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

By Adam Overa
published

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?

DOM And CSS Performance

DOM

Mozilla's Dromaeo DOM tests began working with Chrome for Windows again just a few days before publication, so Acid3 is no longer needed as a substitute.

Safari takes the lead at 1140 runs per second. Chrome earns a respectable second-place finish with 840 runs per second, followed closely by Firefox with 746 runs per second. Opera finishes a distant last place with just 227 runs per second.

Chrome takes the lead in Windows 7, followed closely by Firefox. Opera finishes in third place, but with just half the runs per second as Firefox. IE9 places last at just 373 runs per second.

CSS

Composite Scoring

The CSS composite is the geometric mean of the CSS Stress Testing & Performance Profiling bookmarklet applied to both the CSS and CSS3 versions of the CSS3 Speed Test demo pages.

With no more Microsoft Maze Solver exposing its bugs, Firefox takes a strong lead on both operating systems. Chrome places second on both OS X and Windows, and is the only browser to do better in this test on OS X than Windows. Safari places third on OS X, while IE9 takes third on Windows. Opera places dead last on both operating systems, showing scores that are significantly slower than the third-place finishers.

Drill Down

The charts below contain the results of the CSS Stress Testing & Performance Profiling bookmarklet applied to the CSS and CSS3 versions of the CSS3 Speed Test.

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CSS Performance

Opera's scores are relatively terrible, whether in Windows or OS X, CSS or CSS3. We're seeking another set of CSS/CSS3 demo pages to see if this results is valid, since previous CSS performance tests show Opera to be pretty average.

Adam Overa
57 Comments Comment from the forums
  • glurg
    chrome ftw
    Reply
  • Eggrenade
    It would be nice if I could view the additional charts with only one click, and not in a separate window.
    Reply
  • lahawzel
    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
    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
  • Would like to see this again after IE10 is released.
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    How about 64-bit Internet Explorer 9 vs Waterfox 15.0?
    Reply
  • adamovera
    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
    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
    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
  • 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