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Web Browser Grand Prix: Firefox 15, Safari 6, OS X Mountain Lion

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Today we're breaking out the Hackintosh for our first-ever Web Browser Grand Prix on Apple OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). How will Chrome 21, Firefox 15, Opera 12.02, and Safari 6 stack up against each other, and to IE9 and the rest of the Windows 7 browsers?

Standards Conformance

Composite Scoring

The standards conformance composite is determined by dividing the results of each test by the maximum score of that test, then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage. The percentage results of the three tests are then averaged together to achieve a composite grade.

Chrome takes first place on both operating systems with a B-. It is followed by Safari in second place on OS X with Opera and Firefox caught up in a tie for last, both achieving an equal C. Opera manages an extra percentage point on Windows 7 to place second with Firefox close behind in third. Last place in Windows 7 goes to Microsoft's own IE9 with the only failing grade.

Drill Down

The charts below are for the three standards conformance tests: Ecmascript Language test262, HTML5Test.com, and The CSS3 Test.

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JavaScript

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HTML5

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CSS3

IE9 is significantly behind the curve in all three disciplines, while Chrome's better-than-average HTML5 and CSS3 scores allow Google to dominate standards conformance.

57 Comments Comment from the forums
  • glurg 07 September 2012 11:41
    chrome ftw
    Reply
  • Eggrenade 07 September 2012 11:58
    It would be nice if I could view the additional charts with only one click, and not in a separate window.
    Reply
  • lahawzel 07 September 2012 11:59
    It's nice to see Chrome performing so well, but I'm still waiting on the Chrome equivalents of all the plugins I use in FF before I think about switching. The web just doesn't feel the same without them.

    (The nice popular ones like ABP, Lazarus, Greasemonkey all have equivalents; some lesser-used plugins like Rikaichan also have ports by now. Only a matter of time!)
    Reply
  • bennaye 07 September 2012 12:03
    chrome is absolutely deserving of the award. say what you will about the frequent patch releases touted as upgrades, chrome is a very good browser, as shown by this month's article. even on OSX there is only a small margin separating chrome and safari. but the one qualm i do have with chrome is the lack of add-ons compared to firefox. and i a lot of people share this concern. the add-ons do make the experience that much better.

    as always, a great read.
    Reply
  • 07 September 2012 12:15
    Would like to see this again after IE10 is released.
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN 07 September 2012 12:42
    How about 64-bit Internet Explorer 9 vs Waterfox 15.0?
    Reply
  • adamovera 07 September 2012 12:47
    bennayechrome is absolutely deserving of the award. say what you will about the frequent patch releases touted as upgrades, chrome is a very good browser, as shown by this month's article. even on OSX there is only a small margin separating chrome and safari. but the one qualm i do have with chrome is the lack of add-ons compared to firefox. and i a lot of people share this concern. the add-ons do make the experience that much better.as always, a great read.All versions of Chrome hold up incredibly well cross-platform, if you look back at the two Linux WBGPs, it won there, too. Thanks for reading!
    Reply
  • adamovera 07 September 2012 12:49
    AdamsTaiwanWould like to see this again after IE10 is released.Absolutely, a Windows 8-based WBGP is already in the cards for October.
    Reply
  • adamovera 07 September 2012 12:50
    JOSHSKORNHow about 64-bit Internet Explorer 9 vs Waterfox 15.0?When we have more stable 64-bit browsers, I'll definitely do a 64-bit WBGP - including versus their 32-bit counterparts.
    Reply
  • 07 September 2012 13:22
    I wish Tom's would fiddle around with the settings of these browsers for these tests. In every System Builder Marathon you overclock the builds, why not try and crank the most speed while ensuring better memory management out of the browser as well?

    Testing these browsers at stock doesn't reveal even an eighth of the picture.
    Reply