Can setInterval slow down browser performance drastically?

Question

I am using the popular jquery plugin Masonry to fit my columns nicely in my layout. I am using a setInterval to solve the exact same problem as BoltHead had here: JQuery, setTimeout not working

The solution is to use setTimeout to update the masonry plugin every second like this:

$(function() {
  setInterval(update, 500);
});

    function update() {
        var $container = $('#packages');
        $container.imagesLoaded(function(){
          $container.masonry({
            itemSelector : '.mainPackage',
            columnWidth : 316,
            singleMode: true,
            gutterWidth: 15
          });
        });
    }

Is this a bad idea as far as browser performance? I would think that jquery running this rather hefty function every second would slow things down. Is this a bad practice? The reason I am doing this is because I am using .slideToggle to slidedown more content, thereby needed masonry to readjust the layout. Any thoughts on this solution?

Yes, trying to update every second without any change in the layout would just be using the CPU for nothing. — Bruno Silva, Feb 05 '12 at 04:44
Hypothetically if it is a bad idea to do it every second presumably it's twice as bad to do it twice per second like your code does... — nnnnnn, Feb 05 '12 at 04:45

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 05 '12 at 04:43

3

slideToggle receives callback as second argument, so update your plugin there, something like this:

slideToggle(time, function(){
    update(); // this is your "update" function from question example
});

and yes, it is a bad idea to do that update periodically for no reason.

answered Feb 05 '12 at 04:43

Aleksandar Vucetic

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yes, a callback on the slidetoggle is a much better solution, thanks! – JCHASE11 Feb 05 '12 at 04:46

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 29 '12 at 01:38

0

This depends only on how many block the plugin needs to "masonrify". If you have something like 20-50 blocks, it will be no problem to run the update every 500ms. This is from my personal experience with a case exactly like yours.

answered Dec 29 '12 at 01:38

Sych

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 05 '12 at 04:47

0

In my experience, running something like this will slow the browser down. You may not notice it at first, but the longer the script is running the worse it will get. I really like @vucetica answer.

answered Feb 05 '12 at 04:47

Eric Witchin

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Can setInterval slow down browser performance drastically?

3 Answers3