Opera 12 (32 Bit) vs. Opera 12 (64 Bit)

By | December 19, 2011 | 16 Comments

Opera 12 (32 Bit) vs. Opera 12 (64 Bit)Following our Google Chrome (32 bit vs. 64 bit), Internet Explorer 9 (32 bit vs. 64 bit) and Firefox (32 bit vs. 64 bit) posts, here is another one: a comparison of last week’s Opera 12 Lab builds.

Testing notes: both builds have identical build numbers and were tested with default installation settings.

Opera 12 (32 Bit) vs. Opera 12 (64 Bit)

What started as optimistic first run with SunsSpider has left us confused. As in all but one benchmark, the 64 bit version of Opera 12 web browser scored less than its 32 bit sister.

We are not exactly sure why this has turned out the way it did, considering that every other web browser offered significant improvements when running a 64 bit flavor.


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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.

  • Everybody

    Weird, but Labs builds were always slower for me than stable/testing versions. Same with this build especially with enabled HWA and when there is flash on website.

    • http://www.favbrowser.com FavBrowser.com

      Correct, but in this case both builds were Lab builds (32 and 64 bit versions).

  • Anonymous

    This is given being a labs build and all.

    They will need to optimize the 64 bit build.

    I don’t think browsers will benefit much from the 64 bitness.

  • Mikah

    The scores are pretty close, Peacekeeper & V8 are much more comprehensive in what they test so the SunSpider  result does not surprise me.

  • OperaHin

    Forget Opera until next year (2013) when they are done with themes, 3D, 64bit and who knows what else.

    • Saex Conroy

      what themes?

      • OPeraHin

        Opera use now Chrome, FF personas style skins, just head to skins in Opera and you will see…

    • http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala

      Real substance under the hood, not like others.

  • Ádám Körmendi

    “considering that every other web browser offered significant improvements when running a 64 bit flavor”

    I don’t know, what did you measure, but for me IE9x64 was about 4 times slower in SunSpider and V8 than IE9x32.

    • Anonymous

      Actually only IE 9 32-bit includes the new JavaScript JIT compiler (Chakra) – the 64-bit version does not include and performs 4 times slow.

  • http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala

    Opera 64 isnt even part of main development branch yet, I will jusst wait, in Linux weve been enjoying 64 bitness for a very long time, honestly this is pure BS.

  • Anonymous

    I wonder why 32-bit Opera has slightly better performance than it’s 64-bit counterpart; while it should be the opposite. The employees at Opera say that even the JIT compiler is 64-bit in Opera 64-bit builds.
    Platform used for testing – Windows 7 64-bit?

    • MIkah

      Opera 64 bit makes its first appearance on Windows 7 & its a Labs build I wonder its as close to Opera 32 bit as it is.

  • Anonymous

    Anyone that knows about 64bit computing will know that it’s a mixed blessing.  It’s certainly not all good, there are some nasties too.

    If you have a massive number crunching app, or a web server than using many GB of memory, then 64bit is great stuff, the upsides vastly outweigh the downsides.

    However a web browser, the benefits are a mixed bag.  Sure you have some new registers to play with, and a 64bit register can hold more bytes of data, but the downsides are that everything is more bloated, more memory is needed in 64bit world to do the same as 32bit systems…

  • Anonymous

    I haven’t used Opera in quite a long time but I hope they get a good 64-bit version.  At least for Firefox it seems to work.  I’m using Waterfox, and it is definitely a lot more responsive than 32-bit Firefox, while taking advantage of the major 64-bit plugins and able to run the majority of add-ons.  When Chrome and Opera release 64-bit browsers I’ll definitely try them as benchmarks aren’t always the best indicators of real-world performance and experience.

  • Here

    Main benefit is memory – some of us hit 4GB browser sessions…..

    This is why x64 was appreciated:  http://i.imgur.com/tck2I.png . (That’s with 3/4 of my current session hibernated to save memory)

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