Opera's Gaming Browser Uses Less RAM and CPU Power Than The Normal Opera

Opera recently announced the GX browser and it’s targeted at gamers and comes with features such as a performance control centre, themes as well as twitch integration.

The truth is I’m not a PC gamer so I’m not best placed to review such a product. Because this is the case I’ll just be taking a look at the browser and tell you the features that it offers and whether I think they are valuable or not.

The browser comes with the “gamer aesthetic” which translates to rough edges, a lot of red and a lot black. It looks like the normal Opera browser only if it went to the gym A LOT. Overall if you like flashy things you’ll like the UI of the Opera GX browser.

Aside from looks, the GX allows touts the following as its headline features:

GX Control – which allows you to control RAM and CPU Usage of the GX browser
Twitch integration – you can link your Twitch account and get notifications when your favourite streamers go live and other notifications
VPN – available on the standard Opera browser
Messenger – available on the standard Opera browser
Ad Blocker – available on the standard Opera browser

We’ll look at GX control and Twitch integration more closely since the other features are available on the non-gamer focused Opera browser.

GX control

I’m not sure what GX stands for but the browser gives you a lot of customizable features.

You can limit the amount of bandwidth the browser gets which means if you want to play an online multiplayer game whilst your browser is running in the background – you can be Opera GX’s guest.

You can also limit the amount of CPU & RAM used by the Opera GX gaming browser. I opened 9 tabs in Opera GX with some limits set and 9 tabs in regular ol’ Opera and you can see the difference for yourselves:

A 45.4% saving in RAM is nothing to scoff at if we’re being honest and Opera GX also cut CPU usage by 37%. So GX Control is worth its weight but if you have a weaker PC you probably shutdown your browser whilst gaming anyway so that the 1GB RAM consumed by Opera GX is 0GB and the instead of 7.8% CPU use you have 0% usage. If you must have your browser on though, Opera GX will make a difference.

If running Chrome or Opera also hogs your RAM this could be a good option, but you’ll have to put up with the gamer-centric UI.

GX Corner

GX Corner is a custom tab that features gaming news and events on a calendar. This is a pretty useful feature for anyone looking to keep up with new releases and gaming events since there’s also a calendar.

Sound effects, anyone?

Apart from the performance and the GX Corner what else is there to talk about? You can enable sound effects even though I found them to be pretty obnoxious. After turning them on I forgot I had done so and was surprised when they popped up whilst I used the browser. The sound effects are produced when you type in the address bar and when you hover over cards in the homescreen. It’s a pretty annoying sound but tastes differ. Luckily you can turn this on/off depending on your preference.

Verdict

If you need a browser which allows you to control the performance in a more granular manner, this will do the trick. Unfortunately, the UI won’t be for everyone and may put some off with its aggressive gamer and edgy aesthetic but it ticks the right boxes.