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Firefox 5 Benchmarked – Faster And Better Than Ever Before!
digitizor ^ | 21 June 2011 | Ricky

Posted on 06/22/2011 6:26:22 AM PDT by ShadowAce

Officially, Firefox 5 is scheduled for release tomorrow. However, users of the beta channel have already got their hands on it. One of the promises for Firefox 5 is better performance. We took tested Firefox 5 and benchmarked it against two other browsers - Google Chrome and Opera. We used the latest version of Google Chrome from the beta channel and the latest stable version of Opera - Opera 11.11.

SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark

The SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark is a test for the JavaScript engine of the browser. In this benchmark, lower scores (time) means better performance. In our earlier benchmarks, Firefox is always slower than other browsers such as Chrome and Opera. Let us see how well Firefox 5 does.

As you can see from the graph above, Firefox 5 has made huge improvements in its JavaScript engine. It is now much faster than both Chrome and Opera. However, the difference is very small - just 30ms faster than Chrome and 8ms faster than Opera. So, finally Firefox can no longer be considered a slow browser.

Peacekeeper

Peacekeeper is yet another highly regarded test for the JavaScript engine. Unlike the SunSpider test, Peacekeeper tests the normal JavaScript applications such as animations, navigation, forms etc. In this test, higher scores means better performance. Here is the result:

The result from the Peacekeeper test is very different from that of the SunSpider test. Here, Opera got the highest score while Firefox 5, which did best in SunSpider, performed the worst of the three browsers.

HTML5 Test

The HTML5 Test is a test to determine how many of the HTML5 and related specifications are supported by the browser. It does not test how well the specifications are supported. Scores are awarded for support of the HTML5 standards and bonus points are awarded for supporting related drafts and specifications. Higher scores are preferred in this test.

In this test, Chrome takes the lead by scoring more than 300 points. Opera and Firefox are neck to neck with Firefox scoring 254 and Opera scoring 255. The performance of Firefox 5, is a huge improvement from that of Firefox 4 which manages a score of just above 200.

Cold Start Time

This is the time it takes for a browser to start on a machine that has been just restarted. Once the machine has finished loading everything, the browser is restarted and the time it takes for it to load a locally stored file is found out. Obviously, lower cold start time is preferred. Here is how the browsers performed:

Opera takes the longest time to start here at around seven seconds. The other two browsers have almost the same cold start time at a little above four seconds.

A test for warm start was not done because all of the three browsers have a warm start time of less than a second and it was impossible to time it properly.

Memory Usage

The different browsers takes up varying amount of RAM. To test how much each of them is taking up, we loaded 25 popular websites and check the memory consumption of the browser after opening every five websites. Extensions, add-ons etc. which are not installed by default are removed. Here is the result:

The result here is staggering. While Chrome takes up more than 1GB of RAM on opening 25 websites, Opera and Firefox takes up a little more than only 400 MB. Firefox and Opera takes up nearly identical RAM throughout, although Firefox takes up a little bit less than Opera.

Conclusion

As you can see, Firefox 5 does very well in four out of the five tests. Here are some of the main points about Firefox 5 from the tests:



TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: browsers; internet
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To: Will88

Looks like they did the same thing IE9 did. add-ons give them a bad name so they disabled them and make it easier to kill them.

It’s like this. My browser is slow. The vendors found out it was add-ons making it slow so they disable them. Hey my browser is fast now. Oh wait, I’m missing my 100 add-ons. Let me turn those on. Hey my browser is slow. Damn browser sucks.


21 posted on 06/22/2011 7:10:36 AM PDT by for-q-clinton (If at first you don't succeed keep on sucking until you do succeed)
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To: Tainan

Download Firefox 3.6.18or the latest 5.0
Firefox 3.6.18
Mozilla Organization - 8.21MB (Open Source)

http://www.filehippo.com/download_firefox/10077


22 posted on 06/22/2011 7:10:56 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Allowing Islam into America is akin to injecting yourself with AIDS to prove how tolerant you are...)
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To: ShadowAce

downloaded it yesterday. Can see no real change

*and no real problems - which is very good

thanks for ping


23 posted on 06/22/2011 7:14:57 AM PDT by DollyCali (Don't tell God how big your storm is... tell your storm how BIG your God is!)
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To: Will88

I refuse to use a Google product, for Google is evil.


24 posted on 06/22/2011 7:26:27 AM PDT by EscapedDutch ("Socialism is great until you run out of other people's money" - Lady Margaret Thatcher)
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To: ShadowAce

Thanks ShadowAce


25 posted on 06/22/2011 7:26:56 AM PDT by Dacula (Just say no to Vidalia onions)
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To: for-q-clinton

I’ve removed a few add-ons when it was obvious they’d slowed things down. But most of them are only in use for specific functions and shouldn’t affect performance when those functions aren’t in use. 5.0 disabled FoxTab which is very irritating and might cause me to go back for a time.


