It works when 1..n of your tabs are frozen, but the UI is still responsive e.g. you are still able to switch to other tabs. If your chrome is completely frozen i.e. you can't even open the chrome task manager, then you usually have to restart the browser.
Chrome does not "lock up", at-least on Windows without extensions. Individual tabs may crash or lock up, but the rest of the interface hasn't done that for a many years.