Web Browser Grand Prix 3: IE9 Enters The Race

[davewolfgang]

This article is terrible. I love how there's a Firefox 4 final build link ON YOUR OWN SITE IN THE NEWS and it's not included in the test. Way to drop the ball.

Just a hint: The testing was actually done a week ago, it wasn't done TODAY. /sigh

 

[youssef 2010]

You forgot to add that google is far less stable than firefox or IE. I have two computers running chrome (on Vista X86 & 7 X64) and google chrome always crashes on 7 & when opening specific sites on vista. Also, Firefox is less stable than IE 9 as IE9 closes crashed tabs while firefox just collapses the entire session. Just Imagine having to re-open sessions on a regular basis. Also, about the memory usage issues, Firefox becomes sluggish after several days of continuous activity, unlike IE9 which has never slowed down. IMHO, IE9 is a much better browser than the other two.Microsoft really came through with this one

 

[youssef 2010]

[citation][nom]pirateboy[/nom]I wonder how much microsoft paid tomshardware not to include Firefox 4 RC1[/citation]

Hello, it is an RC and this round-up is for final releases only

 

[Guest]

liars. Never coming back to Toms Hardware + telling everyone you sold your soul.

 

[clarence_t]

I don't understand all the whining about Firefox 4. While I would certainly like to see its test results, it's very likely still going to be placed last in performance testing. Although I've always shied away from IE in the past, Microsoft HAS done a good job with IE9 - give credit where credit is due.

 

[mitch074]

What's the difference between a Mozilla RC and a Microsoft RC? Answer: a partial rewrite and a recompile for IE.

Good article. Very bad publishing date.

 

[mitch074]

@clarence_t: as a matter of fact, in some tests Firefox 4 scores better than IE9.

 

[EVILNOD]

come on TH.. this is tech site correct?? i would expect ppl come to this site would also the type of ppl using FF4 RC instead of age old FF3.6

i know this been done weeks ago but you really should wait for just another week. its like compare ie6 to ie9 not even fair.

 

[aznjoka]

I have been using Opera for years, I'm glad it managed top dog for a while now. Congratulations to IE9 about to download and try it out. To those Google Chrome sheep who used Google Chrome because of marketing this shows you guys Chrome is third class compared to IE9 and Opera.

Good Review! Looking forward to Firefox 4!

 

[natmaster]

[citation][nom]youssef 2010[/nom]You forgot to add that google is far less stable than firefox or IE. I have two computers running chrome (on Vista X86 & 7 X64) and google chrome always crashes on 7 & when opening specific sites on vista. Also, Firefox is less stable than IE 9 as IE9 closes crashed tabs while firefox just collapses the entire session. Just Imagine having to re-open sessions on a regular basis. Also, about the memory usage issues, Firefox becomes sluggish after several days of continuous activity, unlike IE9 which has never slowed down. IMHO, IE9 is a much better browser than the other two.Microsoft really came through with this one[/citation]

You're saying the author stayed after hours to test the browser at 9pm? (When IE9 launched) Wow, that's dedication. Though, one would think someone dedicated would make a little effort to grab the RC2 build which was also done last week and is the final release.

 

[natmaster]

[citation][nom]EVILNOD[/nom]come on TH.. this is tech site correct?? i would expect ppl come to this site would also the type of ppl using FF4 RC instead of age old FF3.6i know this been done weeks ago but you really should wait for just another week. its like compare ie6 to ie9 not even fair.[/citation]

IE9 was released 9pm last Monday.

 

[Guest]

As others have posted, there's just no way the results of the Kraken benchmark presented in the article are accurate. On my machine Chrome is about twice as fast as IE9 (8019ms and 17702ms respectively). Did the author miss one number from the IE9 result or something?

 

[shineon2010]

Love Chrome and have not had any issues in the past year, no reason to go to a new browser but this is more preference related than anything IMO.

 

[Guest]

As far as I can tell, FF4 has already been released (although not marketed yet) today, before this article was published... Read the news.

If you're not holding the major update to the series for FF4, then what is it worth holding for? At a time when all major browsers hit their milestone releases, you decide to exclude the browser with the biggest market share of all modern browsers? IE doesn't have an upgrade path like the rest, so IE9 (which also happens to be restricted to Vista+) will in all likelihood never even catch FF or even Chrome in marketshare...

If MS haven't paid you for this nonsense, then you definitely passed a good business opportunity.

Unsubscribed.

Google Chrome user since day 1.

 

[yay]

Oh FFS people. On page 2 or 3 of the comments they said they ARE updating/ reviewing FF4 and will let us know when its done.

Did you guys/ gals ever think that this wasn't all done in one day? that maybe a few days preparation, thought and action went into this? Grow up.

They cant wait forever, as a Chrome user is could call shenanigans and say "but what about chrome 11?" FF4 simply wasn't released yet after many many delays. You can't deny that, and they made a choice.

