Opera launches the 'world's first gaming browser'

[Cal Jeffrey]

WTF?! What makes a gaming browser? According to Opera, which invented the term, it has to have customizable CPU and RAM limiters, Twitch integration, a dedicated gaming-related tab, sound FX… Oh, and red neon lighting. Actually the whole package looks and sounds pretty cool.

Usually, when we think of E3 announcements, we think of big gaming companies like Square Enix, Bethesda, EA, and others wowing us with their newest game releases. Sony and Microsoft have often used it to unveil new hardware as well.

This year’s out-of-left-field award goes to Opera Software and its launch of a new browser. Billed as the “world’s first gaming browser,” Opera GX is a customized version of the Opera web browser that has some nifty features.

To start with, Opera GX allows users to set limits on how much RAM and CPU cycles the browser is allowed to use. Depending on the website and how many tabs one has open, browsers can suck up a lot of resources, and Chrome has been notorious for being a hog.

Having set limits will theoretically allow users to run the browser while gaming without getting hit in the performance department too hard. If you have ever tried consulting an online walkthrough or strategy guide while playing, this feature makes total sense. The browser’s control panel also displays the volume of resources being used in real time.

Opera GX has a dedicated tab, called GX Corner, for deals in gaming and currently circulating news stories. It also has Twitch integration. Just log in to Twitch in Opera and the left-hand sidebar will give you quick access to your feeds and will notify you when your favorite streamers go live.

The interface has a dark theme with neon red trim, but Opera says the color is customizable. It gives it a very gamer-like look. GX also has sound effects that were created by Rubén Rincón, and the band Berlinist, who were nominated for BAFTA awards for the soundtrack appearing in the game Gris. Of course, if you don’t like noisy browsing, you can easily toggle off the effects.

Several standard Opera features have carried over to GX as well, including integrated chat services from various platforms, an ad blocker, and a free VPN service. Of course, any extensions available for Opera and Chrome are also compatible with the GX version.

Opera GX is available starting today in early access form. Although, the regular Opera browser is available for Windows, macOS and Linux, Opera GX is only available for Windows. It is unclear if additional versions are in the works.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/80468-opera-launches-world-first-gaming-browser.html

 

[ghostf1re]

I don't see any reason for this to pull me away from Chrome or Firefox honestly.

 

[DukeJukem]

Limiting the ram and cpu usage of a browser or any other program can already be done with process lasso so it's kind of a weak feature if u ask me. anyone running a true gaming rig isn't going to need to limit the ram and cpu usage of opera. it's not like we are mining from within the browser while we game or something

 

[psycros]

Maybe they could have focused on making the Chromium engine more efficient...? Also, I'll never understand people who have 15 tabs open. It takes only seconds to load most sites.

 

[Karlos95]

Maybe they could have focused on making the Chromium engine more efficient...? Also, I'll never understand people who have 15 tabs open. It takes only seconds to load most sites.

Multitasking. Plus try living in Australia where the internet in some cases is worse than 3rd-world countries...

As I am writing this at work I have 26 tabs open so I can go back to it for work.

 

[texasrattler]

Twitch is something diffenately not needed. Gamers could careless only streamers do.

If you need a ton of tabs open then you arent gaming as a priority n are likely using it for work. Imo shouldnt be gaming to begin with if your not gonna game properly.

either way most of what Opera is doing can also be manually done by the user themselves without any special browser.

 

[GregonMaui]

Maybe they could have focused on making the Chromium engine more efficient...? Also, I'll never understand people who have 15 tabs open. It takes only seconds to load most sites.

Multitasking. Plus try living in Australia where the internet in some cases is worse than 3rd-world countries...

As I am writing this at work I have 26 tabs open so I can go back to it for work.

I'm curious. How much Ram is it using when you do that?

