Do multiple open tabs in a browser consume VRAM even if they are not currently displayed?

Question

I often have many tabs open in my Firefox browser, and it crashes often. I have the maximum RAM that my system practically permits.

I've read a comment that having many tabs open will increase the memory utilization of your graphics card's VRAM. I've also read another post that claims that only the pixels that you currently see on your screen are typically stored in VRAM.

Suppose I have 50 tabs open in Firefox* and I give focus to Firefox in Windows 10 (one of the 50 tabs is currently displayed), do the other 49 tabs that are currently not displayed consume any data in the dedicated video card's VRAM?

*they are all loaded in main/system memory; i.e., I don't use an extension that saves tabs to disk and I didn't just reload my tabs, where some tabs only load again after you click on them

Answer 1

Your video card only uses VRAM to display whats on the screen and what will be displaying next.

The number of tabs you have open in Firefox have no affect on VRAM, unless you have hardware accelerated videos playing in the background.

What is most likely causing Firefox to crash is Firefox itself, or its addons. And this is exacerbated by the number of tabs you have open.