26 posted on 06/22/2011 7:29:55 AM PDT by Will88
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To: Dacula
I upgraded to FF4 and immediately stopped using it. Only now are my extensions being updated to FF4, ..heh. Had been using Firefox since Firebird 0.6xx Alpha, many years past.

Xinha Here! 0.17 is absolutely essential for posting to FR.

MR Tech Toolkit 6.0.4, Tiny Menu 2.0.2, and UI Tweaker (Formerly Toolbar Cleanup) 1.7.0 are essential to shrink the amount of screen real estate used for menus. IN combination a much better system than the FF4 hidden menubar IMHO.

THe following was generated using the InfoLister 0.10.4a1 extension:

Last updated: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:11:50 GMT
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0.1

Extensions (enabled: 61, disabled: 1):

Themes (5):


27 posted on 06/22/2011 7:38:33 AM PDT by JerseyHighlander
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To: Texas Fossil; B4Ranch
Well, since I posted I went ahead and DL'd 4.0.1. Its working fine. One complaint I have about the last few releases are that the bookmarks are very different. I don't like how they are either over on the side or open-up in a new window. I liked the drop-down listing of Bkmarks from the 'Bookmarks' thing at the top of the screen.

Overall though, no real complaints so far. I'm no 'techie'...for me the computer is just a tool. If it does what I want/need...I really don't care how or why it does it.
28 posted on 06/22/2011 7:41:02 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito Ergo Conservitus.)
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To: Will88
it rarely closes cleanly

So much so, that I generally use the command

pkill fox
to shut down firefox on my laptop. But it does have some features that I really don't want to do without.

/johnny

29 posted on 06/22/2011 7:41:41 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: JerseyHighlander

Good thing I never downloaded FF4.
Will wait for FF5 and benchmark it myself


30 posted on 06/22/2011 7:43:21 AM PDT by jimjohn
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To: for-q-clinton

It’s like this. My browser is slow. The vendors found out it was add-ons making it slow so they disable them. Hey my browser is fast now. Oh wait, I’m missing my 100 add-ons. Let me turn those on. Hey my browser is slow. Damn browser sucks.


LOL


31 posted on 06/22/2011 7:45:41 AM PDT by freedomlover (Make sure you're in love - before you move in the heavy stuff)
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To: for-q-clinton
IE9 is a joke. I have seen it's attempts at HTML5 and it's still a stinking pita

How I loathe thee.

I think Firebug is one of the most influential addons I have ever seen. Nice work Joe Hewitt.
32 posted on 06/22/2011 7:47:21 AM PDT by smith288 (Peace at all costs gives you tyranny free of charge)
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To: JerseyHighlander
That's a lot of extensions.

Tab Mix Plus will replace several of those.

33 posted on 06/22/2011 7:48:31 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Dacula; neverdem

The FireFox/Mozilla automatic spellchecker - on any web site text input box - is wonderful.


34 posted on 06/22/2011 7:50:16 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Dacula
I recommend these:
For pop-ups and stuff -
Adblock Plus - 1.3.8
Better Privacy - 1.51

For World Time Zones(I need this for work)
FoxClocks - 2.7.82

For remembering things (meting, appointments, memos, birthdays, shopping, etc.) -
ReminderFox - 1.9.9.3.1

Because its neat and has some good stuff to use -
Grease Monkey - 0.95

These are 'good to have' Add-Ons...IMO.

There is also an tool you can add to your browser that gives you a lot of neat options for posting on Free Republic. Makes it a lot easier. Maybe someone can give you a link to wherever that is to be found. Its worth adding also.
35 posted on 06/22/2011 7:54:59 AM PDT by Tainan (Cogito Ergo Conservitus.)
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To: ShadowAce

If it’s anything like previous major releases, the memory leaks will be twice as bad and it’ll hog 100% of CPU as it reaches 2 gigabytes memory usage after browsing for 15 minutes.


36 posted on 06/22/2011 7:56:17 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Made from the right stuff!)
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To: Dacula
Can someone recommend any good add-ons for FF -

If you spend a lot of time on FR, you should definitely get the mapmonkey extension and use the following scripts:

- FR Posting Form Enhancer; and

- FR Tree Viewer

This will make following threads and posting comments much easier for you. Highly recommended.

37 posted on 06/22/2011 7:59:22 AM PDT by KevinB (We'll stop treating Obama like a dog when he stops treating us like a fire hydrant - Fred Grandy)
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To: JerseyHighlander

Thanks for the list!


38 posted on 06/22/2011 8:01:03 AM PDT by aquila48
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To: Dacula

D’oh, that’s Greasemonkey not Mapmonkey.


39 posted on 06/22/2011 8:01:11 AM PDT by KevinB (We'll stop treating Obama like a dog when he stops treating us like a fire hydrant - Fred Grandy)
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To: KevinB; Tainan
I once wrote a Greasemonkey script to add an "Ignore" button on FR threads. Worked quite well.

However, the one user I wrote it for has stopped posting so much on FR, so I haven't used it in quite a while.

Not even sure where it is, though I could probably track it down.

40 posted on 06/22/2011 8:04:54 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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