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Fastest browser for OSX?

C

chuckflip53

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 18, 2010
132
0
I've always felt that Chrome felt more responsive and speedy. Just ftr, I am running a 13" MBP w/ a 2.4ghz C2D

EDIT: I googled the issue and found this nifty article which ran 20+ tests comparing Firefox, Opera, IE, Chrome and Safari. Unfortunately they were all tested on Win7.

SO, I decided to run a test myself on my MBP.
The test I ran was Futuremark's Peacekeeper which, according to the website, "is a free online browser benchmark tool. With Peacekeeper it’s quick and easy to compare different browsers to find out which one offers the best performance on your PC...Peacekeeper measures your browser's performance by testing its JavaScript functionality."

Results (higher number corresponds to greater performance):
Chrome 5.0.375.86
Run 1 – 5418
Run 2 – 5424
Safari 5.0 (6533.16)
Run 1 – 4068
Run 2 – 4068
Firefox 3.66
Run 1 – 2481
Run 2 – 2507
Opera 10.60
Run 1 – 4978
Run 2 – 4978

Keep in mind that these tests were run using a C2D 2.4ghz processor so people with i5/i7s will most likely post higher results. However, using this test, Chrome clearly wins but Opera is not too far behind.
 
Safari 5's reader > Chrome's slight speed advantage

I love this feature. Besides, Chrome's lead diminishes and in some cases disappears the more tabs and extensions you're running.
 
doesn't Chrome hog the nvidia gpu where safari uses mainly the Intel one, making the battery last *much* longer?
 
I think Opera is fastest. Opera is safe, secure, powerful and fully customizable, the Opera Web browser is faster and more secure than other browsers available on the market. Opera delivers robust security and a far-richer feature set than any other Web browser and it's free.
 
stefan1975 said:
doesn't Chrome hog the nvidia gpu where safari uses mainly the Intel one, making the battery last *much* longer?
Click to expand...

I'd like to know that too. Don't wanna lose a significant amount of battery time just because of my browser choice.

EDIT: Just thought, does this actually matter for me, when i have a 13"? They use the
same (and only) GPU all the time, right?
 
Would also like to know what you think about Chrome RAM usage. The app itself doesn't take up a lot of memory, but i've noticed that each "renderer" process that up quite a bit. So do all the Chrome processes summed up actually end up using
more memory than Safari - with a lot of tabs open in both?
 
rasmusDoh said:
I'd like to know that too. Don't wanna lose a significant amount of battery time just because of my browser choice.

EDIT: Just thought, does this actually matter for me, when i have a 13"? They use the
same (and only) GPU all the time, right?
Click to expand...

No it won't have any affect on yours as it only has the on GPU.

I tried Chrome and didn't see what all the fuss is about, felt slower than Safari 5, and it does activate the Nvidia GPU so un-installed it and went back to Safari.
 
Kendio7 said:
Yep it does, thats the reason i'm having to use Firefox atm :/
Click to expand...

FireFox? darn that one is almost worse and slower then IE8 were it not for firebug. i think opera 10.6 is WAY better then both FF and safari, don't know if it plays nice with the gpu yet though.
 
MacKeeper-fan said:
I think Opera is fastest. Opera is safe, secure, powerful and fully customizable, the Opera Web browser is faster and more secure than other browsers available on the market. Opera delivers robust security and a far-richer feature set than any other Web browser and it's free.
Click to expand...

+1

I can't vouch for some of the claims but what I do know is that it is VERY quick. What I love most about Opera is that you can synch your bookmarks across devices so easily.

A very feature rich browser indeed and highly recommended.
 
I use Safari, but have tried Chrome and Firefox, and I can't tell the difference in speed between Safari and Chrome, and I think Firefox was slower (haven't used it in months, its not installed on my new MBP).
 
Opera is by far the fastest in my personal experience (I've tried Safari 4, Safari 5, Chrome, and Firefox).

It's also the sleekest/cleanest browser out there. Love it. :D
 
Baral said:
Opera is by far the fastest in my personal experience (I've tried Safari 4, Safari 5, Chrome, and Firefox).

It's also the sleekest/cleanest browser out there. Love it. :D
Click to expand...

I've just downloaded Opera after seeing all the positive reviews here. Does seem faster and sleeker. However I've got 2 questions. Being a firefox users for years, I'm accustomed to cmd # for tab switching. The current shortcut for tab switching for opera is really not to my liking. I've seen the shortcuts page, and I can see that I can assign cmd 1-9 to different functions. The default is to go to the different speed dials, and I would like to know the command for it to switch to tab 1, tab 2 etc...

Second question is, my personal bar (bookmarks) just goes missing sometimes. How do I bring it back?
 
Chrome is my choice because the Safari address bar+search box combo sucks. It doesn't even work right in Safari 5.

On my Chrome, I have it set up so that if I type wiki Frankenstein it will automatically pull up the wikipedia article on Frankenstein. No clicking involved.
Likewise, I have shortcuts like imdb and pirate (piratebay).
 
stefan1975 said:
doesn't Chrome hog the nvidia gpu where safari uses mainly the Intel one, making the battery last *much* longer?
Click to expand...

heh I don't have the option of changing from discrete to integrated so that doesn't affect me

From the responses so far, it seems that the majority of people here like Chrome and Opera so I guess I'll give Opera a try :D
 
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