Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

By | January 9, 2012


Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

With the Firefox 10, Opera 12 and Internet Explorer 10 releases just around the corner, guys from TomsHardware have decided to test the latest stable builds of the top 5 web browsers on both Windows 7 and Mac OS X Lion.

How did your favorite web browser perform? Let’s find out.

Tested versions

Internet Explorer 9
Firefox 9
Google Chrome 16
Opera 11.60
Safari 5.1.2

Startup Time Performance Benchmarks

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

JavaScript Performance Benchmarks

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

HTML5 Performance Benchmarks

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Harware Acceleration Performance Benchmarks

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Conclusion

Google Chrome 16 vs. Firefox 9 vs. Internet Explorer 9 vs. Opera 11.60 vs. Safari 5.1

Even though Firefox did not beat other browsers most of the time, its consistency and strong score average has demonstrated how solid Mozilla’s web browser actually is. Therefore, as concluded by the TomsHardware journalists, the winner this time is Firefox 9, followed by Google Chrome 16 and Opera 11.60.

As far as Mac OS X benchmarks go, Safari still remains the web browser of choice.

[Thanks, Ichan]


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 career 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.

Comments (32)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    I always enjoy these thorough tests from Tom’s Hardware. 

  2. DjKilla says:

    Hooray Mozilla!

  3. Przemysław Lib says:

    Did you heard of COPYRIGHT?

    Where is note:
    “We have permision of Toms Hardware to include their content on our website”

    • Tiago Sá says:

      I don’t mean to offend anyone, really but.

      This is fair use.

      There, sorry if I offended you. And I don’t think you’re the owner of Tom’s Hardware, so here’s another one.

      Tom’s Hardware sucks.

      No, seriously.

    • Anonymous says:

      I see we can’t talk about things anymore…  Hmm?

      If I compare an iPod to a Zune HD, there is no copyright infringement. 

      Comparing browsers is the same way.  Why do we need permission to exercise freedom of speech?

      • Przemysław Lib says:

         Nice :D BUT you still need to have copyright license to quote WHOLE work of others.

        YOU CAN DO YOUR OWN comparision showing exactly the same numbers. Cause numbers are not unique, however composition, commentary ARE UNIQUE to the writer therefore they are subject to copyright!

        And minor not of permission to displaying somebody else logo all over text ;)

  4. Guest says:

    Firefox has beaten Chrome twice in a row now, maybe the Chrome trolls would shut up about their overrated garbage of a browser.

    • Shane Bundy says:

      Amen to that, brother.

    • Tiago Sá says:

      Doubt so.

      Chrome has always been overrated and total garbage. The key to its popularity is marketing and spyware distribution.

    • Mikah says:

      Narrowly beat Chrome this time so don’t get too excited.
      For a browser that is garbage its gaining a lot of users from both IE & Firefox because of its simplicity & speed.

      • Agent J says:

        False. Chrome is gaining 90%+ of it’s users from IE. IE has dropped about the same EXACT amount Chrome has risen.  Why? Stupid people will remain stupid, and continue to make stupid decisions. Also aggressive marketing with Google’s ad monopoly.

        Conclusion: Garbage, memory bloated featureless Chrome (unless you can call spying on it’s users a feature) only gains users from IE (the idiots), and because of it’s aggressive ad monopoly. It’s the same concept as a lot of popular music being garbage.

        You may sit now.

        • Mikah says:

          Visiting Statcounter its very clear Chrome is gaining market-share from both IE & Firefox over the past year.
          http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201012-201201
          A lot of it is down to marketing the rest because it is a good browser that is a good fit for a lot of people.
          Calling it garbage may make you feel better but anyone who is impartial will know you are like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

          • PGT says:

            Depends what part of the world you look at.  In the U.S. IE is holding its own, Firefox is dropping and Chrome is rising.  Basically Firefox users are moving to Chrome – but not affecting IE’s share.

          • Mikah says:

            There is one Interrnet  & its available in every country so discussing the browser market share with an International audience Globally is the only way that makes sense.

