Microsoft Edge getting new performance mode to improve RAM, CPU, battery usage

American multinational technology company Microsoft has been testing out a new performance mode for its cross-platform web browser, Edge, to improve RAM, CPU, and battery usage.

According to The Verge, this new mode is currently available to some testers who use the Microsoft Edge Canary version of the browser, and others who can enable it manually with a flag.

Microsoft said, "Performance mode helps you optimize speed, responsiveness, memory, CPU and battery usage.

Performance improvements might vary depending on your individual specifications and browser habits." It's not clear exactly how the performance mode changes Edge, but it does affect the Sleeping Tabs feature.

If users enable performance mode, then the Sleeping Tabs timeout will be locked to five minutes.

Microsoft introduced sleeping tabs in Edge earlier this year, allowing the browser to automatically release system resources for inactive tabs when users have a number of tabs open, which helps new tabs run better or stop the browser from hogging memory and CPU resources in the background.

Performance mode in Edge will likely prove most useful for laptop users, as browsers can often have a big impact on battery life.

As per The Verge, Google has also been working on improving Chrome's performance and battery usage over the past six months.

An update in November significantly improved CPU usage, and an update earlier this year improved RAM and GPU usage.