Web Browser Grand Prix VIII: Chrome 16, Firefox 9, And Mac OS X

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Back in August, Mozilla took the WBGP crown with Firefox 7. Can Firefox 9 retain that title? And how are the top Web browsers doing in Mac OS X? We used a Hackintosh last time. This time, we're testing on the world's first Ultrabook, the MacBook Air.

Harware Acceleration Performance Benchmarks

Microsoft Psychedelic Browsing

Internet Explorer still holds the highest score in Microsoft's own Psychedelic Browsing benchmark, followed by Firefox 9. Chrome takes third, Opera is in fourth, and the Windows version of Safari only earns 64.5 points for a last-place finish.

The scores are nearly reversed in OS X, with Safari earning a high score that's a few points higher than what Firefox demonstrated under Windows 7 to take its second-place finish. The rest of the browsers perform dismally in OS X. Opera comes in second just shy of 80 points. Firefox's 41.5 points are good enough for third place. And Chrome's 36 points earn it last place.

We still haven't received an explanation as to why the IE9 score jumped by several thousand points without the browser version being updated. If Microsoft's representatives ever respond to our inquiry we'll update the article. Until then, Psychedelic Browsing is under observation.

Mozilla Hardware Acceleration Stress Test

In Windows 7, IE9 and Firefox are again the only two Web browsers able to max out Mozilla's Hardware Acceleration Stress Test, sharing first place. Chrome falls to a distant second with 23 FPS, trailed closely by Opera's 22 FPS result. Safari only earns 13 FPS, placing it in last.

On Apple's platform, Safari takes the high score of 56 FPS. Opera places second with 19 FPS, followed by Chrome at 10 FPS, while Windows 7-winner Firefox only achieves 5 FPS on the Mac.

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Adam Overa
152 Comments Comment from the forums
  • twztechman
    Been using Firefox for years - it works best for me.
    Reply
  • shiftmx112
    This makes it worth putting up with the constant updates on Aurora. :)
    Reply
  • The best part is I'm quite sure that this is using an out of the box build. Using a PGO compiled nighlty build, with about:config properly configured, and addons like Adblock/NoScript blocking things from ever loading Firefox is significantly faster than these benchmarks state.
    Reply
  • frost_fenix
    I have use firefox and chrome interchangeably for a few years now. I enjoy chromes streamlined design but have recently discovered the noscript addon for Firefox and have since favored Firefox. I have also found Firefox to be more compatable with school webpages and application pages. Still either firefox or chrome is better than IE.
    Reply
  • pharoahhalfdead
    Good point Stoof. I have IE9 and the newest FF, and with the FF add ons, it blows IE out of the water. The majority of IE pages like yahoo video links, boxingscene etc take 6 or more seconds to load, whereas FF is only a fraction of the time.

    I think add ons are much easier to find with FF, and there seems to be a wider variety. Then again I do realize this article wasn't about browsers with add ons.
    Reply
  • hardcore_gamer
    The only one thing I hate about firefox is that it takes a lot of time to launch.
    Reply
  • adamovera
    stoofThe best part is I'm quite sure that this is using an out of the box build. Using a PGO compiled nighlty build, with about:config properly configured, and addons like Adblock/NoScript blocking things from ever loading Firefox is significantly faster than these benchmarks state.Yes, we're using everything stock. There is no one-size-fits-all combination of plug-ins to standardize on, and every browser might not have the exact same plugins available. So that throws out a fair comparison between browsers - wouldn't work for the WBGP. Perhaps an article concentrating specifically on Firefox (or another Web browser) with and without various plug-ins would clear that up?
    Reply
  • Please use Firefox's latest logo, the one with the shiny orb in Mozilla's press kit! The one they're using now is the old one. http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/brand/identity/
    Reply
  • nevertell
    Chrome is the easiest to use if you've got lots of tabs open. Scrolling through them with mouse is a breeze and tab management is just excellent.
    Reply
  • soccerdocks
    frost_fenix. I enjoy chromes streamlined design but have recently discovered the noscript addon for Firefox and have since favored Firefox.
    Why do people seem to forget Chrome has this built in. All you have to do is go into the options menu and disable JavaScript.
    Reply