Waiting — nobody likes it. Especially not on the web: With slow page loading and long loading times, you quickly lose interest in any content. To avoid such tests of patience, however, it’s not just a matter of having a good broadband connection — your surfing speed also depends on the browser you use.
When interpreting HTML, executing scripts, or loading graphics and videos, browsers like Chrome, Edge, or Firefox often perform differently. We want to get to the bottom of these differences in performance: We let the most popular browsers battle it out for the winner’s podium in a benchmark duel.
The environment: Test system and browser candidatesWe ran the benchmarks on a mid-range system with the following specifications:
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Put through its paces: When running through these three benchmarks, our browsers have to give their best in everyday applications.Foundry
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Three demanding browser benchmarks are available free of charge on the browserbench.org website. Browsers are pushed to their performance limits in disciplines such as page loading, response speed, JavaScript or web assembly, and graphics performance. The focus of these evaluation procedures is on different areas in each case:
The six browsers now have to assert themselves one after the other in the selected benchmarks. The requirements are always the same: We use the latest versions without extensions or add-ons.
Benchmark 1: Speedometer We use the Speedometer to measure the response speed of the browser in various (simulated) web applications. We use the Speedometer to measure the response speed of the browser in various (simulated) web applications.Foundry
We use the Speedometer to measure the response speed of the browser in various (simulated) web applications.Foundry
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In this benchmark, browsers have to assert themselves with fast code processing such as the execution of Javascript, among other things.Foundry
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High demands: In the graphics benchmark, a browser has to animate hundreds of objects in parallel.Foundry
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First place once and second place twice: According to our browser race, Chrome is the clear winner — especially as Google’s web browser is only a few points short of taking first place three times.
Whether you’re a normal user or a power user, Chrome is almost always faster online. However, the high-speed browser also has a few disadvantages that go beyond its speed: Google’s business model is based on data processing and the company is repeatedly criticized for collecting a disproportionate amount of user data.
Further reading: I got sick of Chrome’s BS and switched to Vivaldi. Here’s what happened
The situation is very different for the last-placed browser in this comparison — Firefox, which makes data protection a priority, comes in last place for Jetstream and the graphics benchmark, by some distance. To its credit, Firefox can be said to have achieved a good second place in the processing of web applications (Speedometer), but overall its performance falls behind the competition.
However, the extent this is noticeable in everyday use also depends on individual user behavior. Anyone looking for a suitable browser with more than just theoretical top speeds in mind will also find good arguments in favor of Firefox: countless add-ons and many configuration options, for example. This means that Mozilla can also impress when browsing beyond the accelerator pedal — but you can only dream of the working speed of Google Chrome with Mozilla.
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