    • Asknobody says:

      Cool story bro. Such winnings will be last resort to FF fanboys with declining market share

      • apád anyád says:

        Mozilla FF should recourse to guerilla marketing, like Google does it with Chrome , eh?

      • Agent J says:

        The smallest percentiles of the population have the highest IQs.

        • Asknobody says:

          Yes, so the only people who will use FF will be the same that are using Linux. Congrats to human kind geniuses! Also as I remember one of research results that showed that smart people usually chooses Opera. Sorry bro..

  5. goo le says:

    this picture is so funny.
    i ofte use two  browsers which  are firefox and avant browser .
    firefox is more stable than chrome  and avant is more compatible with sites than firefox.
    safari is a good browser in itouch or iphone.but ..
     

  6. Wuye says:

    Well, I don’t use Opera and Safari.Now I’m using chrome 17, most of the time, it runs fast. I also use firefox 9 and Avant 2012 . Most of the time they runs stable, if there is problem in one browser, then just use the other. Of course I have IE9 installed in my win7, but it load webpage slowly. Rarely use it.

  7. Opera wins in Silverlight? The only browser MS doesnt take on account in that technology.

  8. Guesty Guest says:

    I have made a note of the daily browser version figures from Statcounter every day since Tuesday November 8th when Firefox 8 was released. I can tell you that the Firefox rapid release cycle is actually gaining market share quite quickly, it’s just that Firefox 3.6 is losing market share at an even quicker rate, so it’s Firefox 3.6 that is dragging the market share percentage down for Firefox over all. The sooner bin support for 3.6, the better. It’s wasting their time and money and they’re obviously not getting any more new users from it.

  9. Anon says:

    God damn the quality of the comments on this post is palpable, on the negative side.

  10. Anonymous says:

    The test shows IE wins the HTML5 test yet, as reported by good reporters, they are using Microsoft tests and ignoring the complete spec. If they did proper testing, they would realize that IE does not even support large portions of HTML5 or does poorly with it.

  11. PGT says:

    Does anyone have a problem with Tom’s conclusions, which for the most part use factors that aren’t shown in the benchmarks.  Why go to the trouble of showing benchmarks loading pages from various websites.  And, performing benchmarks from various benchmark providers, then base your conclusions on factors outside the benchmarks provided.  Basically its like saying a horse wins all of the big races but because its speed between the half mile pole and the three-quarter pole is slower than other horse its not as good?

  12. Sunjik Lee says:

    At this point I doubt it really matters what browser you use, unless you value a couple of seconds on your life. Then again, if you did then you would not be wasting time looking up benchmarks for the latest browsers.
    At this point it’s all about the interface, and that is purely preferential. For me, it used to be Firefox until Chrome came out, and at that time it was considered to be minimalistic and fast; I occasionally use Firefox nowadays, but now that I’m used to Chrome’s interface I just stick with it.
    So again, pick what browser is comfortable with you. Try them out, see what suits you and stick with it.

  13. gariki says:

    well.. i agree with the above poster. Its mostly not about speed anymore. more like the usability aspects and thats very personal.

    I was with chrome until now but after chrome starting causing my system to freeze requiring hard reboots am currently typing this post in IE. But somethings about IE suck; i cant copy paste images into my gmail if i am logged in into IE; thinking of giving firefox a whirl again. crap.. cant they keep one browser solid – so i dont have to keep looking.

    -gariki

  14. 1234-- FF Nightly is the BEST! says:

    its ur choice really.. if you want a browser that performs fairly well in all, then its firefox.. but if u are a user who usses web rarely, then you might wanna try other browser as they are “skilled for some”

  15. Stonedap says:

    I get fed up with Firefox advising me I need to update my Adobe X even when I am using the latest version. As this prevents me from seeing any pictures I don’t bother with firefox now

  16. Anonymous says:

    Why do you stop at 60fps?  I have a 120Hz monitor, and I want to see which browser takes its capabilities seriously.

    I’m fairly sure chrome is capped to 60, but that might just be flaw in the smooth scroll…

  17. LarryGJones manof1002voices says:

    If nothing else, the plugins on firefox make it a true winner!