 

[elkein]

I'm pretty sure I've been hearing about firefox 4 for 4 years...inclduding in the last serveral browser grand prix run by Tom's. Wow I never -knew- FF had the biggest market share, I could be a lot more harsh than that, but in the interest of not being banned.

PS for better or worse, the comment button doesn't work for me either in IE9

 

[andy5174]

I have been using Opera as default for nearly 8 years now,
i have also been using firefox consistently for quite some time( to play facebook games) just for Greasemonkey. and yes I have used Tab mix plus quite frequently , so I am writing this comment after some experience.

Opera Tabs has most of the regularly used Tab mix options by defaults . you just need to go configure it to suit your needs...

my opera window has a usualy 20 - 30 tabs open in it. so only thing i can request of the devlopers is an option to synchronize the tabs too.

There are merely 7 tab options in Opera. How can Opera offer better tab browsing experience than Firefox/TabMixPlus which has much more tab options available?

There is just no way that one can configure Opera to work better than Firefox/TabMixPlus. You feel Opera is as good simply because you don't know how to configure TabMixPlus correctly.

Please don't make any further comment until you know what every option in TabMixPlus does. If you are too lazy to learn how to configure TabMixPlus, you might as well try Maxthon which by default offers very similar tab browsing experience as WELL CONFIGURED TabMixPlus.

 

[johnsmithhatesVLC]

I love how you guys write this article right before Firefox 4 releases.

OH YOU, TOM

 

[JovanE]

Hi to all,
First it will be honest to include and compare Firefox RC2 and Beta Google Chrome 11.0.696.14, although they are beta and release candidates with uncertain release date, because they all represent some new concept in web browsers.
Staging out a benchmark focused only on MS IE9 release date and explaining it just with some ones personal (subjective) view on issues of business practice is hypocritical.

Another thing is a big question about validity of your measurements in Mozilla 1.0 Kraken benchmark.

I find out that that IE9 (tested in Windows 7 x64 on Intel PII X6 T1055 ...) Total scores: 14967.5ms + / - 0.3%, which IS 10X SLOWER than what you have presented
Firefox RC2 Total scores: 6958.3ms + / - 0.3% and
Google Crome 11.0.696.14 Total scores: 7049.9ms + / - 0.3%

So whether Internet Explorer is utterly destroys the competition in Kraken "or the complete conclusion flawed.

It would also be said that the results of V8 benchmark (where the Chrome and Firefox 4 and 2x faster) and Sun Spider Benchmark much better for the Firefox and Chrome, but the differences are not so drastic.
Of course we need to take IE9 ACID 3 test score in account that is 95/100 which is 2 behind Firefox 97, While Chrome, Safari and Opera achieve perfect 100/100.

All in all I think IE9 very good product that definitely raises the bar to the next level. I think it deserves a much more objective and not compromising comparison. In first place with matching products from the same generation, with whom we will live and work next years.

Jovan Ivkovic

 

[andy5174]

you wanna know why memory usage is so high after you close all 39 tabs? because opera has this awesome ability(ctrl + z) that saves every new tab you open.So if you accidently close a tab you can open it back without the need to search web page history

so does Firefox and Chrome; and you can also set the number of closed tabs to be saved in Firefox. Thus, it is not an excuse for bad memory management.

 

[andy5174]

Honestly, I don't like FF4 interface.
I'll stay with 3.6 for the time being.

Me too.

Try FXChrome which is a Chrome-look UI.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fxchrome/

 

[Guest]

With the Kraken score, maybe IE is using DirectCompute for some JavaScript built in functions, like math, etc... Can anyone verify that they have a capable GPU with the newest drivers?

 

[JovanE]

With the Kraken score, maybe IE is using DirectCompute for some JavaScript built in functions, like math, etc... Can anyone verify that they have a capable GPU with the newest drivers?

Yes, I am using : AMD PII X6 T1055, 4GB DDR3-1600, AMD(ATI) Radeon HD 6850 1GB with C.D. 11.2 OpenCL etc... On Windows 7 x64 UL (with Direct Compute and OpenCL) ,Java 1.6.0.24, NET 2-3,5-4 etc.
All in all only latest

 

[natmaster]

[citation][nom]Yeah1234[/nom]With the Kraken score, maybe IE is using DirectCompute for some JavaScript built in functions, like math, etc... Can anyone verify that they have a capable GPU with the newest drivers?[/citation]

A) IE9 only uses the GPU for rendering. Nothing in javascript is placed on the GPU. Only Mozilla has dabbled in this: http://mozillalabs.com/jetpack/2010/01/25/elevating-javascript-performance-through-gpu-power/

B) I have a geforce 570. The only card faster is the 580. IE9 is ridiculously slower than any other browser on my machine.

 

[Makaveli]

Firefox 4 is already out. The download links wont' be up until tomorrow.

But if you go to help then about in your version of firefox could be 3.6 or 4RC1 it will update.

I just did this and now running the final version.

This article needs an update Asap.