrome Memory Zip v1.0Download : http://goo.gl/wdysg

ALL Browsers Memory Zip 1.1 reduce cpu and memory usage for IE, Firefox, Chrome , Chrome Plus, Safari, Opera - Avant - Chromium - Download : http://goo.gl/F8NES