Plug-In Performance: Flash, Java, Silverlight
Composite Scoring
The Flash, Java, and Silverlight composites are the geometric mean of the individual RIABench tests for each plug-in. The Java score includes the millisecond results of Primetest, Prime Factorization, JPEG Encoding, MD5 Hashing, Random Key Generator, Run-length Encoding, and Focus Test. The Flash and Silverlight scores also include the frames per second results of 3D Test, 2D Test, and Memory Management.
Flash
Safari, Opera, and Firefox are in a practical tie for first place on OS X. Chrome, with its special built-in version of Flash, performs slightly worse than the other contenders. The same results are seen on Windows 7, although the scores are nearly double the OS X scores.
Java
Java is a complete four-way tie on both operating systems, with Windows 7 more than doubling the OS X scores.
Silverlight
Silverlight performance is another four-way tie on Mountain Lion, however Firefox is shown to be a cut above the competition on Windows 7.
Drill Downs
The charts below contain the detailed view of each RIABench test for Flash, Java, and Silverlight.
Chrome is usually slightly behind in Flash performance due to its sand-boxed Flash player, the only real surprise here is Firefox for Windows having a small advantage in Silverlight performance.