Page Load Time Performance Benchmarks
Our page load time tests are performed with the test pages cached (in history), and uncached (newly opened). These test pages are the same ones used in our startup time tests. Each page is run for five iterations, and any obvious outliers are retested. We then average the results for each browser to arrive at a composite page load time for each.
Chrome takes the lead in cached page loads at 1.65 seconds, but only manages second place in uncached page loads. Opera takes third place in cached page load times, but nabs first place in the all-important uncached page loads. Safari is the second-place finisher in cached page loads, but drops to third in uncached loads. Firefox places fourth in both types of page loads (about two and three seconds), followed by IE8 about a half-second behind.
Overall, Opera is the big winner for page loads. While Chrome beats Opera by one-fifth of a second in loading cached pages, uncached page loads are what Web browsing is all about. Chrome takes a very respectable second place, followed closely by Safari and Firefox, and then IE8.
The charts below hold the cached and uncached detail view of each test page per browser.