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Safari 5 ... not as fast as Google Chrome

I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but claims that Apple's latest Safari 5 browser is faster than Google Chrome don't hold up, on the Windows platform at any rate.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but claims that Apple's latest Safari 5 browser is faster than Google Chrome don't hold up, on the Windows platform at any rate.

Here's a simple test. SunSpider JavaScript 0.9.1 test on Windows 7 32-bit on a dual-core 2.2GHz system kitted out with 4GB of RAM.

Here are the results:

Safari 5.0.7533.16

============================================ RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals) -------------------------------------------- Total:                  415.1ms +/- 1.7% --------------------------------------------

  3d:                    54.5ms +/- 3.5%     cube:                18.4ms +/- 8.2%     morph:               14.7ms +/- 3.3%     raytrace:            21.4ms +/- 4.2%

  access:                50.5ms +/- 3.1%     binary-trees:         8.6ms +/- 8.9%     fannkuch:            20.5ms +/- 5.5%     nbody:               13.6ms +/- 2.7%     nsieve:               7.8ms +/- 7.2%

  bitops:                30.3ms +/- 2.2%     3bit-bits-in-byte:    4.6ms +/- 8.0%     bits-in-byte:         8.0ms +/- 4.2%     bitwise-and:          5.8ms +/- 5.2%     nsieve-bits:         11.9ms +/- 1.9%

  controlflow:            4.2ms +/- 7.2%     recursive:            4.2ms +/- 7.2%

  crypto:                26.5ms +/- 5.9%     aes:                 15.0ms +/- 4.5%     md5:                  6.7ms +/- 20.1%     sha1:                 4.8ms +/- 6.3%

  date:                  49.9ms +/- 7.1%     format-tofte:        26.0ms +/- 5.3%     format-xparb:        23.9ms +/- 13.8%

  math:                  34.4ms +/- 1.1%     cordic:               8.9ms +/- 2.5%     partial-sums:        17.0ms +/- 0.0%     spectral-norm:        8.5ms +/- 4.4%

  regexp:                15.5ms +/- 2.4%     dna:                 15.5ms +/- 2.4%

  string:               149.3ms +/- 3.2%     base64:              16.8ms +/- 12.0%     fasta:               24.2ms +/- 15.2%     tagcloud:            33.7ms +/- 1.0%     unpack-code:         49.6ms +/- 2.6%     validate-input:      25.0ms +/- 3.8%

Google Chrome 5.0.375.55

============================================ RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals) -------------------------------------------- Total:                  339.6ms +/- 1.0% --------------------------------------------

  3d:                    51.7ms +/- 2.6%     cube:                19.5ms +/- 6.0%     morph:               16.5ms +/- 2.3%     raytrace:            15.7ms +/- 3.7%

  access:                35.7ms +/- 1.4%     binary-trees:         2.0ms +/- 0.0%     fannkuch:            14.3ms +/- 2.4%     nbody:               14.5ms +/- 3.5%     nsieve:               4.9ms +/- 12.8%

  bitops:                31.0ms +/- 3.6%     3bit-bits-in-byte:    2.9ms +/- 21.6%     bits-in-byte:         7.7ms +/- 6.3%     bitwise-and:          8.8ms +/- 6.4%     nsieve-bits:         11.6ms +/- 5.2%

  controlflow:            2.5ms +/- 15.1%     recursive:            2.5ms +/- 15.1%

  crypto:                22.6ms +/- 1.6%     aes:                  9.2ms +/- 3.3%     md5:                  6.9ms +/- 3.3%     sha1:                 6.5ms +/- 5.8%

  date:                  42.8ms +/- 1.3%     format-tofte:        20.5ms +/- 1.8%     format-xparb:        22.3ms +/- 1.5%

  math:                  34.9ms +/- 2.3%     cordic:              12.1ms +/- 1.9%     partial-sums:        16.5ms +/- 2.3%     spectral-norm:        6.3ms +/- 7.7%

  regexp:                16.9ms +/- 2.4%     dna:                 16.9ms +/- 2.4%

  string:               101.5ms +/- 2.0%     base64:               8.0ms +/- 4.2%     fasta:               16.2ms +/- 7.7%     tagcloud:            28.8ms +/- 1.0%     unpack-code:         31.9ms +/- 1.3%     validate-input:      16.6ms +/- 8.4%

Firefox 3.6.3

============================================ RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals) -------------------------------------------- Total:                  926.0ms +/- 2.0% --------------------------------------------

  3d:                   148.2ms +/- 6.5%     cube:                37.8ms +/- 3.7%     morph:               53.6ms +/- 19.5%     raytrace:            56.8ms +/- 0.5%

  access:               138.7ms +/- 6.6%     binary-trees:        41.0ms +/- 22.7%     fannkuch:            64.7ms +/- 1.8%     nbody:               20.5ms +/- 1.8%     nsieve:              12.5ms +/- 16.7%

  bitops:                36.3ms +/- 3.2%     3bit-bits-in-byte:    1.3ms +/- 26.6%     bits-in-byte:        10.2ms +/- 4.4%     bitwise-and:          2.2ms +/- 13.7%     nsieve-bits:         22.6ms +/- 4.0%

  controlflow:           41.5ms +/- 0.9%     recursive:           41.5ms +/- 0.9%

  crypto:                54.9ms +/- 25.3%     aes:                 28.1ms +/- 3.5%     md5:                 14.7ms +/- 26.5%     sha1:                12.1ms +/- 89.1%

  date:                 146.0ms +/- 1.6%     format-tofte:        76.8ms +/- 3.0%     format-xparb:        69.2ms +/- 0.7%

  math:                  49.0ms +/- 1.7%     cordic:              28.8ms +/- 2.3%     partial-sums:        14.7ms +/- 2.3%     spectral-norm:        5.5ms +/- 6.8%

  regexp:                46.6ms +/- 28.8%     dna:                 46.6ms +/- 28.8%

  string:               264.8ms +/- 2.2%     base64:              11.9ms +/- 3.4%     fasta:               56.6ms +/- 2.2%     tagcloud:            80.0ms +/- 2.6%     unpack-code:         77.0ms +/- 0.9%     validate-input:      39.3ms +/- 8.3%

The number to pay attention to there is the total. That's how long the test took, and the smaller than number, the faster the browser.

Clearly, Chrome is the fastest browser, with Safari coming up behind it, followed by the lagging Firefox.

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