Benchmarks: Google Chrome
In its innovative comic-book, Google explained the motivation behind, and the essential technical details of, its new browser, Chrome. For Google's engineers, a big issue was the performance of current browsers: if the web is to develop further as a platform for applications, browser speed needs to improve.
Google Chrome is based on the Apple-inspired open-source WebKit browser engine, and also features a new JavaScript engine called V8. Chrome, of course, is a beta, and the developers state that there is still much work to be done.
For this performance test, we looked at Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, Firefox 3.0.1, Opera 9.52, Safari 3.1.2, Safari 4.0 Developer Preview and Chrome. We used the popular SunSpider benchmark and Google's own V8 benchmarks. Additional measurements show how efficiently the browsers manage memory consumption.
The requirements of a web browser have changed over the years. As well as displaying text and images, a modern browser must execute applications such as JavaScript, DOM and XML-based AJAX programs. Even those who have never heard of AJAX should be familiar with applications such as Google Maps, Google Mail and AJAX Write, or web sites like Flickr and Last.fm, that make heavy use of these technologies.
AJAX has also taken root in the business environment: 24SevenOneOffice is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that runs in a normal web browser. The advantage of this Web 2.0 technology is platform independence: neither a specific operating system nor a particular processor is required to run AJAX applications — all that's required is a compatible browser.
The SunSpider benchmark evaluates a browser's JavaScript performance, which is crucial for AJAX-based sites and applications.
The overall result is the sum of nine component tests. The fact that the results are reported in milliseconds leads some observers to doubt their value. However, AJAX applications use multiple iterations of the routines used in these tests, so they do have comparative value. Think of a Formula 1 race in which qualifying lap times may differ by seconds or tenths of seconds: over the whole race distance, these slight differences can amount to minutes.
With an overall score of 1,496.8ms, Google Chrome leads the field in the SunSpider test, followed closely by Safari 4.0 Developer Preview (1,566.8ms). Firefox 3.01 is in third place with 2,185ms, followed by Safari 3.1.2 (2,560.8ms) and Opera 9.52 (2,969.8ms). Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 brings up the rear, lagging by some distance with 5,799.8ms.
Shorter bars are better. Test platform: 3GHz Intel X9650, 2GB DDR3/1333 RAM, Vista SP1
Individual SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks reveal the particular strengths and weaknesses of the browsers. Although the overall scores for Google Chrome and Safari 4.0 Developer Preview are very similar, there are big differences in the individual tests.
For example, Google Chrome completed the 'controlflow' script nearly five times faster than Apple's browser. Chrome is also much quicker than Safari 4.0 in the 'crypto' test. However, when it comes to the 'date' script Safari 4.0 is nearly 4.5 times faster than Google Chrome, which is in fact the slowest of the six browsers in this test.
Shorter bars are better. Test platform: 3GHz Intel X9650, 2GB DDR3/1333 RAM, Vista SP1
The V8 benchmark comes from Google and includes five individual tests, which Google developers have optimised for the Chrome JavaScript engine.
Google Chrome, as expected, takes first place, with a score of 2,542. As with the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, the runner-up is Safari 4.0 Developer Preview. However, Chrome is much further ahead in these Google-optimised tests: Safari 4.0's score is 468, making Chrome 5.4 times quicker. Opera 9.52 (373), Firefox 3.0.1 (279) and Safari 3.1.2 (255) come next. As in the SunSpider tests, Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is a long way behind the field.
Longer bars are better. Test platform: 3GHz Intel X9650, 2GB DDR3/1333 RAM, Vista SP1
Here are the individual Google V8 test results:
Longer bars are better. Test platform: 3GHz Intel X9650, 2GB DDR3/1333 RAM, Vista SP1
When it comes to memory usage, the new Google browser is not so great. With 10 tabs opened, it uses 113.4MB. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and Safari 4.0 Developer Preview also break the 100MB mark in this test.
Safari 3.1.2, at 92.6MB, is not especially memory-frugal either. This is possible though, as shown by Firefox 3.0.1 and Opera 9.52, which each consume just over 60MB.
Shorter bars are better. Test platform: 3GHz Intel X9650, 2GB DDR3/1333 RAM
Google Chrome is undoubtedly a breath of fresh air in the browser market, bringing new competition for the previous performance leaders. Indeed, in key areas it sets new performance standards.
It's clear that Google has built its browser specifically to handle the new breed of computationally intensive web applications. In this respect, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 lags well behind not only Google Chrome, but the rest of the browser competition too.
Whether users are ready to adopt Google's browser in significant numbers is another question altogether. Here, the company's image of omnipotence on the web may work against it. Many users fear that, with the help of its fast browser, Google will simply make even more money from its search-driven advertising model.