How to increase Chrome performance while working on resource-heavy Google Sheets?

Question

I'm working on a spreadsheet which is full of data and formulas, and I wondered if there is anything I can do to increase the performance of Chrome besides switching to Excel?

My device has 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16 GB RAM so I guess it's not a hardware problem.

P.S. I just added another formula and G Sheets stopped loading at all.

Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

There is no other solution than to simplify the spreadsheet. If the spreadsheet is very complex, Excel will also be slow, although perhaps faster than Google Sheets because it executes on the desktop and not inside a browser.

There are articles to be found for doing that. For example:
Slow Google Sheets? Here are 27 Ideas to Try Today.

I reproduce the list from the above article, but for details see the article itself.

1. How to recognize slow Google Sheets
2. Know the size limits of Google Sheets
3. Measure a Google Sheet’s size
4. Measure a Google Sheet’s calculation speed
5. Delete un-used cells
6. Convert formulas to static values wherever possible
7. Use closed range references
8. Remove volatile functions or use with caution
9. Vlookup strategies
10. Index-Match strategies
11. Query function strategies
12. Array Formula strategies
13. Import Formula strategies
14. Google Finance function strategies
15. Use IF statements to manage formula calls
16. Manage expensive formulas with a control switch
17. Use Filter, Unique and Array_Constrain functions to create smaller helper tables
18. Avoid long calculation chains
19. Reference data on the same Sheet
20. Use helper columns
21. Split your slow Google Sheet into separate Sheets
22. Use Conditional Formatting sparingly
23. Leverage the power of Apps Script
24. Use custom formulas sparingly
25. Other troubleshooting tips for slow Google Sheets
26. Understand changes in the cloud can take time to propagate
27. Know when it’s time to move to a database

Answer 2

I wouldn't know what to do on Windows, but on the Mac, switching to Safari might actually help. No kidding - from my experience, on complex Google Sheets, Safari will be about twice as fast as Chrome.