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Cleaning browser caches: which ones matter for system performance

#windows #performance #tutorial #storage

Modern browsers accumulate gigabytes of cached data. On systems where the browser cache is on the same drive as your game install, large caches cause I/O contention.

Chrome cache locations 

%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache
%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Code Cache
%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\GPUCache
%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\ShaderCache
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The GPU cache and shader cache can grow to several hundred MB. These are safe to delete — Chrome rebuilds them.

Edge cache 

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Cache
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Code Cache
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\GPUCache
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Edge also has a System Profile cache separate from your user profile.

Firefox cache 

%localappdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\cache2
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Brave 

%localappdata%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Cache
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How often to clean

Monthly is sufficient for most users. If you stream video or visit media-heavy sites daily, weekly cleaning keeps cache sizes manageable.

The performance case

Browser caches on NVMe SSDs rarely cause measurable game performance issues. On SATA SSDs with heavy fragmentation or on HDDs, clearing large caches reduces background I/O contention.

IzanagiOP's Cleaner covers all major browser caches in one click. https://terweb.lt/

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