Fastest Browser? | Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 / Opera 9.50 Beta / Safari 3.1 Beta | Reveiwed and Tested
After reading all the recent reviews and tests conducted to test Firefox, Opera and Safari, I decided to conduct my own tests, to compare them.
Here we go. As promised in my first post of this blog, I will be conducting various tests comparing all aspects of the latest browsers, and keeping you update with the “Fastest Browser” according to me.
The browser’s tested here are the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox (Firefox 3.0 Beta 4), Opera (Opera 9.50 Beta) and Safari (Safari 3.1 Beta).
These tests were conducted on a clean installation of Windows XP Pro SP2 on a Pentium 4 desktop with 512MB of RAM.
Test #1 Installation Time
Opera’s installation was the fastest, while Firefox was marginally slower. Safari took almost the double time to install.
Firefox Installation
Safari Installation
Opera Installation
Results #1
Test #2 Loading Time
This test had to be performed with some special Timer, to get the accurate results. These also showed Firefox to be slow, while Opera emerged the winner with a good margin. Safari stood at second place.
Results #2
Test #3 Idle Memory Usage
Firefox again lost to both Safari and Opera, consuming the more amount of RAM while idle than any other browser.
Results #3
Test #4 Page Loading Test
The last test for today is the page loading test. Surprisingly Firefox came last in this while Safari was negligibly slower than Opera. The Memory usage while loading a single page was also highest in Firefox and lowest in Opera. (Tests conducted on a 2Mbps ADSL Line)
Results #4
Loading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Loading http://digg.com
Loading http://www.stumbleupon.com
Final Results
Here are the final results!
Opera came in first by winning all the tests, while Safari was second. Firefox came last.
Final Words
I have not tested the JavaScript execution speed, HTML formatting speed and other more technical aspects. These will be tested in my future posts, probably when all these 3 browsers come out of beta.
Some of you may disagree with me, but considering a default installation of these browsers, Opera was the best (not considering Addons). Firefox has a bunch of addons available and for that reason is the primary browser for many people including me.
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An Exciting Firefox 3 Beta 4 Review | Colorful Mars said this on March 24th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
An interesting anaylsis, I think the point you made at the bottom is valid though, sometimes the easy of use and add ons etc is a factor.
Daedalus said this on March 25th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Very nice analysis, I am a Firefox user and looking at the above analysis makes me think that Opera is much more better than FF.
Amit said this on March 25th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Need more stressed test. No one is interested in a single page.
The most interesting things about memory ad time come in when ~20 pages are loaded, then closed, when gmail/youtube runs for some time, when large images are displayed in several tabs.
Victor Sergienko said this on March 26th, 2008 at 4:38 am
That will be done soon. I’m planning to do some intensive tests this Saturday.
admin said this on March 26th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Oper all day baby!!…..been usin it for 5 years now!
Camron said this on March 27th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
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Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 Vs Opera 9.50 Beta Vs Safari 3.1 Beta | Multiple Sites Opening Test | The Browser World said this on March 29th, 2008 at 8:37 am
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Web 2.0 Việt Nam » Blog Archive » Fastest Browser? said this on April 15th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Don’t forget, since beta 4, FireFox had over 750 bugs fixes and speed improvements done.
Casper said this on April 15th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Your tests are a “duh”. Opera/Firefox/Safari all have different philosophies and goals. All use different display methods to get around Windows inconsistencies.
Are the browsers, particularly Firefox, optimized? Out of the box, Firefox has quite a few things that could/should be optimized. Yes, the average user wouldn’t even know they are there.
One useful test would be to see how fast each does using the “back” button.
Rob said this on April 15th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
You might want to try your tests against beta 5 of Firefox. It’s supposed to be better with the memory.
matt said this on April 15th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Are you sure you aren’t actually testing the networking and caching code and not the relevant rendering code in those browsers?
I seriously doubt your tests are relevant.
ionel said this on April 16th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Opera has always been faster, but when you load an html heavy I mean very heavy Opera & Safari lag behind Firefox.
Firefox can be tossed some very heavy code and remain victorious while Opera and Safari vomit and die.
None of the less Opera with youtube, gmail, google reader and so on still reeps over firefox and safari,
Joseph said this on April 16th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Note…. Safar 3.1 for windows is not beta…
shawn said this on April 17th, 2008 at 4:03 am
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Internet Computing: Fastest Browser? Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 / Opera 9.50 Beta / Safari 3.1 Beta - 10 Daily Things said this on May 10th, 2008 at 7:21 pm