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What's the fastest browser for Mac?
- Thread starter piatti
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You might find an opinion or two here:
Fastest browser for OSX?
What browser are you using? - Poll
Best web browser for my mac?
Which browser do you primarily use? - Poll
Browser Wars
Your Preferred Web Browser Under Mac OS X? - Poll
Which browser to choose? Safari vs chrome vs Firefox
Best OSX browser?
Favorite browser?
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
Agreed
applefan289 said:
Agreed
What are you looking for: fast startup? fast rendering of pages? fast download times? like to use plug-ins?
It depends on what you like. I like Camino, it may not be the best, but for me, it works fine. My second choice is Safari. Third Firefox. Fourth Opera. Fifth iCab.
It depends on what you like. I like Camino, it may not be the best, but for me, it works fine. My second choice is Safari. Third Firefox. Fourth Opera. Fifth iCab.
If it helps the discussion any I have Chrome and Safari both on my mac. I just ran a basic test by loading youtube (which took the same amount of time on both) and loading up the same video. In this test I found that Safari took 6.5 seconds to load the video's page and begin playing it. Chrome, on the other hand, took 9.6 settings.
This is just one test obviously and some factors were bound to change but in loading flash video (something apple's software would logically be worse at) Safari did significantly better.
This is just one test obviously and some factors were bound to change but in loading flash video (something apple's software would logically be worse at) Safari did significantly better.
Subjective opinions are nice and all, but two months ago Tom's Hardware did another of their extensive benchmarks of the four major browsers on OSX and Win7, so you can have real numbers (though impression is actually worth something--if it feels faster, it doesn't really matter if it technically isn't):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/macbook-air-chrome-16-firefox-9-benchmark,3108-17.html
All the results are very dependent on the particular thing being done, and you can read through them yourself, but a few general observations:
If we're talking about page load times (on the Mac, of course), for uncached pages Chrome is the fastest, followed by FF, then Safari, with Opera bringing up the rear. For cached pages, Safari is the fastest, followed by Chrome, then FF, with Opera again bringing up the rear. Also interesting that IE on Windows is slower than any other browser on either Mac or Windows.
Safari on the Mac starts up cold (and/or with a single tab) faster than any other browser, while it's the slowest to re-start with several tabs open.
For complex Javascript, the results are all over the place, but for most tests Chrome and FF are close to each other out in front, with Safari a ways behind, and Opera way in the back in all but one test, although all thee of the other browsers were fastest in at least one of the many benchmarks they tried.
If you get into the arcane stuff, for DOM performance FF is fastest, followed by Chrome, Safari, and Opera Mac (although Opera on Windows beat everything else, period). On a complex CSS test, Safari wins followed closely by Chrome, then Opera, and FF is absolutely dog-slow, taking 23 times longer than Safari.
For RAM use, Chrome is way out in front, followed by Opera, then Safari (at around double what Chrome uses), then Firefox (that one definitely backs my real-world experience--Safari is something of a hog, and FF is terrible about memory management on the Mac; the Windows version is drastically better).
Honestly, the only two that matter much for real-world everyday use are probably page load and RAM use, and with the exception of FF and Safari's love of RAM (which may matter if you're on a 2GB system or run a lot of stuff and don't quit things often) there's not really enough difference to make or break any of them--it comes down to taste and which feels faster for what you're doing. Chrome, on average, is the fastest, followed by Safari, then Firefox, and Opera tends to be the slowest.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/macbook-air-chrome-16-firefox-9-benchmark,3108-17.html
All the results are very dependent on the particular thing being done, and you can read through them yourself, but a few general observations:
If we're talking about page load times (on the Mac, of course), for uncached pages Chrome is the fastest, followed by FF, then Safari, with Opera bringing up the rear. For cached pages, Safari is the fastest, followed by Chrome, then FF, with Opera again bringing up the rear. Also interesting that IE on Windows is slower than any other browser on either Mac or Windows.
Safari on the Mac starts up cold (and/or with a single tab) faster than any other browser, while it's the slowest to re-start with several tabs open.
For complex Javascript, the results are all over the place, but for most tests Chrome and FF are close to each other out in front, with Safari a ways behind, and Opera way in the back in all but one test, although all thee of the other browsers were fastest in at least one of the many benchmarks they tried.
If you get into the arcane stuff, for DOM performance FF is fastest, followed by Chrome, Safari, and Opera Mac (although Opera on Windows beat everything else, period). On a complex CSS test, Safari wins followed closely by Chrome, then Opera, and FF is absolutely dog-slow, taking 23 times longer than Safari.
For RAM use, Chrome is way out in front, followed by Opera, then Safari (at around double what Chrome uses), then Firefox (that one definitely backs my real-world experience--Safari is something of a hog, and FF is terrible about memory management on the Mac; the Windows version is drastically better).
Honestly, the only two that matter much for real-world everyday use are probably page load and RAM use, and with the exception of FF and Safari's love of RAM (which may matter if you're on a 2GB system or run a lot of stuff and don't quit things often) there's not really enough difference to make or break any of them--it comes down to taste and which feels faster for what you're doing. Chrome, on average, is the fastest, followed by Safari, then Firefox, and Opera tends to be the slowest.
I think Chrome loads pages faster, but for me, Firefox is by far the fastest to use because of the shortcuts and a few extensions. For example, I can get to my bank website in less than a second by hitting Cmd+L, B, enter. I can't do that in any other browser without typing several more letters or scrolling a list in the address bar. This quick method works for every website I use (it isn't a shortcut or keyword; it is making use of the so-called Awesome Bar along with the "Enter Selects" extension).
They are all so close to each other speed wise, I think it is unnecessary to worry about which is faster. Just go with the one that has the most productive features and feels the best for what you want to do.
They are all so close to each other speed wise, I think it is unnecessary to worry about which is faster. Just go with the one that has the most productive features and feels the best for what you want to do.
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
I run Safari as my primary browser. I also use Firefox on occasion. I recently installed Chrome but haven't tried it yet.
But between Safari and Firefox, Safari is the fastest in my experience.
I run Safari as my primary browser. I also use Firefox on occasion. I recently installed Chrome but haven't tried it yet.
But between Safari and Firefox, Safari is the fastest in my experience.