Hardware Setup
| Test System Specs | |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz (quad-core) |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 (F10 BIOS) |
| Memory | 8 GB Crucial DDR3 @ 1333 MT/s (2 x 4 GB) |
| Graphics | Asus Radeon HD 7770 1 GB GDDR5 (PCIe 2.0 x16) |
| Storage | Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500 GB SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 16 MB Cache |
| Optical | Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS |
| Power Supply | Corsair TX750W (750 W max) |
| Case | Zalman MS-1000 HS2 |
| CPU Cooler | Scythe Mugen 2 Revision B |
| Keyboard | Logitech Wireless Keyboard K320 |
| Mouse | Logitech Wireless Trackball M570 |
The following table contains the system specs of the local Web server used for our Startup and Page Load Time tests, as well as JSGameBench.
| Local Web Server Specs | |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server Edition "Precise Pangolin" (32-bit) |
| Processor | Intel Pentium 4 @ 2.41 GHz |
| Motherboard | Biostar P4M80-M4 |
| Memory | 768 MB DDR @ 333 MHz |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 128 MB DDR (AGP) |
| Storage | Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJD, 160 GB EIDE, 7200 RPM |
| Optical 1 | Hitachi-LG DVD GDR-8163B |
| Optical 2 | Hitachi-LG CD-RW GCE-8483B |
| Extra Packages | Apache2, MySQL Client, MySQL Server, PHP5, PHP-GD, PHP5-MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, SSH, Node.js, NPM |
The table below holds additional information on the test network.
| Network Specs | |
|---|---|
| ISP Service | Cox Preferred (18 Mb/s down, 2 Mb/s up) |
| Modem | Motorola SURFboard SBS101U |
| Router | Linksys WRT54G2 V1 |
Software Setup
Both test installations were freshly installed and fully updated as of midnight on June 15th, 2012. Power management and automatic updates were disabled before testing.
All the software we installed, including the exact version number of the browsers tested, is listed in the table below.
| Software | Version |
|---|---|
| Chrome | 20.0.1132.43m |
| Firefox | 13.0.1 |
| Internet Explorer | 9.0.8112.16421 |
| Opera | 12.00 (build 1467) |
| Safari | 5.1.7 (7534.57.2) |
| Adobe Flash | 11.3.300.257 |
| AMD Catalyst | 8.961-120405a-137813C-ATI |
| Microsoft Silverlight | 5.5.10411.0 |
| Oracle Java | 7.0.50 |
Previous
Next
Summary
- 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
Ask a Category Expert



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. >~