SunSpider 1.0 Released

By | May 2, 2013


SunSpider 1.0 ReleasedBack in 2007, WebKit team has released SunSpider 0.9, a JavaScript benchmark that since became the golden standard when it comes to browser tests. Six years later we finally got a much needed update (excluding 0.91) and it’s a decent one.

So what ground breaking features can you expect from the 1.0 release? None. Instead, developers focused on addressing various issues, such as with power management where delay between tests has been completely eliminated. In addition to that, they have added validation checks that “force the JavaScript engine to execute the test in full”.

And that’s pretty much it as far as important changes go. On a positive note, SunSpider 1.0 runs up to twice as fast due to no execution delay.

[Thanks, Blake]


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 (10)

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  1. MacVities says:

    Guessing it’s been tuned to ensure Webkit browsers always perform the best.. Just like Microsoft’s test ensures IE performs best and Mozilla’s benchmark ensures Firefox benches best.

    The only people not playing “lets create a benchmark that lends itself to where out browser is the fastest in synthetic testing” is Opera, who use use real world speed and what “feels” the fastest.

    • Just tried it, IE10 is the fastest and Chrome 26 is the slowest, interesting.

    • apád anyád says:

      Kraken and Octane are open, and I have not seen a report on how someone found a “prefer our own browser” code.

      • Tiago Sá says:

        To play devil’s advocate here, you can make a test that favours the things your browser’s good at and doesn’t test the stuff it isn’t good at…

      • MacVities says:

        You just test the stuff you know are your products strengths, and don’t put much effort into tests for those it’s not.

        It’s how all the browser vendors (except Opera) seem to be playing games these days to fool over idiot consumers.

        • Przemysław Lib says:

          And actually there whas no report from MS, Google, Opera that Kraken or DROMERO, test things partially. They thested important (and nobody say otherwise) standards.

          (Octane is separate topic here).

    • Prevacator says:

      Except IE10 is the fastest and Firefox is faster than Chrome.

      Great hypothesis you’ve got there.

  2. Mikah says:

    I’m no fan of IE9 but its the fastest at 109 ms Opera 161 ms Comodo dragon 172ms.

  3. Przemysław Lib says:

    Before you jump into

    Browser X is fastest.

    SunSpider is poor comparision for JavaScript perf. since its just test of how fast you can pull date info… (Which is unimportant in real world…)