CNET: Safari 4 is Fastest Browser on Planet.

[Ravenas]

Safari 4 benchmarked: 42x faster than IE 7, 3.5x faster than Firefox 3

By Nate Lanxon on 24 February 2009, 6:01pm

Proving itself a staggering 42 times faster at rendering JavaScript than IE 7, our benchmarks confirm Apple's Safari 4 browser, released in beta today, is the fastest browser on the planet. In fact, it beat Google's Chrome, Firefox 3, Opera 9.6 and even Mozilla's developmental Minefield browser.

We used the SunSpider suite of JavaScript tests to determine which browser was the quickest, and the Safari 4 beat every browser in terms of speed, on both a PC running Windows XP SP2, and a Mac running OS X 10.5.6 with all updates applied.

Below are the actual figures if you want to see how all seven browsers scored against each other, but for quick reference we determined on a PC that Safari was a whopping 42 times faster than Internet Explorer 7, just over six times faster than Internet Explorer 8, 3.5 times faster than Firefox 3, and 1.2 times faster than Google Chrome. Here's Safari versus the rest, excluding IE 7:

Add IE 7's results to the PC graph and witness the shocking truth. These are results from a PC with a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo:

1) Safari 4 (Total time: 910ms)
2) Mozilla Minefield 3.2a1 (1,136ms)
3) Google Chrome (1,177ms)
4) Firefox 3 (3,250ms)
5) Opera 9.6 (4,076ms)
6) Internet Explorer 8 (5,839ms)
7) Internet Explorer 7 (39,026ms)

On Mac OS X, Safari was four times faster than Firefox 3 and a depressing (for Opera) 7.5 times faster than Opera 9.6.

Results (fastest at the top) on Mac OS X (2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo):

1) Safari 4 (Total time 967ms)
2) Minefield 3.2a1 (969ms)
3) Firefox 3 (3803ms)
4) Opera 9.6 (7322ms)

We'll be bringing you a full hands-on report with the new features of Safari very soon, but you can download it yourself already here.

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49301219,00.htm


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Not to mention, Safari 4 gets 100/100 on the Acid3 Test Very impressive work Apple!

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

Was the test done on a mac or on a PC?

 

[Ravenas]

Was the test done on a mac or on a PC?

R.e.a.d. t.h.e. a.r.t.i.c.l.e.

EDIT:

I'll actually edit this and laugh for a second, because Safari was faster on the PC than Mac! lmao. Probably b/c Leopard has a bigger memory footprint than XP. XP is ooolllllddddd, but still good. Like that car you don't want to get rid of.

 

[Ravenas]

Forbes also wrote an interesting article here:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/safari-apple-browser-technology-internet_safari.html

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

R.e.a.d. t.h.e. a.r.t.i.c.l.e.

EDIT:

I'll actually edit this and laugh for a second, because Safari was faster on the PC than Mac! lmao. Probably b/c Leopard has a bigger memory footprint than XP. XP is ooolllllddddd, but still good. Like that car you don't want to get rid of.

I am quite surprised that it is faster. I cannot tolerate any apple software on my PC. It would be unnatural.

 

[Silverel]

wth is minefield? I've never heard of it. o.o

 

[Ravenas]

I am quite surprised that it is faster. I cannot tolerate any apple software on my PC. It would be unnatural.

I heart Apple and MS. I think one's life is better off with both, rather than just one. Just call me open source.

I would rather have 2 hot girls in my life rather than just one

 

[Silverel]

I heart Apple and MS. I think one's life is better off with both, rather than just one. Just call me open source.

I would rather have 2 hot girls in my life rather than just one

Lol...

One girl (Apple) wants you to make a movie for your mom.

The other (MS) wants you to blow off a zombies head with a shotgun.

That's how I see em'

Of course, it's always nice to have girls (Intel and AMD) fight over you as well... Until one gets their eye gouged out and is missing a chunk of hair nutkick:AMD).

Then there's the really hott hott lesbian chicks (ATI and nVidia). Neither of them really care about you at all, but they'll let you watch.

 

[Ravenas]

 

[dcf-joe]

LOL, while using minefield at home, with the number of maximum connections manually set to 300, I was able to finish the sunspider suite in a little over 750ms!!!

