First, check whether your browser is the problem

You don’t have to install anything to find out. Start your game, keep the tabs you’d normally have open, and then:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. On a Mac, open Activity Monitor from Applications › Utilities.
2. On the Processes tab, click the Memory column header to sort by it.
3. Expand your browser’s entry. Tabs, extensions and helper processes are listed separately, and the total sits on the top line.

Why browsers get so heavy

Chrome, Edge, Brave and Opera all run on Chromium, which splits the browser into many processes: each tab, extension and helper gets its own. That keeps one crashed tab from taking the rest down with it, but every process carries its own memory overhead. A paused YouTube tab, a dashboard that refreshes itself and a couple of chat apps add up fast.

When the game and the browser together want more RAM than you have, Windows starts pushing data to the page file on your drive. Reading it back is much slower than reading RAM, and that is often the hitch you feel when you alt-tab or load into a new area. Your connection works the same way. A large download or an HD stream shares the line with the game server, and your ping goes up.

What Chrome and Edge already do, and where they stop

To be fair to the browser you’re using now, Chrome and Edge both have tools that help. Chrome’s Memory Saver and Edge’s sleeping tabs free memory from tabs you haven’t touched in a while. What neither offers is a limit you set yourself.

Built-in settings as of October 2026, without extensions.

Set up Opera GX in five steps

1. Install Opera GX

   Download the installer and run it. You don’t need an Opera account. If you’d rather not make GX your default browser yet, click Options in the installer and untick that box. That way you can run both browsers side by side for a few days and compare.

   Get the installer →

2. Bring over bookmarks, passwords and extensions

   Open Settings with Alt + P (Cmd + , on a Mac), go to Synchronization › Import bookmarks and settings, then pick the browser you’re coming from and what to copy. Your old browser keeps all its data. Nothing is moved, only copied.

   GX is built on Chromium, so most extensions from the Chrome Web Store install as they are.

3. Cap RAM with the RAM limiter

   Click the speedometer icon in the left sidebar to open GX Control. If you can’t see it, click the three-dot icon at the bottom of the sidebar and switch GX Control on there. Turn on RAM limiter and drag the slider.

   Your PC’s RAM	Starting limit while gaming
   8 GB	1.5 to 2 GB
   16 GB	2 to 4 GB
   32 GB or more	4 to 6 GB, or leave it off

   These are starting points for gaming sessions, when the game needs the room. For everyday browsing, Opera suggests a looser limit of about half your RAM on a mid-range PC. If tabs reload more often than you’d like, nudge the slider up.

   Hard limit is the stricter option: GX drops non-active tabs from memory immediately, and they reload when you click back to them. It’s most useful on 8 GB machines.

4. Cap CPU with the CPU limiter

   In the same panel, turn on CPU limiter and set a percentage. GX then throttles its background tabs so they can’t take processor time your game needs. On a 6 or 8-core CPU, 25 to 30% is a sensible place to start. Raise it if pages begin to feel sluggish.

5. Cap bandwidth and clear out the worst tabs

   Network limiter sets a ceiling on how much of your connection the browser may use. It helps if you download files or watch streams while playing online. About half your line speed leaves the game plenty of headroom.

   Hot Tabs Killer shows which tabs are using the most RAM and CPU right now, and closes the worst one with a single click. Worth a tap before you queue for a match.

Optional extras worth a look

• Discord and Twitch in the sidebarChat with your party or keep an eye on a stream without another window open.
• Built-in ad and tracker blockerFewer ad scripts on each page means less work for your CPU, too.
• Free browser VPNNo account, no data cap, servers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. It covers browser traffic only, not your games.
• GX CornerFree game giveaways, deals and a release calendar on the start page.
• Themes, sounds and modsGX comes with browser sounds and background music. Both can be switched off in settings if you like a quiet browser.
• Phone appsGX is also on Android and iOS, with Flow for sending links and files between phone and PC.

What to expect after the switch

Honest answer: Opera GX won’t make your graphics card faster. What changes is that the browser stops fighting the game for resources. You’ll notice it most on 8 to 16 GB machines and on laptops, and when you stream, record or keep a lot of tabs open. On a 32 GB desktop with a handful of tabs you might not notice anything at all, which simply means your browser wasn’t the bottleneck.

To see the effect on your own PC, repeat the Task Manager check from the top of this guide with the limits switched on.

Who should skip it

• You have 32 GB of RAM or more and rarely keep more than a few tabs open while you play.
• You want a minimal-looking browser. GX is packed with features and visual flair. Most of it can be turned off, but out of the box it is busy.
• You rely on Chrome sync with an Android phone. GX uses its own sync, so Chrome’s history and open tabs on your phone won’t follow you.
• You’re strict about telemetry. Like most browsers, GX can send usage statistics to its maker. Review the options under Settings › Privacy & security after installing.

FAQ

How we put this guide together: settings paths and feature descriptions follow Opera’s own documentation for Opera GX as of October 2026. The starting values for each limit are general rules of thumb, so adjust them to your hardware. Cyberessentials may earn a commission when you install through links on this page.