Quantcast
The video player requires Flash 8 Player or later. Please download the latest Flash Player.


Maclife Hottest Articles
Thumbnail
FEATURE
100 Snow Leopard Tips, Tricks, and Features
Browser
FEATURE
OS X Browser Speed Wars: May the Fastest App Win
iTunes History
FEATURE
The Complete iTunes History -- SoundJam MP to iTunes 9
iTunes Tips
FEATURE
iTunes 9 Tips and Tricks - Solve the Mysteries of the New iTunes
OS X Browser Speed Wars: May the Fastest App Win
Posted 09/17/2009 at 6:59:34pm | by Michelle Delio

speed

 


No matter how happy you are with your current Web browser, chances are you’ve wondered if another browser would make your Web wanderings faster, easier, or at least a little more festive. We speculate about that too (probably far too often), so we decided to run some tests, compare features and figure out which browser currently rules the Web.

The Lineup


Browsers are powered by engines which transform a raw mess of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into a more or less tidy website. Mac browsers typically use the Mozilla Gecko or Webkit engines. Opera uses its own proprietary engine, Presto.

Current releases of Mozilla Gecko-based browsers for the Mac include:

Firefox 3.5.1: Once the geeky alternative, now almost mainstream, known for its customizability
Flock 2.5: A browser for the socially-minded Mac user
Camino 1.6.8: Firefox, basically, but tweaked for Macs


Current Webkit-based browsers include:

Safari 4.0.2: Apple’s very own browser.
Stainless 0.6.5: Cool features for the technically inclined (under development).
Cruz 0.2: For the social networker who likes to multi-task (under development).


If a browser has not yet reached version 1.0, we didn’t include it in our overall benchmark scoring as it could have skewed the results. Early-stage stripped-down betas can appear superfast, and could lack some functions that can skew benchmark-based comparisons.

 


Testing Methodology

To gauge basic performance levels we used Mozilla's Dromaeo JavaScript testing suite which aggregates a number of tools including Dromaeo, Apple's SunSpider suite and Google's V8. We measured CPU/Memory usage with iStat pro. Streaming video playback was determined by comparing how smoothly the same set of three YouTube videos played in each browser.

We installed freshly-downloaded copies of each browser and tested on a Mac Pro (2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 8GB of SDRAM running OS X 10.5.7) and a MacBook Pro (2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 8GB SDRAM running OS X 10.5.7). Each browser ran in its default configuration with no third-party plug-ins and a minimum set of bookmarks. That’s the closest we could get to creating a level playing field but there’s a flaw here: over long-term usage, a browser’s performance may slow as information is added to its database, extensions can also bog things down.

Bottom line: Benchmarks are not the Voice of God. There are too many variables that come into play, such as network latency when testing browsers. And while a sluggish but feature-rich application is not a good application, features and functionality matter far more to most of us than whether a browser can load 15 tabs a few fractions of a second faster than another browser.

 

 

Test results


General Performance:

Overall, Safari was the fastest of all the browsers we tested, with Camino a hair behind Safari.

Firefox exhibited the slowest startup times of any tested browser, but beats Safari by an average of two seconds in speedy page rendering, primarily due to its new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.

Opera was a bit faster than Firefox on start-up times but really shone in the tab-tests -- opening up eight, and then 15 tabs faster (but we’re talking percents of seconds here) than the other browsers. Safari was the next fastest on the tab test, with Firefox and Camino neck in neck near the back of the pack.



Flock didn’t score well at all, coming in dead last in all tests but its capabilities not its performance are what makes this browser attractive to some.

Resource Usage
We tested each browser by opening 15 tabs -- nine of them flash-heavy -- and checked CPU and memory usage in iStat pro after 10, 20, and 30 minutes.

Firefox, Safari and Opera did the best on this test; Firefox showed 9% CPU utilization at 30 minutes, Safari and Opera had consumed 11%. Camino was in second-to-last place, with a 13% CPU utilization score. Flock ate up the most resources, spiking to 15% on occasion.

None of the browsers gobbled enough resources to create a performance lags in other applications or the browser.

NEXT: Video Playback, Features Compared and Your Next Browser. 

 

COMMENTS
avatarMess Up

Uhh, I think you messed up the last graph with the icons and the colors of Opera and Firefox...

Login or register to post comments
avatarDoh!

I can't believe I did that. Sheesh. Thanks for catching that and pointing it out.

-Robbie

Login or register to post comments
avatarSafari's "Cover Flow"

When you talked about Safari's "Cover Flow" feature, it sounded a lot like you were talking about "Top Sites." You said you can't choose the sites, but if you click on "Edit", under the grid, you can drag a url from your address bar and it will affix the site in place.

