Speed test: Google Chrome beats Firefox, IE, Safari

Google introduced Chrome in part because it wants faster browsing and the richer Web applications that speed will unlock. So how does Chrome actually stack up?

Google's Chrome overpowers the other browsers on the five subtests by which Google measures its browser's JavaScript performance.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

Lars Bak, the Google engineer who was the technical leader for Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine, said at the launch event Tuesday he's confident Chrome is "many times faster" than the rivals at running JavaScript, the programming language that powers Google Docs, Gmail, and many other Web applications.

But when pressed for specifics, he told me to try them out. So I did.

Google offers a site with five JavaScript benchmarks. On each one of these tests, Chrome clearly trounced the competition. I hope benchmarking experts and developers will weigh in with comments about how well these tests represent true JavaScript performance on the Web--either for ordinary sites or for rich Web apps.

Here's the site description of the speed tests:

• Richards: OS kernel simulation benchmark, originally written in BCPL by Martin Richards (539 lines).

• DeltaBlue: One-way constraint solver, originally written in Smalltalk by John Maloney and Mario Wolczko (880 lines).

• Crypto: Encryption and decryption benchmark based on code by Tom Wu (1,689 lines).

• RayTrace: Ray tracer benchmark based on code by Adam Burmister (3,418 lines).

• EarleyBoyer: Classic Scheme benchmarks, translated to JavaScript by Florian Loitsch's Scheme2Js compiler (4,682 lines).

Google's overall score is head and shoulders above the competition for executing JavaScript.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

A few notes: First, your mileage may vary; I ran these tests on my dual-core Windows XP machine.

Second, my apologies here to Opera, whose browser I don't have installed.

Third, I tried to run the SunSpider benchmark tests as well, but perhaps because a lot of other curious people had the same idea on the day Chrome launched, I couldn't get to the site.

Click here for full coverage of the Google Chrome launch.

[subimage]

Insanity! Can't wait until the OS X version is out. I ran some quick tests on online apps like Basecamp and Cashboard and it seems to make a huge difference.

[afterhours]

Tell me again how you compared Safari to Chrome when there is no Mac version of Chrome?

[Penguinisto]

He has more than one machine?

It's not uncommon, you know.

[Naraku2]

There is a Windows version of Safari you know

[Smoaky]

Just downloaded it and gave Google Chrome a spin.....WOW!!!!!
Firefox 3.0.1 loads 6 tabs in around 8 seconds on my AMD dual core system with Vista Ultimate 3 gigs RAM
And Google Chrome?? 6 tabs fully loaded in 4 to 5 seconds. Lightening quick !!!!
Now if Google Chrome could be customized with various themes,add-ons,extensions,etc as Firefox can, then I would have my new Browser to replace Firefox.
The tiny speed increase in Google Chrome will not sway me until it can be totally customized.

[tigernut]

I already use Firefox and will wait until Chrome is up and running a while before using it. What do you think?

[dumbestcrayon]

You're missing the whole point of Chrome....

No stupid useless add ons.
No pointless extras

[sarah_oneill]

If three-quarters of people are using IE, no wonder so many people are so excited. It's about time someone re-hauled the browser dinosaur. This interesting article talks about the effect on Windows and Microsoft.

[MaLvaDo39]

How much of a jump is it for Safari 4 to include the V8 java upgrade?
I'm not too tech on browsers...

http://www.rybazoom.com/browsermips/ does javascript benchmarking. Firefox scores about 4000 on my mac mini, and Chrome about 10500. So a 2.5x speed increase.

[JonathonStriker]

3-quarters? That's a lot of ignorant people. Someone needs to enlighten them about Firefox at least. There isn't much reason for IE besides the few sites that are behind the times using exclusive scripts and plug-ins that only work on IE. Even Windows Update can be done without IE if you've been using XP or Vista.

[afterhours]

Here in North Carolina, we have a number of ignorant government agencies, such as the employment commission, that build their web-only solutions for filing electronic submissions in IE-only technology. The NC legislature would do well to pass bills that force every tax-payer-funded agency to be platform and browser agnostic, but they essentially force Windows/IE on an unsuspecting public business environment.

So there are a lot of people that need such an education. Should be a class-action lawsuit, but can that be brought against a state government?

[currind06]

You could still use Firefox to run Windows Update. There is a add-on for Firefox called IE Tab. It even works in Firefox 3.0.1 and will run any web page in an Internet Explorer tab if it will not run or display correctly in Firefox.

[pauljweighell]

Mmmm so the 75% market majority are the 'ignorant' ones that everyone can ignore eh Jonathon. Tee Hee.

"behind the times using exclusive scripts and plug-ins that only work on IE" - Yes mate if it works in IE that's 75% of the market - the majority - the marekt leader - the most popular - the industry standard - get it yet Jonathon?

[ithomas94]

That IS a lot of ignorant people, and it's very sad, as microsoft is one of the culprits. Why? I have a feeling that Microsoft doesn't explain how to combat viruses in a very consumer friendly way, and just seizes that moment to advertise their own products . . .

