Web Browser Grand Prix VI: Firefox 6, Chrome 13, Mac OS X Lion

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Chrome is fast,

But I agree with the rest Opera has really good features and Opera is fast enough. Gotta love the mouse gestures and tab stacking on Opera. The recovering of the crashes saved me so many times on Opera. But when the times need Opera doesn't have support for some websites. So I head to Chrome or FF for that.
 
So let me get this straight. Safari on OSX is almost as good as Firefox in Windows 7, and trails behind Google Chrome in Windows 7....

So, Windows 7 is better overall?
 
So, Opera got a last place in memory management because it has a more aggressive caching policy?

Personally I don't consider more aggressive caching policy a memory management issue as long as the overall system memory usage is low and is not caused by memory leaks.

In any case I have a couple of suggestion for the next GP:

-After finishing the tabs load/unload test try opening the 40 pages again and check whether higher consumption correlates with faster load times.

-Repeat the same test under heavy system loads and check whether
a) the browsers adapt their memory consumption to the overall loads
b) the browser suffers a performance hit in regular operation (like scrolling, switching tabs, etc)
c) the system suffers a performance hit caused by the browser
d) the browser releases the memory after closing the tabs

Keep the good work!
 
I love how the article proves that overall browsing on the OSX platform was quite inferior to the Windows platform but the author spins it the other way, LOL what a f'ing tool.

Outside of the Safari browser (which has some major deficiencies in itself) browsing on the OSX sucks.
 
why use FF5 instead of FF6??????

am currently on FF7 beta and its much faster in startup and hogs less ram than its predecessor, although its a non issue on modern day systems

TomsHW seems to be biased towards chrome

IMO FF RULES
 
[citation][nom]damasvara[/nom]Tried Chrome, but somehow it doesn't behave the way I wanted. Browsing pages is faster with Firefox on 384 kbps internet. Makes me wonder...[/citation]

Turn off the preload option so it is not preloading the pages.

Or get faster internet!!!
 
Sorry, but this benchmark actually fails on two issues.
1) Native 64bit on MacOS X, but you used x64 Win7 and only 32bit browsers.
2) You didn't use a real Mac and BootCamp for Windows 7, so the data is based on a configuration that Apple never uses, so for all intents is meaningless.

IMO you should have used the new MacMini i5 with the Radeon GPU, and repeat the all the tests. Then also include:
- IE9 both 32bit and 64bit
- Firefox, both the current version and the latest nightly 64bit version
(Note a recent 64bit beta flash plugin is available)
- Chrome 32bit and 64bit if they ever distribute a binary for it.

My main issue to contest is that, 32bit browsers on 64bit windows is not "Native" like Safari on OS X is. Especially in Javascript performance, the scores will differ.
 
[citation][nom]tgreader[/nom]On OSX browser 'vendors' are denied access to certain os hooks that would make their browsers better than they are.[/citation]

You do realize that Microsoft has done that for years with windows right? The same tactic is one of the reasons Word ended up outpacing WordPerfect.
 
ACID 3 is broken, please stop using it. The 3 points that Chrome, Safari and Opera get is because they added half-baked support for SVG Fonts, just enough to get those points in ACID 3 but not to an extent of it being usable.
Plus, SVG Fonts are deprecated to the point that to be usable, a new spec should be rewritten. Including this benchmark skews the conformance scores towards browsers that cheated to get those "conformance" points.
 
some good changes to the tests, and FF seems to be slowly catching up, while IE is falling back into the irrelevance that it belongs in.
It will be interesting for the next few roundups as Chrome is going to be adding hardware acceleration, and C++ support, and FF continues digging itself out of its hole.
IE 10 may be released by the next roundup, and may sweep the scores again, but we will see.

To those complaining about not testing betas and nightly builds, this is a test of completed products, whenever the build is released then it will be added to the test.
[citation][nom]damasvara[/nom]Maybe, if my internet is 1 mbps I won't know the difference between the two browsers.[/citation]
Dude... most DSL packages are in the 1.5-5mbps, and cable is in the 10-50mbps range. You could probably quadruple your speed for an extra $5/mo... time to upgrade.
 
I would have liked to see Snow Leopard and Safari 5.1 included together. 5.1 under SL leaves out some features, so would it also leave out some performance improvement? Is the hardware acceleration as expansive, etc?
 
Excellent article!
Can we have the same on Linux / 7 / OSX next time?

