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Benchmark Results: Page Load Times

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The test sites used in our page load time testing are as follows: Google, YouTube, Yahoo!, Amazon, Wikipedia, eBay, Craigslist, and The Huffington Post. As explained in Web Browser Grand Prix VI: Firefox 6, Chrome 13, Mac OS X Lion, we modified these tests to render at 1080p, and to more closely reflect real-world usage. Instead of the home pages of Amazon, Wikipedia, eBay, and Craigslist, we use functional areas of those sites.

The chart below is a detailed view of the times each Web browser takes to load the individual pages.

This next chart contains the page load time composite score, which is an average of the eight page load times on each Web browser.

Google manages to retain the lead with Chrome 14, and Safari again places second. IE9 also holds onto third place, while Firefox 7 allows Mozilla to edge past Opera to take fourth place.

Clearly, the WebKit-based browsers (Chrome and Safari) take this one. Internet Explorer is a solid middle-of-the-road option. Firefox and Opera are the least attractive from the perspective of page load times, though keep in mind that all of the browsers average page loads in under one second, which isn't too shabby.

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gerchokas 09/30/2011 4:33 AM
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shiftmx112 09/30/2011 5:04 AM
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-10+

Quote :Enjoy it while you can Firefox fans


Indeed. I have been quite content with FF8 though.

soccerdocks 09/30/2011 5:04 AM
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-8+

Until another browser beats Chrome in the speed/performance benchmarks I'm sticking with it.

iam2thecrowe 09/30/2011 5:19 AM
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-0+

im sticking with IE, its perfectly fast enough and stable and why should I have to install another browser when it works perfectly fine?

JOSHSKORN 09/30/2011 5:25 AM
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-6+

I'm on FF10. :D Nightly 64-bit!

compton 09/30/2011 5:37 AM
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-4+

I have to say, I do really like chrome. I stopped using Firefox as much one I tried the chrome beta, and now I use IE9 and chrome all the time. I used opera for a while, but Netflix streaming doesn't work with it, nor do many other sites I use.

Now that IE is good again, I can't fault anyone for using it in lieu of the others.

makaveli316 09/30/2011 5:48 AM
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-20+

"Until another browser beats Chrome in the speed/performance benchmarks I'm sticking with it."

lol people still think they can feel the difference in terms of speed in real world performance and there's still people that doesn't use a browser for their needs and preferences, but just because they have seen some silly benchmark.
Ridiculous. I bet those are the same people that are always complaining in the forums about crashes, viruses and blue screens.

killik 09/30/2011 6:46 AM
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-11+

Even better yet,if you use FF7 with the MemoryFox addon,Firefox simply obliterates the competition.try it for yourself.

killik 09/30/2011 6:47 AM
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Even better yet,if you use FF7 with the MemoryFox addon,Firefox simply obliterates the competition in the memory management department.try it for yourself.

frostmachine 09/30/2011 7:11 AM
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-7+

I noticed firefox will use progressively more memory. Even if it's just refreshing the same pages. I use firefox, opera n chrome, keeping them open 24hr/day. It can go from intial 100mb to over 500mb. I don't see this in the other browsers.

anonymous 09/30/2011 7:31 AM
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anonymous 09/30/2011 7:36 AM
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-5+

The Encog Silverlight result is wrong. In the graph IE9 comes third with Firefox fourth, but your conclusions are,
Firefox 7 shows significant improvement over version 6, moving up to third place. As a result, IE9 drops to fourth.

anonymous 09/30/2011 7:41 AM
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-1+

How on earth can Firefox be winner in memory manaegment? Chrome and IE are much better....

buzznut 09/30/2011 7:53 AM
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jdwii 09/30/2011 8:07 AM
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anonymous 09/30/2011 9:30 AM
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-14+

This article (as well as the preceding series of articles) is a great example of how amateur journalism can be misleading, or just downright wrong.

On the surface, everything looks good - the author sets out a methodology, clearly presents the results, and draws conclusions based on them. Unfortunately, in doing so he reveals his severely lacking knowledge of testing methodology, the browsers themselves, as well as how one interprets the results of benchmarks.

To aggregate across criteria such as "performance" and "standards compliance" (never mind the fact that HTML5 hasn't yet been drawn up), using an arbitrary weighting system, and then conclude that one browser beats other "overall" is nonsensical.

Nowhere has the author talked about relevance (this is critical) or statistical significance of his tests. I'm sure he put in a lot of effort into the article, and that it was written out of the best of intentions; however, this article remains a jumble of random tests clumsily grouped together. For example, can the author explain to the readers why the removal of SVG fonts in the ACID3 test is important? Should browsers have support for SVG fonts? Should one test for it? If he can't, he's just mechanically running benchmarks that he's found on the internet.

Obviously it's easier to criticise - but it's much more beneficial for people to actually try the browsers out for themselves (it is free after all) than to read this kind of poorly conducted "showdown".

lassik 09/30/2011 10:07 AM
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-1+

FF7 was always my favourite, it had the best storyline. :)

anonymous 09/30/2011 10:17 AM
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http://blog.mozilla.com/futurerele [...] efoxbeta8/

Firefox 8.0 Beta is now available.

Onus 09/30/2011 11:16 AM
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Some add-in crash issues in FF a couple months ago forced me to use IE again for a while. Wow, I never realized how many sites had so many ads, and ways to show them! I'm glad FF is more stable again so I can use it once more, although there are still a couple of sites where IE9 is more compatible.

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