Firefox use a lot of xorg resources (much more than other browsers). But I think your problem may be related to hardware acceleration. - Open Iceweasel and disable this option: ![firefox][1] - Exit of Iceweasel and look in top if this is closed. - Run Iceweasel and try again the websites. Next steps: - If the problem persist, try with the official version of Firefox. - If the problem persist with the official version, report to Mozilla. - If the problem only occur with Iceweasel, report to Debian. [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/EDmql.png