Big Changes
We replaced GUIMark 2 Flash, GUIMark Java, and Encog Silverlight with five tests from RIABench Flash, Java, and Silverlight. We also added RIABench JavaScript to our JS testing, a long overdue replacement for JSBenchmark and V8. While RIABench consists of ten separate tests, two of the tests aren't available for all four technologies, one is currently spitting up a 404 error, Safari has a problem with one, and IE9 has a problem with another.
We had to temporarily replace Dromaeo DOM with Acid3 due to the former having issues with the WebKit-based browsers under Windows.
Another CSS test was added to balance out the Maze Solver CSS3 benchmark.
The Mozilla Hardware Acceleration Stress Test was replaced with WebVizBench, which has no highest score limit.
We've added a general responsiveness observation to the 40-Tab Memory Usage test.
And finally, we found a security test that is still relevant and not passed by any of the contenders.
Our tests are no longer placed into the core, observation, dated, and quarantine groups. With the massive refresh to the benchmark suite and the introduction of composite scores to cover every category of testing, this is simply no longer necessary.
Web Browser Grand Prix Test Suite v11
The table below lists all 34 benchmarks (consisting of 66 individual tests) currently in our suite, along with the version number and link (where applicable), and the number of iterations performed.| Benchmark Name | Iterations Performed |
|---|---|
| Performance Benchmarks (24 Benchmarks, 56 Tests) | |
| Cold Startup Time: Single Tab | 3 |
| Hot Startup Time: Single Tab | 3 |
| Cold Startup Time: Eight Tabs | 3 |
| Hot Startup Time: Eight Tabs | 3 |
| Uncached Page Load Times (8 Test Pages) | 5 |
| Cached Page Load Times (8 Test Pages) | 5 |
| RIABench JavaScript (5 Tests) | 3 |
| Mozilla Kraken v1.1 | 2 |
| Google SunSpider v0.9.1 Mod | 2 |
| FutureMark Peacekeeper 2.0 | 2 |
| Acid3 | 5 |
| Maze Solver | 5 |
| CSS Stress Test and Performance Profiling - Tom's Hardware | 2 |
| GUIMark 2 HTML5 (3 Tests) | 3 |
| Asteroids HTML5 Canvas 2D And JavaScript | 2 |
| HTML5 Canvas Performance Test | 2 |
| Facebook JSGameBench v4.1 | 2 |
| Psychedelic Browsing | 2 |
| WebVizBench | 2 |
| Mozilla WebGL FishIE | 2 |
| WebGL Solar System | 2 |
| RIABench Flash (5 Tests) | 3 |
| RIABench Java (5 Tests) | 3 |
| RIABench Silverlight (5 Tests) | 3 |
| Efficiency Benchmarks (4 Benchmarks/Tests) | |
| Memory Usage: Single Tab | 3 |
| Memory Usage: 40 Tabs | 3 |
| Memory Management: -39 Tabs | 3 |
| Memory Management: -39 Tabs (extra 2 minutes) | 3 |
| Reliability Benchmarks (1 Test) | |
| Proper Page Loads | 3 |
| Responsiveness Benchmarks (1 Test) | |
| General Responsiveness Under Load | 3 |
| Security Benchmarks (1 Test) | |
| BrowserScope Security | 1 |
| Conformance Benchmarks (3 Benchmarks/Tests) | |
| Ecma test262 | 1 |
| Peacekeeper 2.0 HTML5 Capabilities | 1 |
| HTML5Test.com | 1 |
Methodology
We restart the computer and allow it to idle before benchmarking. Most of our final scores are an average of several iterations. More iterations are run for tests that have short durations, lower scales, and/or higher variance. Any obvious outliers (usually network hiccups) are removed and retested.
Individual detailed methodologies and information regarding composite scoring is described on the corresponding benchmark pages.
- 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. >~