Opera 10 final is out, Chrome just turned one year old, and Firefox 3.5 has settled into stability. It's time once again to break out the timers and speed test today's web browsers.
Like all our previous speed tests, this one is unscientific, but thorough. We install the most current versions of each browser being tested—in this case, Opera 10, Chrome's development channel 4.0 version, and the final Firefox 3.5 with security fixes—in a system with a 2.0 GHz Intel Centrino Duo processor and 2GB of RAM, running Windows XP.
We use Rob Keir's tiny timer app to time each browser in the common ways that leave users waiting: a "cold start" right after boot, a "warm start" after already having run once, and waiting on eight tabs to load up. We run each test three times and average the results, tossing out any obvious irregularities.
We also run each browser through Mozilla's Dromaeo JavaScript testing suite, which itself is an aggregator of Apple's SunSpider suite, Google's V8 tests, and a few unique items. These tests run each browser's JavaScript interpreter and engine through a series of situational exercises. Mozilla's Firefox Director Mike Beltzner told us that JavaScript test results can be compared to horsepower, and can be tweaked by engine developers—still, a holistic solution isn't in our hands at the moment. Anyone feel like coding up a fake Gmail that captures test results?
Finally, we take a Windows Task Manager measurement of how much memory is being used at startup and after those eight tabs are loaded. The eight tabs are the same as in the last set of tests—basically, each browser's home page, and then the Google home page, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and YouTube thrown in for good browser-dragging measure.On with the results!
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