Web Browser Grand Prix 7: Firefox 7, Chrome 14, Opera 11.51

Features
By Adam Overa
published

Mozilla released the hotly-anticipated Firefox 7 two days ago. Does it deliver on the promise of speed and memory improvements? Does Firefox 7 have what it takes to dethrone current Web Browser Grand Prix champion, Google Chrome? Read on to find out!

Page Load Reliability

Page load reliability is measured by how many (if any) Web pages load with broken or incomplete elements while opening the 40 tabs in our memory usage tests (found on the next page). Broken elements mean missing ads, images, a jumbled layout, and so on. Each page with broken elements is counted once, no matter how many individual broken elements appear on that page.

Opera stuns once again with the lowest number of failures. In fact, this time we didn't record any at all. Apple Safari, which used to completely hang when loading 40 tabs, again places second with only 2-3 failures. While the new fast-paced release schedule allows Mozilla to keep pace with Google Chrome in the performance department, we've also seen it cause Firefox to suffer from the same reliability issues. Once known for its rock-solid stability, Firefox continues to falter in this area; version 7 reports twice as many failures as version 6. Chrome, which once demonstrated a deplorable number of failures, has improved over time and now hovers around 8-9 failures per 40-tab load. Internet Explorer 9 continues to amaze us in all of the wrong ways, as half of its pages contain broken elements.

Adam Overa
131 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gerchokas
    Well done Mozilla!
    Now they could change their famous icon to a more minimalist/modern style and we're done. Speedy AND classy, just like a fire fox.
    Reply
  • shiftmx112
    Enjoy it while you can Firefox fans

    Indeed. I have been quite content with FF8 though.
    Reply
  • soccerdocks
    Until another browser beats Chrome in the speed/performance benchmarks I'm sticking with it.
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    im sticking with IE, its perfectly fast enough and stable and why should I have to install another browser when it works perfectly fine?
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    I'm on FF10. :D Nightly 64-bit!
    Reply
  • compton
    I have to say, I do really like chrome. I stopped using Firefox as much one I tried the chrome beta, and now I use IE9 and chrome all the time. I used opera for a while, but Netflix streaming doesn't work with it, nor do many other sites I use.

    Now that IE is good again, I can't fault anyone for using it in lieu of the others.
    Reply
  • makaveli316
    "Until another browser beats Chrome in the speed/performance benchmarks I'm sticking with it."

    lol people still think they can feel the difference in terms of speed in real world performance and there's still people that doesn't use a browser for their needs and preferences, but just because they have seen some silly benchmark.
    Ridiculous. I bet those are the same people that are always complaining in the forums about crashes, viruses and blue screens.
    Reply
  • killik
    Even better yet,if you use FF7 with the MemoryFox addon,Firefox simply obliterates the competition.try it for yourself.
    Reply
  • killik
    Even better yet,if you use FF7 with the MemoryFox addon,Firefox simply obliterates the competition in the memory management department.try it for yourself.
    Reply
  • frostmachine
    I noticed firefox will use progressively more memory. Even if it's just refreshing the same pages. I use firefox, opera n chrome, keeping them open 24hr/day. It can go from intial 100mb to over 500mb. I don't see this in the other browsers.
    Reply