RoboHornet Pro: Microsoft Snubs Google, Mozilla Concurs!

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Last week we broke the story of RoboHornet, a new Web browser performance benchmark. Today, we chronicle the fallout of what is perhaps the worst-received benchmark launch in history, plus add the results of Microsoft's counter-move: RoboHornet Pro.

Test System Specs And Software Setup

Test Setup

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Desktop Test System Specs
Operating System 1Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)

Operating System 2Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise RTM (64-bit)

Operating System 3Apple OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 (64-bit)

Operating System 4Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS Precise Pangolin (64-bit)

ProcessorIntel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz (quad-core)MotherboardGigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 (F10 BIOS)Memory8 GB Crucial DDR3 @ 1333 MT/s (2 x 4 GB)GraphicsGeForce GTX 560 Ti 1 GB GDDR5 (PCIe 2.0 x16)StorageSeagate Barracuda 7200.12 500 GB SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 16 MB CacheOptical Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/ASPower SupplyCorsair TX750W (750 W max)CaseZalman MS-1000 HS2CPU CoolerScythe Mugen 2 Revision BKeyboardLogitech Wireless Keyboard K320MouseLogitech Wireless Trackball M570Tablet Test System 1 SpecsModelAsus Transformer TF300TOperating SystemGoogle Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean)

Display10.1" LED-Backlit WXGA IPS (1280x800)ProcessorNvidia Tegra 3 (quad-core)Memory1 GBStorage32 GBNetwork802.11 b/g/n @ 2.4 GHzTablet Test System 2 SpecsModeliPad (3rd generation)Operating SystemiOS 6

Display9.7" LED-Backlit IPS Retina Display (2048x1536)ProcessorApple A5X ARM Cortex-A9 @ 1GHz (dual-core)Memory1 GB LP-DDR2Storage16 GBNetwork802.11 a/b/g/nNetwork SpecsISP ServiceCox Preferred (18 Mb/s down, 2 Mb/s up)ModemMotorola SURFboard SBS101URouterLinksys WRT54G2 V1Windows BrowsersChrome22.0.1229.79 mFirefox15.0.1Internet Explorer 1010.0.9200.16384Maxthon3.4.5Opera12.02 (build 1578)Sleipnir3.7.1.4000OS X BrowsersChrome22.0.1229.79 mFirefox15.0.1Maxthon1.0.4.1000 BetaOpera12.02 (build 1578)Safari6.0.1 (8536.26.14)Sleipnir3.7.1 (3.7.1)Linux BrowsersChrome22.0.1229.79Firefox15.0.1Opera12.02 (build 1578)Android BrowsersChrome18.0.1025308Opera Mobile12.0.4iOS BrowsersAxis1.1.2Chrome21.0.1180.82Dolphin5.4.1Maxthon1.3Safari6.0Sleipnir2.0

Methodology

The Web browsers, operating systems, drivers, and other supporting apps were fully updated as of midnight on September 26, 2012 (Eastern Daylight Time). Screensaver and power management options are disabled in each operating system before testing.

Per the original RoboHornet homepage, each browser is tested with no other tabs or applications open. Due to the much shorter duration of RoboHornet Pro, our charts contain the average of five iterations.

Adam Overa
27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • techcurious
    A little off topic, but something just occurred to me.. that we had Safari on Windows, but not IE on OSX..
    Now that OSX market share is increasing, I wonder if Microsoft will ever release Internet Explorer for OSX, and I wonder if Apple will allow it..
    Reply
  • techcurious
    ... nevermind.. I would rate myself down if I could.. cause after further thought, I realized that anyone that chose to use OSX over Windows will never choose to use IE over Safari or Firefox.. Something I am sure Microsoft also realizes :)
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    My one complaint about this article, was the contrast between the massive amount of iOS browsers, and the utter lack of Android browsers. You stated yourself.
    Each of these third-party iOS browsers are essentially just a new GUI and additional functionality added to Safari

    Why not also test firefox, dolphin, skyfire and stock browsers on android?
    Reply
  • dalethepcman
    techcurious... nevermind.. I would rate myself down if I could.. cause after further thought, I realized that anyone that chose to use OSX over Windows will never choose to use IE over Safari or Firefox.. Something I am sure Microsoft also realizes
    Actually I have many Mac users that would use IE in OSX just for the convenience of pass through authentication, but since its not available they all have a separately purchased copy of windows to run in a VM or access IE through Citrix for domain resources.
    Reply
  • adamovera
    dalethepcmanMy one complaint about this article, was the contrast between the massive amount of iOS browsers, and the utter lack of Android browsers. You stated yourself.Why not also test firefox, dolphin, skyfire and stock browsers on android?I attempted to, they either wouldn't run the test at all, or they hang indefinitely and are unable to complete it. Stay tuned for the Android Web Browser Grand Prix for the full benchmark results of browsers on that platform.
    Reply
  • tipoo
    I agree with Mozilla, perceived speed > benchmarks for browsers. And ironically that's exactly where they fail hardest. Chrome, Opera, heck sometimes even IE10 now always seem more responsive and stay more responsive than Firefox in my experience. I like its font rendering, I like its smooth scrolling (well, IE10 has those too, I think it has to do with DirectWrite more than the browser) but the small instances of UI lag bug me after using Chrome for so long.
    Reply
  • tipoo
    Once more I'm puzzled why browsers in OSX are consistently and significantly slower than Windows and Ubuntu, even the same browser cross platform.
    Reply
  • adamovera
    tipooOnce more I'm puzzled why browsers in OSX are consistently and significantly slower than Windows and Ubuntu, even the same browser cross platform.From page 4: "Our current cross-platform test system provides unusually low Web results under OS X Mountain Lion compared to other operating systems. While the OS X browser scores appear to be accurate in relation to each other, none of the OS X scores should be used to draw conclusions about OS X versus the other desktop environments in this test. Until we can pin down the culprit, please view the OS X results as if they were obtained on an entirely different test system."
    I have been unable to track down the cause of this problem - I tried every single network driver I could find, multiple re-installs, and different DSDT files. This is the only Hackintosh system we've ever used that has this issue - our older Lynnfield-based rig didn't. Hopefully, when I build a totally new Ivy Bridge-based rig this problem will just go away, if not, I guess I need an actual Mac - but that could leave Linux twisting in the wind since Bootcamp is just for Windows - on paper, anyway :(
    Reply
  • tipoo
    Got ya, I missed that part. Maybe a commenter with a mac can give it a quick run to see how it compares to the hackintosh.
    Reply
  • adamovera
    tipooGot ya, I missed that part. Maybe a commenter with a mac can give it a quick run to see how it compares to the hackintosh.They have, and they're all reporting Web-related scores are higher on Mac's with lower-end hardware than our test system. Also, our old Lynnfield-based system shows OS X browsers doing way better in relation to Windows browsers on that Hackintosh versus a genuine MacBook Air - so it's definitely our current Hackintosh configuration and not OS X to blame for the lower scores versus other OSes.
    Reply