Google Chrome has always been a resource hog, but you may have noticed it's been consuming just a little bit more RAM lately (on your desktop).

This new more demanding Chrome is because of the Google's Spectre mitigation efforts.
The Google Chrome security team has enabled site isolation as a default (in Chrome v67 for desktops). Justin Schuh, head of Google Chrome Security, explained that site isolation separates each website process thereby preventing a malicious tab from stealing data from another.

Don't expect to see this update on the Android version anytime soon, the resource consumption requirements are too high (for now).

Chrome is obviously my browser of choice but I have been concerned at the amount of resources it requires and this move (although right from a security perspective) further pushes Chrome in the wrong direction. 

Additional reading:

• Google Security Blog
• Chromium project site isolation write-up