[albizzia]

I've actually tried Firefox and Safari, and greatly preferred IE6 and IE7 for various reasons.

But before you accuse me of being a Microsoft Fanboi, I also installed Chrome, and prefer it over IE.

[theonlybuster]

Yeah the speed is awesome, but the reason it's not yet up to par with any other browsers is because they offer add-ons, plug-ins, and alot of extras to customize your browsing experience. But regardless it goes without saying that SOON Google's Chrome will be something to reckon with

[sharma_deepak]

I installed chrome and I am using it till now. The only time it crashed was with logmein.com plugin but overall the speed has been overwhelming. It is the best in speed browser out there and I cant believe how many people actually criticized this browser without even trying it.

Cheers Google

[bunnyturd]

Let's not forget that javascript is only a small component of the overall web browser experience.
In other words.... if you get a toilet that flushes 10x faster than what you got now... how much benefit you'll see will depend on how often you worship the porcelain god each day.

[akash2067]

but some javascript not run..........

[SandyJarvlet]

I heard that V8's original project codename was "leper" -- based off this riddle:

Q: Why was the leper speeding?

[ Answer at http://cackl.com/joke/view/655/Why-was-the-leper-speeding if you need it! ]

Can anyone from Google confirm?

[Imalittleteapot]

So far Chrome is killing both IE 7 and FF 3 on my system in boot up, close out, page rendering, and Jscript. I only use one FF extension and Chrome is still quite a bit faster.

[tuneslover]

100% agree with you

[JoyceNgo-218335993631273378369]

Wow I just came on the site and there was like 100000 articles about Google Chrome. Relax CNET.

[cliffroc]

This evening I downloaded and installed Google Chrome browser in my Lenovo laptop with Windows XP Pro. I was surprised that its speed was so blazing faster than Firefox and IE7. Wow! I like simple features here. I always use Firefox browser in both Windows XP Pro and Mac with Leopard operating system and never like IE7 as bloated and complex. Great job, Google!

[HlLLARY CLITON]

Chrome is the fastest browser I've ever used !

[yellowjester]

When will AdBlock be available for it?:)

[SeizeCTRL]

I watched the webinar and part of their plan is to use the browser to place google ads... so it may be a long ways off before we get something like AdBlock.

I am torn over the speed of Chrome and my undying love for FF3+extensions. If I am a fanboy of anything, it's Lost, BSG, Firefox, Google and AMD. I will probably use both Chrome and FF3 for different things.

[The_Decider]

Yeah, that'll happen.

The point of this is to trace your browsing habits easier, so you can get more ads.

[527nrhpd]

Google's main source of income is from ads, so I HIGHLY doubt they will ever allow you to block ads in their proprietary browser...at least not willingly. Unless something in the GPL allows one to freely create add-ons for it, I would be shocked if we get Ad Block Plus on Chrome. In addition to Google's admission that they will be storing at least 2% of the web traffic for which Chrome is used and targeting ads to that traffic, I will NOT be using this. In fact, I even uninstalled it after being bombarded with Flash and other ads while using it.

[chuchucuhi]

I've installed it on a couple of workstations today and its pretty speedy and I get a lot of screen right away. We'll see how fast is continues after installing more plugins and such.

[ikine]

I also test chrome, avant, firefox 3, IE , opera 9.5.1, flock on my laptop. I made a blog post about it here http://www.axioblog.com/googles-chrome-browser-in-beta-stage

[softwarepro]

yeah it is fast no question about that. i mean kind of end of the story without doing any test. Just type something or open your regular websites and you will see that pages are loaded faster. Even no techies can see.. I am happy to have one combo textfield because in firefox or IE you have to type something in search and click on the search result. Chrome provide that built-in location bar which does all the work for you...

for beta version performance looks good but it hang couple of times & alignment were out of order for some sites but it will improve once they have final version..

[ncmathsadist]

The speed of Chrome on my Linux box is zero.

[Imalittleteapot]

And that sucks hard, but it's open source so I'm sure you'll be seeing it or something like it or from it on Linux very soon.

I mean that's what the Linux users say right? You guys don't want binary blobs right? I mean, you can't debug that as easy right? You want to merge the source and do all your own compiles and machine optimizations and make this and make that and get it in the repo and use the package manager and rename it IceChrome right? I thought you guys didn't want other people doing all the work for you. Google can't just give you a binary blob of installer. That's just not the Linux way remember?

That's a Linux user for you. Complain that if everything was just one way everything would be much better then when it is that way they complain anyway. Well, it's open source so get your Linux box out and get to work and stop complaining. I'm waiting to install IceChrome on my Linux partition.

[Core_M]

I noticed it was much faster than the other browsers right away, and this is on a Core 2 Quad with 8GB of RAM. I was honestly really surprised!

Then again, this basically just means that Firefox is about to get faster ;- )

Either way, Chrome has a loooooooooooooong way to go before it even comes close to touching FF in terms of features and plug-ins/add-ons. Lets not get too ahead of ourselves - there isn't even a scroll feature yet. Still, it is very impressive.