HTML5 speed test finds IE9, Firefox 3.7 lead the pack in Windows, Chrome a distant last
By Donald Melanson 
posted June 25th 2010 3:01AM
posted June 25th 2010 3:01AM
Curious to see how the latest preview release of Internet Explorer 9 stacks up against the competition when it comes to HTML5 performance in Windows? So was Download Squad, and it's now revealed its findings in some vivid, if not entirely scientific tests. The end result is that Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 3.7 were well ahead of the pack in the 1,000-fish stress test (with Firefox about 5 or 10 percent ahead of IE), while Opera was stuck somewhere in the middle, and Chrome placed a distant last (and maxed out the CPU) -- all with hardware acceleration enabled, of course, although that had to be done via command line switches in the case of Chrome. Head on past the break to check out the four-way showdown for yourself, as well as an earlier test with just IE9 and Chrome.
:o
@JonnyB
So does that mean that IE9 is faster than a potato gun?
@JonnyB
IE won a speed test? *Does not compute*
@JonnyB Im still sticking with chrome
@JonnyB
This is fine and all, but we all know Google Chrome blows all other browsers away by speed and convenience.
I dont know about you guys, but ever since I tried Chrome, I havent used anything else since.
I like it because its lightweight, its simple and its fast and very very well layed out right out of the box (or download..?)
I also like the ability to google something right in the URL bar, its my #1 thing I use constantly
@MrFluffyThing
It means HTML5 is poop, but its less poopy on IE and Firefox.
IE is good now? Nice
@JonnyB
Woah wait a second. Internet explorer....that name seems familiar...anyways Chrome is losing?! I might have to check out what that explorer thing is again if chrome starts to lag
@uckApple
Because you apparently can't search the web using the URL bar of the other browsers.
@JonnyB
Yeah, HTML5 is still buggy on 6, but it will improve, javascript i still believe is faster.
@corylulu
oh thats not fair, its IE's test site. no wonder it works best for IE9, thats what its optimized for. Everyone knows that nothing works on microsoft websites besides IE.
@JonnyB
How is this a fair test? The aquarium for Chrome was smaller! The fishes just didn't have any room to move.
@corylulu Absolutely - you can't run the benchmark from one of the suppliers!
That said, it's nice to see Microsoft raising their game. As a large portion of the World still use IE, it means that those of use who write web apps can at least rely on some level of performance.
@liftedngifted1 Chome all the way such a nicer lay out more compact feeling...And frrling is everything...Right?
@RincewindWiz
From a coding standpoint, i want IE dead.
its a completely different platform than anything else, thus everything must be specially coded for IE and everything else.
But what really sucks is that IE is used by so many people, but they are all still using IE 6 too. and this is all form corporations. and there policys wont let them upgrade.
@uckApple Chrome is my browser of choice, however as far as searching goes I much prefer the Firefox awesome bar. In practice, sometimes I accidentally try to use it as search and it just goes nowhere, so I think a blend would be best. I tried to find the extension for Chrome, looked up the developer and everything, but it's non-existent.
To be able to chose on of the awesome bar's choices, then if none is selected to perform a Google search is my current browser wet-dream.
@corylulu
I know what you mean,
I work for my country's government (no, not a spy :p) and IE6 is still the most used browser here.
@juanvaldez "on of the awesome bar's choices" = "one of..."
@MrFluffyThing We know how fast Google can work on software when competition is there, don't worry they'll be firing against sound waves in the future, followed by lasers when computers are controlled by our thoughts.
@corylulu The features of html-5 you are referring to are javascript..
@corylulu
to say its a consipiracy because the test was posted on microsoft's site is a sad and pathetic argument
face it, IE9 is remarkably faster in standard tests like sunspider. shut up already
@RincewindWiz
Who do you think made most of the other performance tests?
the SunSpider test is by Apple, the V8 test is by Google and the Dromaeo test is by Mozilla
@who said what
what a fishy test!
@uckApple you know firefox does the im feeling luck from the bar since years.. and konqueror has gg:stuff ^^
personally i never could get the hang of chrome.. its not bad but.. tab freezes and lack of proper extensions (hello adblock the right way) just make me stick to firefox.
That said i'm not really the kind of dude using something because it's the latest hype thingie. I'd use explorer if it was good.
