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Firefox beats Chrome in Performance for the first time in a few years

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Korey

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http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/chrome-27-firefox-21-opera-next,3534-12.html



Performance Index

The data in the chart below is a geometric mean of all four performance-based categories: Wait Times, JavaScript/DOM, HTML5/CSS3, and Hardware Acceleration.

Firefox 22 pulls off an upset, replacing the long-time performance champion Google Chrome as the new speed king! Google doesn't lose by very much though. In fact, if we moved the decimal point and rounded, this would show up as a tie. Meanwhile, moving on to the next win-eligible browser, IE10 is far behind in third place, with less than half the performance score of Firefox 22 or Chrome 27. Opera 12 is in last place, lagging slightly behind IE10.
Click to expand...

perfindex.png




Non-Performance Index

The data in the chart below is achieved through the geometric mean of all four non-performance categories: Memory Efficiency, Reliability, Security, and Standards Conformance.

Firefox manages to conquer this category thanks to a stellar finish in proper page loads as well as strong scores in all three remaining non-performance categories. Chrome 27 finds itself in a comparatively distant second place. Its terrible page load reliability, combined with tighter scoring in the other metrics, sink Google's chances. IE10 is around 15% behind Chrome in third, with Opera 12 landing in last place with a score of less than half that of Firefox 22.
Click to expand...

non-perfindex.png




WBGP XVI Champion

Now we combine equal parts performance and non-performance metrics, stir, and taste...

With no apparent weaknesses and generally strong finishes all-around, combined with near-native start times, greatly-improved hardware acceleration scores, and almost-perfect reliability, the latest version of Firefox soundly wins this installment of the Web Browser Grand Prix.

While Chrome 27 is the leader in most categories, Firefox 22 is right on its heels in second place. So, with close second-place finishes in nearly all categories that Chrome wins, Mozilla really needed to exploit any weakness in Chrome. And it does just that. Chrome's extreme fall from grace in start-up time really hurt. With Firefox attaining top marks in that category, an extreme divide is created where we'd normally expect both browsers to pace each other. The same type of brutality is used against Chrome in reliability testing, where Firefox 22 almost pulls off a perfect score, while Chrome 27 has issues with more than 25% of the workload.

Although this is not the first time that Firefox has edged out Chrome, this is the most punishing margin of victory. It's as if Mozilla knew just where to strike. Now, the onus is on Google to either completely outpace Firefox in performance (as it once did), or focus on addressing Chrome's own weaknesses. Either way, Mozilla buys Firefox some time at the top.
Click to expand...

WBGPXVIChamp.png
 
I've used Chrome concurrently with Firefox for years now, but have never felt it performed better at anything to be honest. Chromium is especially shitty when compared to Firefox on Linux distros in my personal experience.

In other news: Internet Explorer is still garbage rolling down from shit mountain.
 
bu bu bu- chrome is working just fien for me!!!

Some of the numbers are insignificant differences, but I feel like benchmarks just do not tell the whole story. Chrome started out faster, leaner and took Firefox head on until it pulled far ahead... then the updates came. Broken text rendering, memory leaks, GIF issues, flash problems (related to weird Pepper Flash/site inconsistencies) and more. And this isn't just happening to me, this is happening to a lot of people.

Both browsers are still kinda whale-like, but Mozilla is starting to take their ball back from Google while they've been lazily dribbling across the court.
 
I am using the Nightly branch and performance is pretty good, but I always have problems with YouTube and freezing. Trying to watch a video, and load 15,000 comments in another tab always causes the browser to freeze for like 20 seconds.
 
I honestly went back to FF after their memory problems were corrected. Chrome just eats up a lot.
 
I'd been using and swearing by Chrome since 2009. Switched to firefox (cyberfox) last month. Much better experience. How did I ever live without the awesome bar?
 
The memory leaking and broken gifs on my chrome has been killin me.

Real talk the biggest reason I stuck with Chrome was the NeoGaf ProDark theme. Now that its built into the site, I think I might switch back soon.
 
Switched to chrome a few months ago after firefox started hanging every 10-15 seconds. Chrome is getting really shitty now too.
 
Downloading Opera Next to see what that's all about. I liked installing Opera on older family members' computers as they seemed to like it more than Firefox or Chrome and their computers tended to be older which Opera soared on.
 
Still can't figure out how to get the tabs to show up on the top like Chrome.
 
Man, I switched from FIrefox to Chrome years ago and I kind of don't want to go back. The shitty .gif performance is tempting me and this news might push me over the edge.
 
I never bought into the anti-Chrome hype on here recently, but then I realized that Chrome makes the fans on my iMac go crazy. I would usually have 4 pinned tabs and a couple of other random tabs open.

Maybe it's because it's been pretty hot out, but I started using Safari recently and no fan action. I'm still going to test a bit.
 
Once Chrome started crashing all the time, even when idling on pages with nothing fancy on them, I decided it was time to dump it and return to Firefox. I prefer the plugin support on that anyway, I want something like NoScript as a strong frontline defense against surprises but there isn't really an adequate alternative on Chrome.

Not that I don't have issues with Firefox, flash intermittently crashes on me, but at least the browser on a whole stays up.
 
What are the different versions of Firefox and differences between them?

I see Cyberfox and Waterfox mentioned, but have no idea what the differences are.
 
jayhawker said:
Firefox (or waterfox or cyberfox or whatever) ---> Options --> tabs on top.
Click to expand...

I can't find that option if it exists.

Whenever I load it up, tabs appear in a separate box on the side of the screen and I don't like it.
 
I switched to Chrome about a year ago when Firefox started acting like ass. I've been looking for an excuse to go back every since.
 
Damn, Opera Next is stomping on my chrome performance so far. Have about 30 tabs open in each to stress. Still doesn't handle .gif's very well though.
 
I was going to switch back to Firefox today but can't figure out how to use the new Google Hangouts on it. i use it to chat all the time, and it just wants to launch Chrome.
 
Danielsan said:
Man, I switched from FIrefox to Chrome years ago and I kind of don't want to go back. The shitty .gif performance is tempting me and this news might push me over the edge.
Click to expand...

This, and I have an obnoxious problem where typing into the address bar slows the browser to a crawl. Switching to Canary fixed that, but it's not an ideal solution, obviously.

Hopping back and forth as these browsers alternatively get lazy/bloated and work overtime to address performance issues is not my idea of a fun time.
 
Vyrance said:
I've stayed with Firefox for years. Have never had a problem with it
Click to expand...

I've used Firefox as my main browser since forever, largely because it has its own baked-in proxy settings, while Chrome and IE use the computer's. (I do use the other browsers too, but mostly for testing purposes.)

It was also first to have good sync capabilities and multiple user profiles, but Chrome has (and maybe others have) got both of those now.

I also like that Mozilla is non-profit.
 
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