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.

Flash Performance Benchmarks

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GUIMark 2 Flash

All of the Windows 7 browsers appear to have steady scores with no browser showing an abnormal weakness in any of the three HTML5 implementations.

Firefox and Chrome for OS X both seem to have an advantage in vector charting, while Firefox also shows a strength in text columns.

Once again, Opera, Safari, and IE9 all place close together at the top of the pile in this Windows 7-based test.

Opera places first with 41.5 FPS, followed by Safari with 40.5 FPS, and IE9 with 39.5 FPS. Firefox comes in fourth place at 35 FPS, while Chrome takes last place with 32 FPS.

Mozilla grabs the lead in OS X with 33 FPS, followed by Chrome with 32 FPS. Safari takes third at 30.5 FPS and Opera brings up the rear at 29.5 FPS. All of the browsers do worse in OS X than in Windows.

Flash Benchmark 2008

Safari takes the lead in Windows 7 by a decent margin over second-place finisher IE9. Opera pulls into third, followed by Firefox in fourth and Chrome in fifth.

The OS X placing changes significantly, as the last-place finisher in Windows 7, Firefox, takes the Apple gold. Safari takes a hit on its native platform to come in a very close second, though, trailed by Chrome (which also enjoys a benefit over the Windows version). Opera comes in last place, not far behind Chrome, but very far behind its Windows 7 score.

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