 

[treetops]

Limiting the ram and cpu usage of a browser or any other program can already be done with process lasso so it's kind of a weak feature if u ask me. anyone running a true gaming rig isn't going to need to limit the ram and cpu usage of opera. it's not like we are mining from within the browser while we game or something

That's cool, when I used to game I'd stream a youtube music mix in the background. I've been to lazy to look at the actual cpu resources used, but on my aging system 4 core I think this would actually be a cool feature.

And of course now I had to go look and see! On my 4690k it uses an average of about 3-4% streaming music, 7% with sub hd video and 10% at 1080p 50 fps in task managers CPU usage. 0% idle. Yeah I know I don't need to stream video while listening to music, I can set the default to the lowest res and or maybe somehow set youtube to audio only.

 

[Karlos95]

I'm curious. How much Ram is it using when you do that?

Actually to be exact right now, 26 for 1 window, and 21 tabs across another 3 windows LOL.

Total memory being used is 7.8GB but the browser is only using 3.7GB which is Chrome.
I have total 16GB in my work computer so got half left to use...

 

[bielius]

Maybe they could have focused on making the Chromium engine more efficient...? Also, I'll never understand people who have 15 tabs open. It takes only seconds to load most sites.

Think of it this way... its like bookmarking but not important enough for bookmarking. Also with plugins, it loads only the website that is currently open, not every single tab. My chrome uses 1,2GB with 35 tabs in one window, out of total 16GB, leaving me with plenty enough for a game to run on.

https://imgur.com/a/XKAEbCR

Yet I don't know if all these handles are healthy for my cpu...

 

[ckm88]

Maybe they could have focused on making the Chromium engine more efficient...? Also, I'll never understand people who have 15 tabs open. It takes only seconds to load most sites.

Multitasking. Plus try living in Australia where the internet in some cases is worse than 3rd-world countries...

As I am writing this at work I have 26 tabs open so I can go back to it for work.

But doesn't the tab refresh when you click back into it? Essentially it would be loading the page all over again, yes?

 

[TheBigT42]

Maybe they could have focused on making the Chromium engine more efficient...? Also, I'll never understand people who have 15 tabs open. It takes only seconds to load most sites.

Having multiple tabs open has nothing to do with how fast sites load. I use them for multitasking and researching multiple sources.

 

[Dimitrios]

I have a great idea for them, make a browser where you shoot stupid ads with a cross hair and they vanish forever ;-)

 

[Karlos95]

But doesn't the tab refresh when you click back into it? Essentially it would be loading the page all over again, yes?

Depends what type of website it is. Facebook refreshes without having to be clicked on.

Some don't refresh at all unless you click refresh.

But ultimately it's like what the guy said above you. It's like a bookmark, don't have to find the exact page I am going to but not important enough to bookmark.

It may only take 10 seconds to google the page and find it again but when you are working on multiple projects, that 10 seconds per page can save a lot of time.

 

[onestepforward]

Plus try living in Australia where the internet in some cases is worse than 3rd-world countries...

Not for me. My NBN is 100/40Meg FttP with unlimited downloads. (Tech) life is good. . . .

 

[Karlos95]

Not for me. My NBN is 100/40Meg FttP with unlimited downloads. (Tech) life is good. . . .

Still pretty average compared to the rest of the first world nations. Our gov is backwards and old.

 

[Waikano]

So I've been using it since I saw this article (6 daysish..), I'm on an older machine that only has 8GB and 4-Cores and can't be upgraded anymore....yes I'm in need of a new MOBO/CPU, but really can't justify it right now since it does what I need it to do...I like the resource limiting option a lot, other than I can't find a way to make the settings stick after a reset of the browser. Every time I open the browser I have to reset the resource limitations. We'll see how well it still works after a while, but for now I'm going to be sticking with it when I'm gaming so it won't run away with resources like Chrome does and Firefox does sometimes.

 

[loki1944]

Really disappointed; it is incredibly missing anything that works like uBlacklist; for the kind of browser it pretends to be...this is a deal-breaker.