Login or register to post comments
avatarProblems

I have a couple of problems/questions regarding this article. First of all, why the decision to talk about Cruz and Chrome, neither of which is even at a stable release yet, and ignore other WebKit browsers, namely OmniWeb (at version 5) and iCab (at version 4)? Both of these browsers are full-featured and stable, and therefore should have been included in this comparison. Second, I'm confused by one statement. The article states that Firefox beats Safari in page rendering speeds then suggests this may be due to the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. However, the JavaScript benchmarks suggest that Safari's JavaScript engine is faster than Firefox's. Am I missing something here? Wouldn't it make more sense to suggest that Firefox renders HTML faster than Safari?

Login or register to post comments
avatarOmniWeb

OmniWeb? Where is OmniWeb in these tests?

Login or register to post comments
avatarI love OmniWeb. I miss

I love OmniWeb. I miss OmniWeb. It is dog slow, uses and outdated WebKit, and badly needs some OmniLove.

Honestly, I think with the speed it is currently running (largely due to the outdated version of WebKit it uses), it isn't really a big deal to not be included. We know it's slower. It's features were worth giving up a little speed for me... until Safari 4 came out and was so much faster.

Login or register to post comments
avatarActually, the current

Actually, the current version of OmniWeb (5.10.1) is using the same WebKit version as Safari 4.0.3. I do agree that it's generally slightly slower than Safari.

Login or register to post comments
avatarhonorable mentions

Since there are a whole bunch of other Browsers as well I would have loved to see at least a mention about why some of them weren't included.
OmniWeb was already mentioned in the comments. I was not aware that it uses an outdated WebKit, which is (or given the most recent comment above mine, would be) a good reason to skip it - especially because it is payware.
Sunrise has some nice feats, for instance it was the first one to include hotkeys to change the browser window size to standard dimensions. This is nice while designing sites, especially because it is a very small, fast-loading app - I'm not aware how good it is in terms of JavaScript stuff. Sure, with FFox you can add a plugin to do the same, but as pointed out not everyone (me included) may be happy with FFox ...
SeaMonkey is the Mozilla variant for Mac of, well, the old all-inclusive Netscape/Mozilla paradigm; usually it is somewhat behind FFox in terms of security patches; but the same can be said about Camino as well.

I'm mainly using Opera, now in version 10, and on the Mac it had some serious performance issues up to v9. Comparing the Windows v6 to Mac v6 showed they had a lot of work ahead with the Mac platform, and I think they have had done a lot of that work with v9, especially 9.64, and now with the current v10 there seems to be another further step done; too early to make final statements (and it is a x.0 version, so minor releases may or may not follow shortly). I find it a bit harsh to mention the lacking privacy mode when all you have to do at end of the session are two clicks to completely blank every core browser cache (ie cache, cookies, history, download history etc, not including plugins like Flash, but to my knowledge none of the browsers clear plugin caches). Especially when Chrome's privacy and security issues, which are far worse even in the advanced Windows version, are left out completely.

Sorry if I'm sounding a bit like an Opera fanboy. Maybe this is caused by being one ;-)

Login or register to post comments
avatarOmniWeb

People don't seem to be getting this OmniWeb business. First of all, it is now FREE (and has been for several months). Second, the current release is NOT using an outdated version of WebKit. It is using the same version of WebKit as Safari 4.0.3.

Login or register to post comments
avatarBTW, in the first chart you

BTW, in the first chart you misspelled Camino.

Login or register to post comments
avatarMess up 2

In first Chart you spelled (or it at least it looks that way) Camino "caminp".

Life member: VPEA, NESDA, ISCET, ETA-I, Who's Who."If it's fixed, don't break it."http://www.phillipmjones.net  

Login or register to post comments
avataromega watches

Every little chat Salon 1000 ah!replica watchYou are my best's buddy
2ff3s

Login or register to post comments
avataresource Usage
We tested

esource Usage
We tested each browser by opening 15 tabs youtube thanks

Login or register to post comments
avatarOs browser speed

It si becoming to the edge of competition amongs the browser. well safarii s the best.
Easy recipes

Login or register to post comments
avatarGeneric Viagra and Kamagra

Generic Viagra and Kamagra is widely used by men to treat their ED. It contains sildenafil citrate a clinically proven drug that helps men with ED in achieving erection.
Bellspharmacy.com is one of the highly acclaim distributor of generic drugs. This company is known worldwide of its quality drugs and it offer generic drugs at a very low prices. Visit them online
Kamagra | Generic Viagra | Caverta | Generic Viagra | Cheap Generic Viagra | Kamagra | Cheap Generic Viagra | Finpecia | Penegra | Cheap Generic Viagra

Login or register to post comments
avatarSafari is the best for

Safari is the best for MAC...
funny stories

Login or register to post comments