RoboHornet Pro: Microsoft Snubs Google, Mozilla Concurs!

[adamovera]

Last week we broke the story of RoboHornet, a new Web browser performance benchmark. Today, we chronicle the fallout of what is perhaps the worst-received benchmark launch in history, plus add the results of Microsoft's counter-move: RoboHornet Pro.

RoboHornet Pro: Microsoft Snubs Google, Mozilla Concurs! : Read more

 

[techcurious]

A little off topic, but something just occurred to me.. that we had Safari on Windows, but not IE on OSX..
Now that OSX market share is increasing, I wonder if Microsoft will ever release Internet Explorer for OSX, and I wonder if Apple will allow it..

 

[techcurious]

... nevermind.. I would rate myself down if I could.. cause after further thought, I realized that anyone that chose to use OSX over Windows will never choose to use IE over Safari or Firefox.. Something I am sure Microsoft also realizes

 

[dalethepcman]

My one complaint about this article, was the contrast between the massive amount of iOS browsers, and the utter lack of Android browsers. You stated yourself.

Each of these third-party iOS browsers are essentially just a new GUI and additional functionality added to Safari

Why not also test firefox, dolphin, skyfire and stock browsers on android?

 

[dalethepcman]

[citation][nom]techcurious[/nom]... nevermind.. I would rate myself down if I could.. cause after further thought, I realized that anyone that chose to use OSX over Windows will never choose to use IE over Safari or Firefox.. Something I am sure Microsoft also realizes[/citation]

Actually I have many Mac users that would use IE in OSX just for the convenience of pass through authentication, but since its not available they all have a separately purchased copy of windows to run in a VM or access IE through Citrix for domain resources.

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]dalethepcman[/nom]My one complaint about this article, was the contrast between the massive amount of iOS browsers, and the utter lack of Android browsers. You stated yourself.Why not also test firefox, dolphin, skyfire and stock browsers on android?[/citation]
I attempted to, they either wouldn't run the test at all, or they hang indefinitely and are unable to complete it. Stay tuned for the Android Web Browser Grand Prix for the full benchmark results of browsers on that platform.

 

[tipoo]

I agree with Mozilla, perceived speed > benchmarks for browsers. And ironically that's exactly where they fail hardest. Chrome, Opera, heck sometimes even IE10 now always seem more responsive and stay more responsive than Firefox in my experience. I like its font rendering, I like its smooth scrolling (well, IE10 has those too, I think it has to do with DirectWrite more than the browser) but the small instances of UI lag bug me after using Chrome for so long.

 

[tipoo]

Once more I'm puzzled why browsers in OSX are consistently and significantly slower than Windows and Ubuntu, even the same browser cross platform.

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]tipoo[/nom]Once more I'm puzzled why browsers in OSX are consistently and significantly slower than Windows and Ubuntu, even the same browser cross platform.[/citation]
From page 4: "Our current cross-platform test system provides unusually low Web results under OS X Mountain Lion compared to other operating systems. While the OS X browser scores appear to be accurate in relation to each other, none of the OS X scores should be used to draw conclusions about OS X versus the other desktop environments in this test. Until we can pin down the culprit, please view the OS X results as if they were obtained on an entirely different test system."
I have been unable to track down the cause of this problem - I tried every single network driver I could find, multiple re-installs, and different DSDT files. This is the only Hackintosh system we've ever used that has this issue - our older Lynnfield-based rig didn't. Hopefully, when I build a totally new Ivy Bridge-based rig this problem will just go away, if not, I guess I need an actual Mac - but that could leave Linux twisting in the wind since Bootcamp is just for Windows - on paper, anyway

 

[tipoo]

Got ya, I missed that part. Maybe a commenter with a mac can give it a quick run to see how it compares to the hackintosh.

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]tipoo[/nom]Got ya, I missed that part. Maybe a commenter with a mac can give it a quick run to see how it compares to the hackintosh.[/citation]
They have, and they're all reporting Web-related scores are higher on Mac's with lower-end hardware than our test system. Also, our old Lynnfield-based system shows OS X browsers doing way better in relation to Windows browsers on that Hackintosh versus a genuine MacBook Air - so it's definitely our current Hackintosh configuration and not OS X to blame for the lower scores versus other OSes.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]adamovera[/nom]From page 4: "Our current cross-platform test system provides unusually low Web results under OS X Mountain Lion compared to other operating systems. While the OS X browser scores appear to be accurate in relation to each other, none of the OS X scores should be used to draw conclusions about OS X versus the other desktop environments in this test. Until we can pin down the culprit, please view the OS X results as if they were obtained on an entirely different test system."I have been unable to track down the cause of this problem - I tried every single network driver I could find, multiple re-installs, and different DSDT files. This is the only Hackintosh system we've ever used that has this issue - our older Lynnfield-based rig didn't. Hopefully, when I build a totally new Ivy Bridge-based rig this problem will just go away, if not, I guess I need an actual Mac - but that could leave Linux twisting in the wind since Bootcamp is just for Windows - on paper, anyway[/citation]
we saw a similar scoring issue with the 'web browser grand prix mac circuit'. If I remember correctly you were running on a Mac, and Win7 in bootcamp that time, and win7 still beat out the OSX scores, granted not by a huge margin.

