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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.

Memory Management Efficiency Benchmarks

Immediately After Closing 39 Tabs

After immediately closing 39 of the 40 tabs, Chrome for Windows drops down to 140 MB, which is just over twice its single-tab total. Opera places second at 415 MB, followed closely by Safari using 453 MB. IE9 only drops down to a half of a gigabyte, earning fourth place, while Firefox 9 retains more than 600 MB to place last.

In OS X, the order remains the same, though the totals are substantially higher than in Windows 7.

Two Minutes Later

Waiting an additional two minutes sees Internet Explorer drop down to only 57 MB, just 10 MB more than its single-tab total. The extra two minutes don't help Chrome's memory usage, although the browser retains second place. Firefox releases another 400 MB to Windows, taking third place. Safari lets go of another 100 MB to take fourth, and Opera stays at around 400 MB, finishing last.

In OS X, the additional two minutes does nothing to shake up the finishing order. Chrome still hovers around 140 MB and Opera hangs around 575 MB. Safari drops 200 MB to an ominous 666 MB and Firefox sheds another 300 MB to stabilize at just over 700.

Interestingly, throughout memory testing, the OS X-based browsers use a substantially greater amount of RAM than their Windows-based counterparts.

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