On Speed

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 1:14:14 AM

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I noticed some pro-Chrome and pro-Opera bitching in the Desktop team blog comments around performance of Opera 10.51 in the Peacekeeper benchmark. I wrote something to use in a comment there, but then I decided to blog it here instead. It's been a while smile

Some choice quotes:

Originally posted by VarunM:

Chrome 5.0.356.2 destroys Opera 10.51 Especially the "Data" section is ridiculous. Chrome was 300% faster than Opera.

Originally posted by Asires:

"Data" is unimportant in rendering. "Rendering" is important. Opera is twice faster than Chrome in rendering.. So, Opera is 200% faster than Chrome.



It is pretty much all nonsense to focus on the details and comparing them across systems, to be honest... It is great that the top-score belongs to Opera for now (though the Chrome developers are of course not resting before they get on top again!), and to see Opera in the front lines on all systems. It shows that the JavaScript developers (and other Core and Desktop developers) must be doing something right :-)

But how well a browser really serves you is a highly personal experience. It depends a lot on what kind of sites you visit, what hardware you run your browser on, your Windows version, and what extra browser features you can use/add/customize/get distracted by. The Peacekeeper benchmark seems to be a bit sensitive of your underlying system, in some cases Chrome beats Opera, in others it is the other way around. I don't think speed will be a limiting factor with either of these modern browsers to enjoy the current web.

More Single-key ShortcutsThe new My Opera interface looks nice.

Comments

Kyle Bakerkyleabaker Tuesday, March 23, 2010 2:02:56 AM

haha, nice. up

Daniel HendrycksDanielHendrycks Tuesday, March 23, 2010 2:09:24 AM

up

d4rkn1ght Tuesday, March 23, 2010 5:30:08 AM

up

netwolf Tuesday, March 23, 2010 1:12:02 PM

Originally posted by Rijk:

I don't think speed will be a limiting factor with either of these modern browsers to enjoy the current web.


Very well said smile

Eric J. Goershappyfunland Tuesday, March 23, 2010 2:01:12 PM

As always, right on the money

Charles SchlossChas4 Wednesday, March 24, 2010 2:44:59 AM

up

UtkarshUtkarsh1 Wednesday, March 24, 2010 6:33:04 AM

Amen to the OP. It is unfair to rank browser on the basis of slight difference in Performance. Opera and Chrome are neck-to-neck but the difference in performance is so small that it is barely noticeable. I'd also conclude with the fact that Opera is more feature rich, compared to its rivals.

Browsing speed, yes, does matter, but it's not the primary base for comparison. smile

Ice ArdorIceArdor Wednesday, March 24, 2010 7:28:43 AM

It just goes to show that the consumer is the ultimate winner in a competition. Opera is more than 7x faster, and yet in order to hold on to first, Opera will have to squeeze more speed out of an already lightning-fast browser. This is incredible. Finally, Microsoft feels threatened that their decades old browser will turn to dust. Thanks for the firm kick in the rump, Opera, Google, Mozilla, and Apple.

walterbugscout Wednesday, March 24, 2010 8:09:47 AM

pirate

globethrottle Friday, March 26, 2010 2:51:30 PM

Well said. smile Personally I don't care about the speed at all, there is no practical difference that I would notice from one browser to the other. I like Opera in the way it handles my 30+ tabs and the easy to use mouse gestures.

Charles SchlossChas4 Friday, March 26, 2010 3:25:18 PM

Opera 10.51 (Opera@USB) running off my flash drive on some of the lab computers in school on the SunSpider JavaScript speed test test


RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
--------------------------------------------
Total: 354.6ms +/- 1.2%

Jimtoyotabedzrock Saturday, March 27, 2010 5:08:20 AM

Did anyone notice that the data score in that benchmark was 4x faster from one version to the next? It seems a little suspicious to me.

Victor Mogvictor Saturday, April 3, 2010 9:08:31 AM

so there is a browser that tries to match up to opera, i better try and see result coz if not am back home to opera. idea

szarpaj Tuesday, April 13, 2010 9:19:16 PM

Hrm… can I ask why my comment was removed?

dapxin Tuesday, April 20, 2010 6:12:37 AM

ie. speed == overRated. smile

Rijk Thursday, April 29, 2010 7:13:13 AM

Note: please use the forums to discuss Opera in general or ask questions, that's what they exist for...

Witold Barylukmovax Saturday, June 26, 2010 5:25:23 AM

Eh. The precise purpose of "Peacekeepr" is to make peace, and to allow each user quickly determine best/fastest browser on own computer, with own operating system, own versions/snapshots, etc. Everyone should interpret this results on their own.

benchmarking is very very hard, and even when done right, hard to interpret by people other than browser developers.

Speed is important, not because it allows us run faster existing pages (10ms and 20ms isn't really difference), but by having faster browser we can put considerably more load onto the browser, more complex applications, etc. And this will progress, as having faster browser opens new ways of writing apps and maybe even apps which was condiered before too complex to write (look at jquake2 with gwt in the chrome browser!). There will always be need for speed.

Speed is important, but browser's speed is not only about JavaScript. It is also various forms of rendering (DOM, CSS, SVG, Canvas, images), dns, network, pipelineing, caching, asynchronous loading, compression, etc, itp, and lots of other factors.

QuHno Saturday, July 10, 2010 7:25:55 PM

Most of the time the browser waits for me to do something.

May be a new definition of "speed" is needed:

How fast can I achieve what I want by using a certain browser?

That would be / is a very personal speed test. I did it and that is the reason, why I use the same browser since several years (OK, not THE same, here were a couple of snapshots and final versions in between bigsmile).

In my Opera I have rearranged most of the UI elements, I even made my own (Mainly Buttons for I hate Menus in every day use: Button - One Click. Menu - Mostly 2 and a mouse movement) so that they fit exactly to my needs.

Functions I "never" touch are out of sight, all others in plain sight or just 1 (one) click away on a toolbar I blend in with a button (not exactly like in the "12" setup, but similar from the idea). Additionaly I added a ton of shortcuts. All that together still isn't possible with all other browsers I tested, or if, then it was not so easy to do like in Opera.

Speeding me up.
That means speed to me.

Witold Barylukmovax Wednesday, July 14, 2010 2:26:17 AM

Originally posted by QuHno:

Speeding me up.
That means speed to me.


Exactly. This is the reason I use and used Opera always, even in times when Chrome was faster. Becuase UI is so fast, because it is customizable, becuase of mouse gestures, becuase of houndreats of usefull quick tricks.

dovelove Sunday, August 29, 2010 4:48:48 AM

Wish I could remember all you know interesting....Thanks for all your info.

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