Critical Memory Managemen & Energy Usage Orion+

oyiko

System Configuration

Note:
The report was partially created with Kagi Assistant and my own input describing the situation.
After 4h Orion+ crashed the WindowServer and logged me out.
For some Reason eventhough I have Orion+ it doesn't showup on my Account Badge.
🙂 Did I do something wrong

Device: MacBook Pro M1 Max
RAM: 64GB Unified Memory Architecture (UMA)
Storage: 2TB SSD
OS: macOS 26
Browser: Orion RC with Orion+ subscription, no plugins or extension in both Browsers
Test Duration: Weekend testing (continuous monitoring)

Issue Summary

Orion RC exhibits severe memory management problems leading to:

Negative shared memory allocation (-16KB)
Excessive memory growth (425GB+ after 1 minute)
Sustained high energy consumption
Private memory usage reaching 2-3.75GB

Threads: 9
Ports: 9918
CPU Time: 1:48.13
Context Switches:
Faults: 677232
Page Ins: 2344
Mach System Calls: 2445021
Unix System Calls: 8193614

Actual Behavior (Current Issues)

Memory Management - Actual

Shared Memory Allocation:

❌ Negative value (-16KB) - indicates critical allocator failure
❌ Impossible memory state suggesting corrupted memory management

Private Memory Usage:

❌ Exceeds 425GB within 1 minute (85,000x expected usage)
❌ Sustained 2-3.75GB usage even during idle periods
❌ No memory stabilization or garbage collection effectiveness

Memory Growth Pattern:

❌ Exponential growth continuing indefinitely
❌ No plateau or stabilization period
❌ Memory never released back to system

Energy Consumption - Actual

CPU Usage:

❌ Consistently maxed out energy usage rating
❌ High CPU usage even with idle tabs
❌ No reduction in energy consumption over time

Energy Impact:

❌ Sustained "High" energy impact throughout testing period
❌ Significant battery drain even during idle periods
❌ Thermal throttling and increased fan activity

Process Management - Actual

Tab Isolation:

❌ Memory leaks between tab processes
❌ Cascading memory allocation failures
❌ Process cleanup not functioning properly

Garbage Collection:

❌ Garbage collection cycles ineffective or not occurring
❌ Memory accumulation without cleanup
❌ JavaScript heap growing unbounded

Technical Evidence from Sample Analysis

Key Problematic Function Calls Identified:

Memory allocation failures in WebKit rendering processes
Excessive DOM node creation without proper garbage collection
Tab process isolation creating memory leaks between processes
JavaScript engine retaining objects beyond scope lifecycle

Critical Stack Traces:

Multiple instances of memory allocation failures
WebProcess consuming disproportionate memory
GPU process memory not being released properly
Network cache growing unbounded

Reproduction Steps

Launch Orion RC with Orion+ enabled
Open 65 tabs in single window
mixed media videos 1 video running Picture by Picture and the rest is static content
Leave browser idle (no video playback or active interaction)
Monitor via Activity Monitor for 1+ minute
Observe memory growth and energy consumption

Impact Assessment

Severity: Critical
User Impact: System performance degradation, potential system instability
Resource Waste: Excessive battery drain, thermal throttling

Please Review

**Immediate: Implement memory allocation bounds checking
Short-term: Review garbage collection cycles in WebKit integration
Long-term: Optimize tab process isolation and memory sharing mechanisms

Additional Notes

Issue persists across both Orion+ RC and regular release versions
No sensitive user data exposed in provided samples

sample-of-orion-rc-07-08-2024-2.txt

808kB

sample-of-orion-rc-07-08-2024.txt

230kB

Performance Benchmarks Expected vs Actual

Metric	Expected (65 tabs)	Actual	Variance
Shared Memory	50-200MB	-16KB	Invalid state
Private Memory	200-500MB	2-3.75GB	750-1875% increase
Peak Memory	1-1.5GB	425GB+	28,333%+ increase
Energy Rating	Low-Medium	High (maxed)	Critical
Stabilization Time	2-3 minutes	Never	Infinite

Private Memory Usage:

Initial load: 200-500MB for 65 tabs (depending on content complexity)
Stabilization: Should plateau within 2-3 minutes after page loads complete
Idle state: Memory should decrease as inactive tabs are suspended
Maximum reasonable usage: 1-1.5GB for 65 tabs on a 64GB system

Memory Growth Pattern:

Initial spike during tab loading (first 30-60 seconds)
Gradual stabilization as JavaScript execution completes
Periodic small increases/decreases due to garbage collection cycles
Long-term stability with minimal growth during idle periods

Energy Impact:

"Low" to "Medium" energy impact rating after initial load
Should not consistently show "High" energy usage for idle tabs
Battery life impact should be minimal when browser is backgrounded

GPU Usage:

Minimal GPU usage for static content
Should release GPU resources when not actively rendering

Process Management - Expected

Tab Isolation:

Each tab process should have defined memory boundaries
Crashed tabs should not affect other tabs' memory allocation
Process cleanup should occur when tabs are closed

Garbage Collection:

Regular cleanup cycles every 30-60 seconds
Memory should be returned to system after cleanup
JavaScript heap should not grow indefinitely

Memory Management - Expected

Shared Memory Allocation:

Should maintain positive values (typically 50-200MB for shared resources)
Shared memory should contain common resources like fonts, cached images, and system libraries
Should remain relatively stable after initial browser startup

Energy Consumption - Expected

CPU Usage:

High during initial page loads (30-60 seconds)
Should drop to <5% CPU usage when tabs are idle
Periodic brief spikes for background tasks (every 5-10 minutes)

Version 0.99.134.1-rc (WebKit 622.1.9.19.2)

Tahoe (26)

laiz

Hey!
Let's start with an easy answer: Orion+ badges are handled manually, please email support@kagi.com for your badge. In the email, please include a link to your Orionfeedback.org profile.

Secondly, in the future, please refrain from using AI for bug reports as a great deal of the text it adds provides little value. Succinct and organic reports are far, far more useful and significantly more pleasant to read.

Did you encounter anything like this on Sequoia, or was this memory leak introduced following macOS update to macOS 26?

In your reproduction steps, you mention that the impact is noticeable after a minute. Would it be possible to share a screen recording of this? Additionally, comparing Orion to Safari in terms of CPU, memory and power usage would be helpful in determining the significance of this issue.

Lastly, not all tabs are equal so a resource hungry tab like YouTube, Google Docs, or Reddit could easily use more than a gigabyte of memory by itself and that would not be at all unusual.

oyiko

Thanks I will report back later today, after I prepare the videos, and answer the rest.
The memory issue was already when I started using Orion in June last summer, but noticeably got worse, as it would degrade. I thought it might be a WebKit issue, from the regular release and opted to buy the lifetime access, but that one was prior the macos 26 unreliable, still a bit better than the regular Orion release, but now the Memory Allocations are increasingly huge and despite my tests where I have only static content and more than 10 Tabs. Or like above 64 Tabs which are in Hibernation and 1 which plays a youtube video in 1080p and 24Frames per second.
Since macos26 the Crashes now propagte to the System so that at times the crashes doesn't just impact Orion but other Window Servers. So I barley use it anymore, which is fine when I am in a Beta release of the Operating System.

Safari did not have these issues, and though last year summer Orion was a lot faster but the memory allocations we're moderate, this is not the case anymore.
I will report back later today. Thanks @laiz

RoxyRoxyRoxy

oyiko Hi @oyiko, any update on this? Are you still experiencing these issues?