Firefox 3.6 vs. Google Chrome 2 vs. Safari 4 vs. Opera 10

By | April 27, 2009 | 29 Comments

Firefox 3.6 vs. Google Chrome 2 vs. Safari 4 vs. Opera 10While companies are working on their next-generation web browsers, Betanews has managed to test the performance of the upcoming ones, such as:

Firefox 3.5, Firefox 3.6, Google Chrome, Google Chrome 2, Safari 4, Opera 10. Test also includes Internet Explorer 7 and 8.

About

As it says: “Tests combine the Acid3 standards test with three trusted performance tests for CSS rendering and JavaScript speed.”

And now… The results.

Firefox 3.6 vs. Google Chrome 2 vs. Safari 4 vs. Opera 10
More is better

Speaking of latest stable releases, Betanews claims that while Firefox 3.0.8 scored 4.7, the latest 3.0.9 release was actually slower (scored 4.37).

[digg-reddit-me]


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • Jan Schulz

    This graph is misleading, please post one without perspective. Thanks!

  • http://my.opera.com/chas4/blog Chas4

    What build Of Opera 10 Alpha did they use?

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    Since Opera Software officially launched only 1 alpha, they probably used that one.

  • http://my.opera.com/chas4/blog Chas4

    Vygantas Lipskas, they have released updated builds of the Alpha since then, the most recent on friday

  • Testtest

    What a pathetically useless test. No methodology described, no nothing.

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    Chas4, yes, but you can download only 1st alpha from opera.com/next

    And that’s the place where would new to opera people seek for it

  • Mancho

    @Vygantas, and why would people new to opera be getting the alpha, particularly an alpha that isn’t a current build? There are two reasons: 1) to quickly try to see where opera is going w/ the browser, compared to the current release, with understanding that it may not perform particularly well, or 2) to run biased “benchmarks”.

    I don’t see why any browser is cross-browser benchmarked when in alpha, especially by some arbitrary and undefined “trusted” tests, unless that build specifically addresses those performance issues.

  • http://my.opera.com/chas4/blog Chas4

    I have the current build of the Alpha version for Mac here and the stable build

    One other thing I see missing in the report is the specs of the test system, also what are the names of the tests they used besides the Acid3 test?

  • nobody

    if you, all opera fans, think/claim that these tests are biased and doesnt show the truth or are biased against opera, present a test that shows otherwise. one test can be biased, two can be a coincidence, but when all tests all around the web show that opera is now in league with IEs, then it is just like it is. opera is slow. develops slowly and doesnt bode well after their ‘flagship’ opera mobile was raped by safari/chrome webkit browsers on both iphone and g1. these two shows that mobile browsers do not need any compromises when it comes to rendering webpages.

    in fact they render webpages better than opera 10 desktop newest build.. and that tells why opera ha 1% of marketshare, because it is simply innovative, but poor product

  • http://my.opera.com/chas4/blog Chas4

    nobody no one said they were biased, I have noticed they did not list the system specs of the machine they did the tests on. Opera had the fastest browser javascript engine until some time in 2008, they have invented a lot of things that other browsers have just started to include in their browsers.

    “in fact they render webpages better than opera 10 desktop newest build” It is a test build it will have issues that is the same with a test version of any browser (what also does not help is web masters writing in IE only code)

    “, present a test that shows otherwise. one test can be biased, two can be a coincidence, but when all tests all around” The only test that is listed is the Acid 3 test, so what are these other 2 tests?

    IE is the only browser that did not innovate after the end of the first browser war, you may have notice that IE has been the slowest browser for years. They did almost no innovating or performance work on iE. Opera has been doing that for years

    “opera is slow. develops slowly and doesn’t bode well after their ‘flagship’” Opera has been developed since it started in 1994, and the development has been ongoing ever since. Opera created tabs in 2000 IE only added them in IE 7 thats was 6 years later. What about Opera on many different devices is that not development?

    I would say these test are void as they don’t provide very little data on the system specs and the tests used

  • http://my.opera.com/IceArdor IceArdor

    Betanews,

    Yuck. First thing that anyone learns in a technical communication class: Never use 3D graphs. They’re impossible to read. I can hardly even tell which browser the purple bar belongs to, let alone the relative magnitudes of the lines.

    Second thing….. what’s up with the composite number? Why not just give us a value like milli-seconds. There’s no reason to make it more subjective than it already is.

  • Mancho

    @nobody, I have no idea if the test was biased against Opera because there is no indication of what build was used, what tests were run, nor how the “performance index” was measured. For all I know this could be biased against Firefox, but at least I know they used one of the nightly builds.

    As far as “all tests”, what tests are you referring to? Pretty much the only tests I see reported on this site are javascript tests using SunSpider. What are all these tests you are referring to?

    How was Opera raped on the iPhone and G1? I’m not sure what you are even referring to.

  • ps

    there are few performance tests – each vendor so far released its own: v8, sunspider and that one from mozilla. there is futuremark’s own test suite. and some minor stuff like rendering speed tests, raytracing demos etc.

