Finishes
Each category of testing has four columns: Winner, Strong, Average, and Weak. The Winner is obviously the browser that achieves the highest scores in that category. The Strong column is for browsers exhibiting superior performance, but not achieving a first-place victory. Average is for browsers that perform adequately or in-line with a majority of their competitors. A Weak finish is assigned to browsers that perform poorly, or substantially lower than their competitors.
Brackets
In order to reflect how each category of testing affects the average end-user Web browsing experience, we need to create brackets (or levels of importance) to place the different categories of testing into.
| Essential | CSS, DOM, JavaScript, Reliability, Standards Conformance |
|---|---|
| Important | Flash, HTML5, Memory Efficiency, Page Load Time, Responsiveness, Security, Startup Time |
| Nonessential | Java, Silverlight |
| Unimportant | HTML5 Hardware Acceleration, WebGL |
The Essential bracket contains those categories of testing that are indispensable to rendering the vast majority of Web pages online today. The Important bracket is for categories not quite essential to browsing the Web, yet still affect the user experience to a great degree. The Nonessential bracket contains the popular plug-ins Java and Silverlight. While these plug-in technologies are nowhere near as ubiquitous as Flash, certain applications like corporate intranet apps and Netflix simply will not work without them. Finally, the Unimportant bracket is for emerging technologies, such as HTML5 Hardware Acceleration and WebGL, which still don't really exist outside of testing/demo sites.
Points
Now that the brackets are all sorted out, we can apply a numerical point system to the finishes of each bracket.
| Winner | Strong | Average | Weak | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | 2.5 | 2 | 1.5 | -2 |
| Important | 2 | 1.5 | 1 | -1.5 |
| Nonessential | 1.5 | 1 | 0.5 | -1 |
| Unimportant | 1 | 0.5 | 0 | -0.5 |
As you can see, we decided to apply negative point values to the Weak finishes and start the Average performances at zero for the Unimportant bracket. The Winner has also been de-emphasized over Strong finishes, with just a small tie-breaking bonus going to Winner.
Analysis Table
| Winner | Strong | Average | Weak | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | ||||
| CSS | Safari | Chrome | Internet Explorer, Opera | Firefox |
| DOM | Safari | Chrome, Internet Explorer | Firefox, Opera | |
| JavaScript | Chrome | Firefox | Opera | Internet Explorer, Safari |
| Reliability | Opera | Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari | Chrome | |
| Standards Conformance | Chrome | Firefox, Opera | Internet Explorer, Safari | |
| Important | ||||
| Flash | Safari | Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera | Chrome | |
| HTML5 | Internet Explorer | Firefox, Chrome | Opera, Safari | |
| Memory Efficiency | Chrome | Internet Explorer, Firefox | Opera, Safari | |
| Page Load Time | Internet Explorer | Chrome, Firefox, Safari | Opera | |
| Responsiveness | Opera | Firefox | Chrome, Safari | Internet Explorer |
| Security | Chrome | Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari | Opera | |
| Startup Time | Opera | Chrome, Firefox | Internet Explorer | Safari |
| Nonessential | ||||
| Java | Opera | Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer | Safari | |
| Silverlight | Opera | Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari | ||
| Unimportant | ||||
| HTML5 Hardware Acceleration | Internet Explorer | Firefox | Chrome | Opera, Safari |
| WebGL | Firefox | Chrome | Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari | |
And the winner is...
- The Top Five Browsers, Tested And Ranked
- Chrome, Firefox, IE9, Opera, And Safari
- Test System Specs And Software Setup
- Test Suite And Methodology
- Startup Time
- Page Load Time
- JavaScript Performance
- DOM And CSS Performance
- HTML5 Performance
- Hardware Acceleration
- Plug-In Performance: Flash, Java, Silverlight
- Memory Efficiency
- Reliability, Responsiveness, And Security
- Standards Conformance
- Test Analysis
- Crowning A Windows 7 WBGP Champion
2. in the 40 tab test, try working in a tab during the loading of the 40 tabs. you will find lots of difference between browsers. FF hangs, Opera and Chrome remain fluid.
3. how about a test where a browser is using 1GB+ RAM and you are trying to open/close tabs. Then see the UI responsiveness. most browsers can easily handle 800MB RAM. but which browser easily handles 1.2GB+ RAM ?
maybe you should do a few memory benchmarks with ABP installed just to realistically judge what 99.99% of FF users go through.
2. in the 40 tab test, try working in a tab during the loading of the 40 tabs. you will find lots of difference between browsers. FF hangs, Opera and Chrome remain fluid.
3. how about a test where a browser is using 1GB+ RAM and you are trying to open/close tabs. Then see the UI responsiveness. most browsers can easily handle 800MB RAM. but which browser easily handles 1.2GB+ RAM ?
i tested this and found that during a HTML5 benchmark, IE9 had the least CPU usage, and most GPU usage amongst all the browsers.
maybe you should do a few memory benchmarks with ABP installed just to realistically judge what 99.99% of FF users go through.
ABP works wonderful on Firefox, i RARELY see any ad. While I have used ABP on Chrome BUT its doesn't block half the ads.
I know its Not Google's fault, its just that ABP developers are putting more effort with Firefox.
So for me, Firefox > Chrome.
Really interesting, what utility do you use for measuring GPU usage?
I'd estimate ABP usage on FF at around 5% or less based on ABP and FF usage statistics. Besides, that would give FF an unfair advantage.
MSI afterburner for GPU. windows task manager for CPU.
i sent a mail regarding this to Chris. but maybe i sent it too late for this article...
but if you run 4 instance of dromaeo in 4 tabs, the CPU usage is still 25% (using only 1 core).
so chrome is not completely multiprocessing.
in IE10 beta, if you run 4 instances of dromaeo benchmark in 4 tabs, it uses all the for cores. so we can expect better multiprocessing from IE10 and win8
Is Dromaeo (the DOM portion) working in Chrome for you? I could not get it to finish in Chrome or Safari on any of my Windows machines.
BTW, i run chrome dev version. so that could make a difference.
I still prefer Firefox since it has more features and i like it's features.
I disabled Smooth Scrolling to make it more responsive.
I just hate random freezes/stutter sometimes and some problem on Youtube while watching,
when you scroll up/down, the youtube screen is messed (Glitch).
By the way, ABP user here too.
thats a flash issue. disable the protected mode of falsh.
i tested this and found that during a HTML5 benchmark, IE9 had the least CPU usage, and most GPU usage amongst all the browsers.
+1.
IE9 uses also a lot more GPU Memory than Chrome. I am listening to internet radio when I am playing games and I found that a single tab from IE9 (opened for more than an hour) uses 150MB VRAM oO. Now this amount is not significant for some users but for most users that have 1024MB VRAM and doing the same thing like me (or have open tabs and alt-tabing during games) while playing at 1920x1080/1200 might cause fps drops.
Chrome has Adblock, just to let you know. But personally I prefer Firefox Aurora with Adblock Plus, anyway. I couldn't imagine using a browser that didn't have any version of Adblock on it, though; it'd be torture.
13.0.1 is the latest stable release. I'm using version 15.0a2 of Firefox, but it's a moot point in any browser competition because it's not a release version.
Where? Not here: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all.html
i stand corrected. I'm not sure how i got mixed up.
However, I'm not sure how Silverlight takes importance over WebGL or HTML5 in this test. >~