 

[johnnyfiive]

Using the new Safari now, pretty neato.

 

[Apocolypse007]

wth is minefield? I've never heard of it. o.o

I believe minefield is Firefox 3.1 beta. correct me if i'm wrong

 

[dcf-joe]

Minefield can be found here. It is the firefox 3.2a1pre-beta at the bottom.

 

[Silverel]

I believe minefield is Firefox 3.1 beta. correct me if i'm wrong

Ah, I've been a Google shill for so long now, I forgot to keep up with FF. After it started crashing on my home PC, I just jumped on some Chrome and have IE8 for compatibility. I realized that I didn't miss my add-ons at all.

I will for now, needing to look into 3.1... yar.

 

[r9]

I have used safari and firefox is twice faster. I don`t like safari at all. And I don`t care what browser it is but safari was slow. And I did not needed a stop watch to notice.

 

[Silverel]

Minefield can be found here. It is the firefox 3.2a1pre-beta at the bottom.

Heeeey.... there's no win64 version?

 

[FordGT90Concept]

IE7 frequently locks up waiting for JS to complete something. It's driving me bonkers. Hey, if it were up to me, the web would be scripting-free. 9/10 web based attacks are in one way or another connected to JavaScript...

which begs the questions: what did they cut to make JavaScript execute faster? Is Safari more prone to attacks than the others?

 

[Ravenas]

IE7 frequently locks up waiting for JS to complete something. It's driving me bonkers. Hey, if it were up to me, the web would be scripting-free. 9/10 web based attacks are in one way or another connected to JavaScript...

which begs the questions: what did they cut to make JavaScript execute faster? Is Safari more prone to attacks than the others?

On which OS?

Also, IE uses a simply retarded Webkit that is slow as hell from the dark ages, and I think that has a whole lot to do with it is well.

Apple chooses Java because Java is open source.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

XP x64

OS doesn't matter in terms of security though. All JavaScript has to do is redirect you to malicious code and, well, your computer is screwed.

 

[Ravenas]

XP x64

I'll just put it this way, if you're going on a site that could be potentially harmful such as a porn site or a torrent site, I would be careful with any browser. IE is probably going to be safer on windows at those particular sites because it is built for that particular OS.

For normal browsing, it makes no difference.

 

[Ravenas]

XP x64

OS doesn't matter in terms of security though. All JavaScript has to do is redirect you to malicious code and, well, your computer is screwed.

The chances are much higher for that to happen on a Windows machine. It's a fact. More people have Windows thus more hackers target Windows users.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I use a Trusted site system. Everything not Trusted gets treated like a threat to security. Server 2003/IE7 use the same settings. It is as secure as IE7 can get but it still has performance problems. It is no surprise to me how poorly it did on that test; no surprise at all.

 

[Ravenas]

I use a Trusted site system. Everything not Trusted gets treated like a threat to security. Server 2003/IE7 use the same settings. It is as secure as IE7 can get but it still has performance problems. It is no surprise to me how poorly it did on that test; no surprise at all.

I normally don't use IE because I don't get on my PC unless I'm playing games or doing code. Since IE isn't open source, and MS is stingy, I browse with Safari/Firefox on Mac.

 

[kyle2020]

ill stick to chrome, thanks. Safari is ugly and lacks features. The few ms difference between safari and chrome is not even a large enough ammount to be noticed by your average user.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

IE is closed source.

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	Application Hang
Event Category:	(101)
Event ID:	1002
Date:		2/22/2009
Time:		1:32:19 AM
User:		N/A
Computer:	BY-2005
Description:
Hanging application iexplore.exe, version 7.0.6000.16791, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74   Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67   ion Hang
0010: 20 20 69 65 78 70 6c 6f     iexplo
0018: 72 65 2e 65 78 65 20 37   re.exe 7
0020: 2e 30 2e 36 30 30 30 2e   .0.6000.
0028: 31 36 37 39 31 20 69 6e   16791 in
0030: 20 68 75 6e 67 61 70 70    hungapp
0038: 20 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30    0.0.0.0
0040: 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73    at offs
0048: 65 74 20 30 30 30 30 30   et 00000
0050: 30 30 30                  000

There was the last time IE7 hung up on me.