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]CaedenV[/nom]we saw a similar scoring issue with the 'web browser grand prix mac circuit'. If I remember correctly you were running on a Mac, and Win7 in bootcamp that time, and win7 still beat out the OSX scores, granted not by a huge margin.[/citation]
Yeah, Windows browsers (on a PC or a Mac) have so far trumped OS X browsers, but not by anywhere near the margins we're seeing on this Hackintosh. Gauging from past articles, the actual OS X scores should be somewhere between Windows 7 and Ubuntu (with Safari essentially being the big in-between) - and that order reflects the amount of resources developers allocate to these OSes.

 

[Cryio]

It breaks my heart when I see in the benchmark listed Opera 12.0x ... since it's basically the WORST release Opera ever had.

Any, none of this browsers are on an equal foot.

Internet Explorer Metro in Windows 8 X64 is running the IE10 in x64 mode, opposed to IE10 desktop which works ONLY in x86.

The future release of Opera 12.10, will be faster on x64 than on x86, because of different coding and different SS2 instruction support. So choose carefully in the future what you benchmark.

 

[LordConrad]

You include Android as a test bed, but the Included videos won't play on Android Jellybean. Very stupid.

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]Cryio[/nom]It breaks my heart when I see in the benchmark listed Opera 12.0x ... since it's basically the WORST release Opera ever had.Any, none of this browsers are on an equal foot.Internet Explorer Metro in Windows 8 X64 is running the IE10 in x64 mode, opposed to IE10 desktop which works ONLY in x86.The future release of Opera 12.10, will be faster on x64 than on x86, because of different coding and different SS2 instruction support. So choose carefully in the future what you benchmark.[/citation]
Opera 12 is perhaps the most disappointing version of Opera ever due to the high expectations it carried, but I'd have to say that the version with a banner ad back in the day was the worst We benchmark stable browsers only (or RTM in the case of IE) and that's been the policy forever. I realize that IE10 Metro is x64, but in the original RoboHornet test we included both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of IE9. I'm not sure what you wanted me to do here: exclude Opera, or make an exception for that browser and run a pre-release version?

 

[meltbox360]

Hmm. Ran this on my playbook. Super smooth background and finished in 77.107 so... BlackBerry Playbook browser is the fastest mobile browser.

Edit: According to this benchmark. Although it scores 30.something on the normal robohornet. Pretty robust and quick, has not had an issue running anything yet...

 

[Cryio]

@Adamovera: You aren't guilty of anything, my friend. It's just Opera version 12 that saddens me. And seeing that you brought it up, since I find v12.0x to be actually THAT awful and unsable (versions 8 to 11.6x tear right through it), a pre-release version here would have helped.

A last thing.... isn't RTM=gold=stable?

 

[Cryio]

unusable*

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]meltbox360[/nom]Hmm. Ran this on my playbook. Super smooth background and finished in 77.107 so... BlackBerry Playbook browser is the fastest mobile browser. Edit: According to this benchmark. Although it scores 30.something on the normal robohornet. Pretty robust and quick, has not had an issue running anything yet...[/citation]
Whoa, that's interesting. Can you send me a screenshot of the results for that device - just click my name in the byline to email me.

Also, if anybody out there has one of those HP WebOS pads and has run the tests, I'd be interested in seeing the results for that, too.

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]Cryio[/nom]@Adamovera: You aren't guilty of anything, my friend. It's just Opera version 12 that saddens me. And seeing that you brought it up, since I find v12.0x to be actually THAT awful and unsable (versions 8 to 11.6x tear right through it), a pre-release version here would have helped.A last thing.... isn't RTM=gold=stable?[/citation]
I hear ya, man. I held one of the WBGPs to include Opera 12 (I think it was late by over a month), and it finally arrived sans all the good stuff
Yeah, when it comes to MS/Apple software the RTM/Golden Master are as good as final (but there is always the possibility of massive day one patches which could change results). I wish Linux distros had an equivalent, in my experience the final RC builds just aren't final.

 

[meltbox360]

Whoa, that's interesting. Can you send me a screenshot of the results for that device - just click my name in the byline to email me.

Also, if anybody out there has one of those HP WebOS pads and has run the tests, I'd be interested in seeing the results for that, too.

I'll link you to a YouTube video sometime soon. Is it alright if I post it in this thread? I'll throw in another video of a robohornet run.

 

[adamovera]

[citation][nom]meltbox360[/nom]I'll link you to a YouTube video sometime soon. Is it alright if I post it in this thread? I'll throw in another video of a robohornet run.[/citation]
Great, that'll work.

 

[meltbox360]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ijx9srqTgw

I will post the regular robohornet run tomorrow. I have a friend with a touchpad. I'll see if he can run it. He may be exclusively android initial now though.

 

[Cryio]

"Yeah, when it comes to MS/Apple software the RTM/Golden Master are as good as final (but there is always the possibility of massive day one patches which could change results)"

Firmly agree. If you have been following any of the Windows 8 forums, there is a truck-load of updates scheduled for General Availability. Alrighty, thanks for stating that, now I get it why you rolled with the RTM label.