    AFAIK in all of them Opera is in the same league as IE6&7, with clear and strong webKit dominance. it isnt just this one test that shows that, sadly, Opera is no longer a contester in speed race. same goes for ‘real usage performance’ – using safari for a while should learn anyone HOW FAST browser can be..

    as for the iPhone I dont know, but my G1′s browser (webKit based) allows me to use each and every webpage I ever tried in full, 100%, unrestricted mode. this includes pages that desktop opera has issues with.

  • http://my.opera.com/chas4/blog Chas4

    ps Opera has some trouble with some pages because of poor web page design, Opera is way ahead of IE 7 and IE 6 is way behind all other browsers

    The other thing I notice is that Opera 9.64 is not listed in the results, nor is the stable version of Safari

    Safari speed only works when you have a good strong stable connection (I know from experience)

    Opera and ever other browser on the market have hacks for sites that don’t work in their browser (even IE 8)

    http://my.opera.com/core/blog/show.dml/3130540

    plus it has been said before no system specs have been given, so you can’t say anything

    Some people may have notice that there are a few sits going around trying to kill off IE 6 as it is holding back the web

  • hell0

    Opera is no longer a contester in speed race

    Are you mad?

    Just because some irrelevant and artificial JS benchmark by Apple shows that Safari is faster at the tiny parts of JS that the benchmark test doesn’t mean that Opera is slower overall.

  • http://blank.com Mikey

    Interesting Opera have innovated by far the most over the last 15 years. They continue to innovate to make their browser more useful to all people.
    As far as loading a page goes I have no issues no matter which browser I use – and if you can convince me that 2 seconds load time differential for a page is all important as opposed to the feature set I get with Opera I will eat my own arse.
    No other browser provides a UI that I like as much as Opera, no other browser provides all the functionality I love in Opera.

    No doubt Fx and Safari users will winge that I am worming my way out of the speed debate. However the only reason speed is used is because people know they can’t compete with Opera in other fields. As I mentioned above, I am from the modem era, I am not too interested in speed. Slow pages are indicative of crap web page design, not a poor rendering engine.

    One more point – I use Opera as my main browser. I also use Chrome (Not that keen), Firefox (Its ok) and IE (When I need compatibility with poorly written web pages). Safari masacred my hard disk and locked up my computer and will never again be seen on my computer for that very reason.

    I converted to Opera in 1998 (6 months after I first got a regular web connection) and still wouldn’t change as no other browser does everything I want.
    Firefox needs extensions to be useful. Chrome doesn’t have enough options to be called “Configurable” and IE is only there in case all else fails.

    As far as these “Tests” go. Lets see what test suites were run, lets see the PC config, lets see the OS used, lets see RAM usage, lets see installed space requirements, lets see CPU usage, etc.
    I don’t claim Opera will win any or all, I am just interested in proper and fair tests to make an informed decision.
    I find these tests very intereseting to monitor development, however until I find a real competitor, on all fronts, for Opera I won’t be changing.
    Also try testing the LunaScape browser – which has 3 different rendering engines and using identical Gecko engines is faster than Firefox. Says something for how brilliant the Mozilla foundation is!

    If someone can point me towards a fine browser than beats Opera in features and UI please let me know – I’ll give it look. If you can show me a browser that will save me an hour in my day please tell me that too. If it will save me, over the course of a full day, 2 minutes in page load times then keep “innovating” (Tweaking rendering engines) I’m sure one day it will all come to something.

  • mike

    Opera 10 is by far the fasted of all other browsers. Chrome is lackluster and will never be what that good. It gets hyped because Gmail created it but in reality it is krap.
    IE8 is slow, stick with IE7
    If Opera would work with every website like IE does and it would be flawless.

  • http://my.opera.com/Chas4/blog/ Chas4

    mike you can also help by asking the site to allow Opera and others and to stop writing IE only code on their site

    Every browser now has some sort of site hacking to get a site to work

  • Ecstatickid

    Pathetic!
    From my experience and quite a few of my friends agree: Opera is clearly THE BEST browser , Safari is a close second(fast,sleek and got features) , chrome(no features) third, firefox fourth i guess btw IE is out of this scale, its neither fast nor secure, nor worth anyone’s time… if it weren’t for IE only websites(its junk).

    • http://* Jay

      Safari may show that it is the fastest, but it clogs up the system, crashes often, and has bugs in windows, so it is not usable. Chrome is the best in speed discounting safari which is extremely buggy – as expected from apple software in windows.

