Speedy Chrome 5 Tested Against Potato Cannon

Google yesterday rolled out a beta for Chrome 5, which boasts to be the fastest yet. With previous versions of Chrome already besting the competition in many tests, the even more optimized browser could now be the fastest way to view the web.

Google detailed in its blog yesterday that its new Chrome 5 features a 30 percent and 35 percent improvement on the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks over the previous beta channel release. Even more impressive is that Chrome 5 is 213 percent and 305 percent faster on these two benchmarks since the first Chrome beta release.

Besides speed, the new version of the browser brings with it a few other notable new features, as Google describes: "Under the hood, today’s release contains the goodness of some new HTML5 features, namely Geolocation APIs, App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop  capabilities. Additionally, this is the first Chrome beta that features initial integration of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in with Chrome, so that you can browse a rich, dynamic web with added security and stability -- you’ll automatically receive security and feature updates for Flash Player with Chrome’s auto-update mechanism."

To play on just how fast the new Google Chrome browser is, the company has made a few interesting speed comparisons pitting the software against real life fast things. Check them out below!

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • dameon51
    That's not fair comparing Chrome v 5.0 to potato cannon v 1.0.
    Reply
  • pocketdrummer
    yeah... and what about mouse gestures?
    Reply
  • yay
    Awesome :)
    Reply
  • nekatreven
    I suppose it is fair to do so...but as has been pointed out in the youtube comments 'allrecipes.com' is being loaded from the C: drive. You can see it if you switch to fullscreen HD.

    They're testing the browser though...not someone's network, so I'm okay with it.
    Reply
  • mman74
    Dunno about the product, but the marketing is first class!
    Reply
  • hellwig
    Is it faster than Opera 10.50? I don't care if Chrome is faster than it used to be, if it's still slower than the competition.
    Reply
  • sliem
    How is the 2nd test "sound" test?
    Reply
  • dan117
    Just installed it. While it is faster than Firefox 3.6, it's not as fast as in the video. Even when loading the page a second time.
    Reply
  • gm0n3y
    Doesn't exactly prove anything, but awesome marketting nonetheless.
    Reply
  • alexmx
    I've been using chrome since a month or two in my netbook (gotta love the screen space saving) and actually, I'm liking chrome more and more.

    But until all the extensions I use are available there, I'll stick to firefox on my desktop pc. (nothing fancy, just the gestures, a .flv downloader, yesscript, adblock and image toolbar)
    Reply