Web Browser Grand Prix 5: Opera 11.50, Firefox 5, And Chrome 12

By Adam Overa
published

Three major released have landed since our last impromptu Web Browser Grand Prix (WBGP4): Chrome 12, Firefox 5, and Opera 11.50. Can Chrome or Opera regain the WBGP championship? Will Mozilla Firefox ever overtake Microsoft's IE9 in the rankings?

Performance Benchmarks: Page Load Times

Google

WebKit-based browsers Chrome and Safari are the fastest at loading Google.com; each takes 20 and 22 milliseconds, respectively. Firefox 5 comes in third at just under 30 milliseconds. Close behind in fourth place is Opera, with a time of just 30 milliseconds, while IE9 places fifth at just over 42 milliseconds.

Facebook

IE9 takes first place, loading the world's second-most popular Web site in just 44 milliseconds. The WebKit-based browsers again place closely, with Chrome taking 77.6 milliseconds and Safari taking 78.6. Opera is again a very near fourth place, taking just 91.4 milliseconds to load Facebook. The new Firefox trails far behind the pack at 132.8 milliseconds.

YouTube

Chrome again takes the lead when it comes to loading another Google property; it renders YouTube in just under 200 milliseconds. Rivals IE9 and Firefox 5 come in a close second and third place (respectively), both taking around 280 milliseconds to load YouTube. Opera places a distant fourth at just over 600 milliseconds, while Safari comes in fifth at around 650.

Yahoo!

IE9 is the first to load the Yahoo! home page, managing to finish the render in around 280 milliseconds. Chrome finishes second at just over 370 milliseconds. Safari is a distant third, taking almost 700 milliseconds. Opera places fourth with a time of just over 800 milliseconds, and Firefox 5 is last, eating up a full second.

MSN

Chrome finishes first, taking only 544.2 milliseconds. Firefox comes in second place with a score of 730 milliseconds. Safari is the third-place finisher with a time of 880 milliseconds. Opera trails behind the pack at 1.25 seconds, while surprisingly, IE9 takes a full 2.5 seconds to load its own default home page.

Adam Overa
102 Comments Comment from the forums
  • adampower
    Wow, it seems like I upgrade my browsers every week.
    Reply
  • somehow it seems that firefox is focussing more on benchmarks rather than actual real world usage.
    Reply
  • opera keeps impressing me throughout the WBGP
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    Now if just Google would release a 64-bit Chrome browser.
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    First of all, this is the most thorough WBGP yet.
    somehow it seems that firefox is focussing more on benchmarks rather than actual real world usage.
    I don't think so - proper page loads and battery life are important considerations.

    I agree that Mozilla did not do a right thing in copying Chrome's release cycle, but at least they're trying - for example, they're trying hard in bringing down memory usage by increasing the garbage collection frequency(check this out in the Aurora and Nightly builds).

    WBGP is basically a test of speed, and Chrome may have won in that, but Firefox is not far behind. I can wait for two or three seconds for my page to load. You can easily bring down the page load times by using addons like AdBlock Plus.

    Even with the faster release cycle, this article clearly states that Firefox is still the most stable browser. Many people say that they've had numerous crashes, but its something wrong with their drivers or OS - I have not had a single crash since FF 4.0 beta 5 (or 7?), when they introduced hardware acceleration for the first time.

    Firefox remains the most customizable browser, while Opera has the most number of features out-of-the-box.

    So overall, according to me Firefox>=Opera>Chrome>IE 9> Safari.
    Reply
  • cadder
    Will you guys please investigate the SECURITY of each browser? I would use the one that is most secure even if it is slowest.
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    9516697 said:
    Will you guys please investigate the SECURITY of each browser? I would use the one that is most secure even if it is slowest.
    That's easy: FF+AdBlock Plus+ NoScript+Ghostery+BrowserProtect
    Reply
  • ChiefTexas_82
    IE 9 is a speed demon? I droped IE because it started running like ****. I blame loading too many side programs after years on the web. So I wanted to try Chrome or Firefox. Being a Google fan already, I tried Chrome. So far it leaves my old IE8 in the dust. Except for a certain bug, I would say it has been an improvement in almost every way.
    Reply
  • ChiefTexas_82
    I don't like how Nvidia's GPU auto-detect doesn't work on chrome.
    Reply
  • thartist
    Damn, Opera has it's flaws but it's nonetheless the one that does one thing best: browsing.
    Reply