@uckApple Opera is actually faster in most real world situations and does also not need a seperate field for google searches, if that is your main concern...
@uckApple
Hahaha, I'm choking here.
I can open about 15-20 tabs in either firefox or IE and use about 300mb of RAM.
Chrome, I open 3 tabs, and it uses about 700mb of RAM.
Utter trash, I put it on my old P4 1.5 because everyone was telling me how great it was, and how little resources it used. Straight back to firefox and IE.
@uckApple I thought Chrome was the best browser aswell, untill I tried to open RSS and XML sites in it and didn't get anything, switched back to FF in an instant, it's slower, but alteast I can see all sites.
@liftedngifted1
I'm with you on that.
@liftedngifted1
Agree. I have fewer issues with Chrome than any other browser. Plus, it's faster than IE8 and FF3.6 Maybe the other two will change that...
@Itami
"Because you apparently can't search the web using the URL bar of the other browsers."
You can configure Firefox into working that way, but not safari or, as far as I know, IE.
@popeyoni
I stand corrected, it does work in IE without any tweaks.
(I just haven't used IE in so long I didn't know this)
@JonnyB Why no Safari?
@JonnyB
Is it me... or only the chrome and opera browsers show smooth movement, and IE9 and FF are dropping frames like crazy!?
@JonnyB
Does any one realize that these tests
Are made by Microsoft? In other words, built for ie9. Now stop being dumbasses and do a real test.
@corylulu
"
From a coding standpoint, i want IE dead.
its a completely different platform than anything else, thus everything must be specially coded for IE and everything else."
I'm a web developer, you have zero clue what you're talking about.
@Ryan1000000
Just because its made by Microsoft doesnt mean its "built for IE." The tests are normal applications built using HTML5 standards.
But its ok, Microsoft is the company you hate, so any good news about their products is bad news for you.
@oproski If you actually watched the video you would realize you are wrong.
@JonnyB
While brand loyalty is touching, it's also pathetic, especially when you've got nothing to gain and are actually suffering for it. I've been using firefox for years, but if something better comes out that suits my needs, I'll definitely be switching.
Perhaps I've misunderstood some comments on here though and not taken into account the whole masochist perspective. In that case, more power to you.
@uckApple
When I tried Chrome, I just couldn't get into it. It was nice and fast, but having the tabs in the title bar position and the Gmail extension worked worse than the Firefox one (had to log into mail, new tab, to update mail counter) so it was back to Firefox for me.
I wouldn't mind seeing how Safari stacks up in comparison just because.
@abedinthehouse No it's not, just an HTML 5 speed test, but I'm guessing this is an old version of chrome, and google release a new one that will again blow them away, everything else about chrome already does
@oproski No, Firefox won the speed test.
@uckApple I don't find chrome all that fast, do like the search in URL Bar, don't know if it's any harder to click just to the right of that and type my search query in though. Do like that it runs each page as it's own open source so if a page decides to bug out your other multitasking pages don't close, and that the only reason I have to giving chrome the win in this case.
@oproski Firefox was about 5% faster at 1000 fish. Does that help your computations?
@kid300 Just admit androids ugly
Uhh. dude, HTML is not a web developer. try Javascript or Ajax and see what I'm talking about. Any client side code languages have seperate calls for Internet Explorer than all the other browsers.
if (event.pageX == null)
{
// IE case
var d= (document.documentElement &&
document.documentElement.scrollLeft != null) ?
document.documentElement : document.body;
docX= event.clientX + d.scrollLeft;
docY= event.clientY + d.scrollTop;
}
else
{
// all other browsers
docX= event.pageX;
docY= event.pageY;
}
Point proven. STFU
@Itami
It isn't as integrated in other browsers as it is with chrome you idiot.
@Kid Red
Exactly... How does Safari 5 compete against the others? If you had to limit yourself to 4 competitors, why not throw out Opera?
@uckApple You can search from the URL field with Opera. Also, all you have to do is hit ctrl + e in any browser to get to the search field, which is just as fast as ctrl + L. And please don't tell me you use the mouse for those operations.
Let the html5 wars begin
@t2af Next up, the battle between Latin and Sanskirt to continue the epic saga of languages hardly anyone uses.
@t2af
i like to see html 5 to improve, and the browsers running it. but i bet once chrome gets some good hardware acceleration i will be the best.