  • anupam singh gautam

    opera 10.10-should come first as it is very good in rendering pages and got smart tools like ad blocking ,flash blocking opera turbo at the click of button. it even manages to stay cool when you open multiple tabs .on some sites it get slow however and sometimes renders incorrectly regional sites overall it’s the best browser on PC and mobile phones

    : google chrome2.0 very fast and light in rendering pages and javascript execution especially on google owned sites (youtube,facebok ,gmail)..thats what avg user opens 90% of time but it didnt got ad blocking and flash blocking extension but it go slow when you open multiple sites and crash often however it’s still in early phase of dev. and its ok for a new browser i m sure it will improve a lot in coming days

    firefox-3.5 the old fav is now a memory and RAM eater .its bulky when you open multiple sites and slogs the system. but it is still good in rendering pages when tried with ad block plus and script blocker
    espicially at those ad sites and virus prone sites

    safari – i dont know why they made this for windows it was OK for MAC as they got no option , i think all good review made about this browser was tested on MAC . it’s very slow sluggish and bulky on windows .when ever i tried it i got to remove it immediately .. it got nothing and its second only to internet explorer in terms of bad rendering speed

    IE8 – no matter if they make internet explorer 8 or 88 or 888 . it was made for fooling small kids who can recognize it with what is in given in elementary computer textbook .good for kids bad for user anyone using it is either due to lack of awareness or got no options this is the worst browser in terms of security speed and sluggishness . it got nothing

  • Pranav

    Firefox is the best !

  • Pranav

    Firefox may be a bit slower than other browsers . But it does offer better security !

  • Khazhao Khimichi

    Hmm…

    I am confused between Opera10.10 or Fx3.6.
    At first, i’m a fans of opera. It’s because it feels faster than Fx. Moreover, Opera can show us the network speed and percentage loading page and image in each browsing tabs and upadated in each time not like Fx. I have find the add-ons on Fx that have same function like Opera’s speed viewer but it just for all tabs or not updated in each tabs (the name of add-ons is Extended… and Ex… sorry if i forgot the name). I need this because connection in Indonesia is fuckin slow.

    I too prefer Opera bacause it’s faster to open it.
    But, this loading problem has been solved. It’s just simply disabling the Fx and addons auto upadater that can be found in Tools->Options->Advanced->Update. Fx using at least 50Mb of RAM to just open it. I don’t know about Opera because i never checked it. But Fx can saving much space in RAM because it doesn’t have cookies.

    Fx doesn’t have cookies so if you want to reopen previously opened page, it will reload it from begining. It’s a way faster to reopen previous page while i using Opera that using cookies.

    Opera too have a faster rendering page than Fx (even without accelereator). Maybe i can feel this difference because i’m using a low speed internet connection. Sometimes, Fx need to dowload all the resources that need to open the full page while opera can open it partially from whatever resources it downloaded.

    Other than that, Fx cannot save page directly. It must be redownloaded to save it. This to apply when i want to save image from the page. Fx redownloaded the image so it takes time just to saving a page or image. Moreover, it will reduce the bandwitch speed to do another job than just saving page. I too have encountered a site (sorry,i forgot the site) that cannot be saved in Fx but can be saved in Opera. It because the page or image cannot be downloaded to be saved. And when you using Fx w/o addons, you cannot save object like flash object.

    But, nowadays, i’m beggining to move away from Opera. It’s because some site doesn’t work well in opera like this site:

    http://www.indowebster.com/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_00_01_1280x720_H264_AACmp4.html

    The download LINK cannot be shown in Opera. Opera show if the browser has redirected to other site. But it.s working in Fx.

    Moreover, while i’m using Opera, the plugin like IDM and Flash Player in every page need to be clicked to use the plugin. For example in Mafia wars in Facebook (lol). If i want to see the properties in New York, i have to click a “Play” button to be able to see it since now it using flash object.

    If anyone know how to solve that problem beyond, please help me from moving away to Fx.

    Thx very much.

    • Khazhao Khimichi

      Oops, i forgot to mention the CPU spec.
      AMD 3000+
      RAM 512MB
      Smart mobile broadband modem w/ 3.1Mbps for download and 512Kbps for upload (they say. but in reality it just work in about 5-20KBps (40-160Kbps) for browsing and 10-40KBps (80-320Kbps) for downloading)with very unstable speed.

  • http://my.opera.com/chas4/blog Chas4

    @Khazhao Khimichi “Flash Player in every page need to be clicked to use the plugin. For example in Mafia wars in Facebook”

    Are you using Opera turbo because that play like button is for flash content

    http://www.indowebster.com/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_00_01_1280×720_H264_AACmp4.html

    the download link is a flash button also, the click to flash is to save bandwidth while using Opera tubro

    • nobody

      it isnt Turbo’ fault.

      as far as i know, opera still obeys some 3rd party patents, that prevents loading embeded content ‘on the fly’.

      there was a time, when all non-ie browsers obeyed it, but after some time all, except for opera, started to ignore it (or bypass it on some way)

      turbo or not, you cant play embeded youtube video with ONE click, you first have to ‘activate’ it.

  • Khazhao Khimichi

    Hello, everyone…

    Anyone know how to download youtube video in Opera Using IDM???

    Thanks.

  • bamskawk

    microsoft IE awww! they claimed that they are the world’s famous browser. YES indeed!!! a very famous crap browser. firefox and chrome rules.

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