Web Browser Grand Prix: Chrome 18, Firefox 11, Windows XP
Over the past two years, we've tested the top five Web browsers using modern PC hardware. But today, going against all that is sacred to the enthusiast crowd, we're breaking out an old beige box to bring you Web Browser Grand Prix: Windows XP Edition!
Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, And Safari
Web Browser Grand Prix Champions
The table below lists all of the previous Web Browser Grand Prix winners, with links to their respective articles.
Web Browser Grand Prix | Champion |
---|---|
Web Browser Grand Prix: The Top Five, Tested And Ranked |
Web Browser Grand Prix 2: The Top Five Tested And Ranked
Web Browser Grand Prix 2: Running The Linux Circuit
Web Browser Grand Prix 3: IE9 Enters The Race
Web Browser Grand Prix 4: Firefox 4 Goes Final
Web Browser Grand Prix 5: Opera 11.50, Firefox 5, And Chrome 12
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Web Browser Grand Prix VI: Firefox 6, Chrome 13, Mac OS X LionWeb Browser Grand Prix 7: Firefox 7, Chrome 14, Opera 11.51
Web Browser Grand Prix VIII: Chrome 16, Firefox 9, And Mac OS XWeb Browser Grand Prix 9: Chrome 17, Firefox 10, And Ubuntu
Web Browser Grand Prix Contenders
ChromeVendor:GoogleDebut:9/02/2008Current Version:18Layout Engine:WebKitJavaScript Engine:V8Supported Platforms:Windows, Mac, LinuxHTML5 Hardware Acceleration:NoWebGL:Windows & OS X-OnlyWBGP Wins:5Download Chrome!
FirefoxVendor:MozillaDebut:11/09/2004Current Version:11Layout Engine:Gecko 2.0JavaScript Engine:JaegerMonkeySupported Platforms:Windows, Mac, LinuxHTML Hardware Acceleration:YesWebGL:YesWBGP Wins:3Download Firefox!
Internet ExplorerVendor:MicrosoftDebut:8/16/1995Current Version:9Layout Engine:TridentJavaScript Engine:ChakraSupported Platforms:Windows (Vista and 7)HTML5 Hardware Acceleration:YesWebGL:NoWBGP Wins:2Download Internet Explorer!
OperaVendor:Opera SoftwareDebut:12/09/1996Current Version:11.62Layout Engine:PrestoJavaScript Engine:CarakanSupported Platforms:Windows, Mac, LinuxHTML5 Hardware Acceleration:NoWebGL:NoWBGP Wins:1Download Opera!
SafariVendor:AppleDebut:1/07/2003Current Version:5.1.4Layout Engine:WebKit 2JavaScript Engine:NitroSupported Platforms:Windows, OS XHTML5 Hardware Acceleration:OS X-onlyWebGL:NoWBGP Wins:2Download Safari!
Current page: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, And Safari
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wheredahoodat "Both Opera and Chrome feltmuch smoother on our old PC than Firefox"Reply
I do kinda feel the difference with Firefox's responsive going from my main modern desktop to my older labtop that has regulated to a makeshift HTC. I believe Firefox XUL interface is the culprit; it was a big enough problem for Firefox mobile to abandon it in favor of native Android GUI, but who knows at this point. I guess might actually give Opera a chance. -
agnickolov How come only a single reader requested numerical composite scoring, that's the most logical way of scoring after all! With that said, I'd have liked if you didn't use the rankings but the raw scores after a more intelligent transformation as the input for weighted averaging...Reply
For example, for each category you could subtract the lowest-placed score from all scores and then normalize in the range by dividing all adjusted scores by the topmost adjusted score. This way the top perfomer always has 1 and the worst performer always has 0 modified score (you'd need to invert them for tests where lower is better of course, e.g. subtract these from 1). Then apply your ranks to these scores and you get the composite score. It's not a perfect transformation, but it certainly has more fairly distributed weight (pun intended) than what you have used here. -
aznjoka Thats my Opera, for those who have never tried Opera. It's an amazing piece of software, it does the job, and it does it better then most.Reply -
confish21 Interesting move to make this article. Well done! Don't waste your time on a vista run though... Im so close my release date. xDReply -
csbeer aznjokaThats my Opera, for those who have never tried Opera. It's an amazing piece of software, it does the job, and it does it better then most.Reply
XP can't run 9. Need to upgrade OS in order to get higher IE. -
mayankleoboy1 excellent review!Reply
some points:
1.A lot of corporates still use IE7. maybe you should include that too in your benchmarks
2.if you remove HTML5 (with and without H/W acceleration), i think Opera's victory margin will be quite huge.
3.Regarding smoothness, i beleive FF is quite poor in this. But the developers know about it and are very activle working on it. I thik FF13 will be the release when smoothness will improve. look at "Firefox Snappy".
4. i would like to have a subjective recommendation at the end of the article, something you subjectively felt was the best amongst all the browsers, even though it may be trailing in numbers. -
mayankleoboy1 Why did you use the AGP? I bet 99.99% of those Pentium4 era computers use the onboard Intel IGP.Reply
Also that would definitely disable the H/W acceleration of browsers.
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