I stick to F/Fox since it's the only on that lets me delete all history etc. on exit.
gvnmcknz
 
[citation][nom]inerax[/nom]Turn off the preload option so it is not preloading the pages.Or get faster internet!!![/citation]
[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]Dude... most DSL packages are in the 1.5-5mbps, and cable is in the 10-50mbps range. You could probably quadruple your speed for an extra $5/mo... time to upgrade.[/citation]
I know, but the thing is, I don't live in a country where internet is dirt cheap. Do you know that they charge $25 for 384 kbps and $100 for 1 mbps here in my country? What would you choose if you were in my shoes? Makes me wish I live in advanced countries with gbps internet speed... blazing fast, cheap internet is still way beyond the horizons here...
 
[citation][nom]lordastral[/nom]So let me get this straight. Safari on OSX is almost as good as Firefox in Windows 7, and trails behind Google Chrome in Windows 7....So, Windows 7 is better overall?[/citation]
That's the gist of it.
 
[citation][nom]elel[/nom]Any chance of adding video memory benchmarks? I've seen firefox eating over 150 megs of video ram under win7 and aero.[/citation]
I would appreciate this too.
 
[citation][nom]Maiko Tensai[/nom]Sorry, but this benchmark actually fails on two issues.1) Native 64bit on MacOS X, but you used x64 Win7 and only 32bit browsers.2) You didn't use a real Mac and BootCamp for Windows 7, so the data is based on a configuration that Apple never uses, so for all intents is meaningless.IMO you should have used the new MacMini i5 with the Radeon GPU, and repeat the all the tests. Then also include:- IE9 both 32bit and 64bit - Firefox, both the current version and the latest nightly 64bit version(Note a recent 64bit beta flash plugin is available)- Chrome 32bit and 64bit if they ever distribute a binary for it.My main issue to contest is that, 32bit browsers on 64bit windows is not "Native" like Safari on OS X is. Especially in Javascript performance, the scores will differ.[/citation]
1) What average people are actually using is what we test. 2) Something tells me this audience really doesn't care that much about Win7 on Mac hardware. To a large segment of this crowd (DIY system-building enthusiasts) buying Apple machines is, well, let's just say blasphemy. The other way around is much more relevant here. However, if Apple feels slighted in any way I am willing to stop whatever I'm doing and run a rematch on any Mac system of their choosing. This is standing offer, though Apple is the only one of the five vendors who won't return my calls, so I wouldn't hold your breathe.
 
[citation][nom]w4etfwqe[/nom]For a fair performance benchmark, you should run the tests on a computer that actually has limited performance to more accurately show the limits of each browser.And in such a scenario - From my testing in Windows environment on a 300 Mhz Celeron with 128 MB ram, Opera is the clear winner.[/citation]
Older/lower-end systems is the next major request after OS X, so yeah that's definitely in the cards. But I don't know about doing a WBGP on something THAT old, I might just end up hanging myself with CAT5 cabling after a few days of that crap 😉 But seriously, I am working on getting a low-end, but modern test system for the WBGP.
 
[citation][nom]cknobman[/nom]I love how the article proves that overall browsing on the OSX platform was quite inferior to the Windows platform but the author spins it the other way, LOL what a f'ing tool.Outside of the Safari browser (which has some major deficiencies in itself) browsing on the OSX sucks.[/citation]
That's fantastic! Thanks!
 
+1 on the Acid 3 test being bogus. The test is broken. It's an artificial handicap of 3 points to Firefox.

Although I am curious why IE9 only gets 95 instead of 97?
 
[citation][nom]cknobman[/nom]I love how the article proves that overall browsing on the OSX platform was quite inferior to the Windows platform but the author spins it the other way, LOL what a f'ing tool.Outside of the Safari browser (which has some major deficiencies in itself) browsing on the OSX sucks.[/citation]

It kinda sounds like typical Mac apologista.

I always think of car reviews where they add qualifier to the end.


"This is a really decent car ... for a "
 
Eh, I have the luxury of knowing what I'm doing. I don't need to use my browser out of the box. I know how to tweak it to make it better. The ability to customize my browser is far more important to insignificant speed differences.

You should really get rid of that Acid3 test by the way. It's been explained time and again why Firefox will never score 100 on that test. SVG Fonts.

There was a commenter who said his Firefox was crashing and he only had Firebug installed. Well yeah, Firebug itself is laggy. It's the number one addon in increasing startup time and memory usage.
 
It's going to take something miraculous to get me to switch from Firefox. I'm a pretty loyal user once you get me hooked, so they would have to really screw up for me to switch to a competing browser. I love the Firefox Persona's too; a really great way to personalize your browser. My favorite one is of 2pac with the sun setting, a couple images of him and some angel's wings. Pretty awesome indeed.
 
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