Browser speed comparison

[jaclaz]

Interesting:

http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

jaclaz

[Win2k3EE]

Nice test. It convinced me to give Opera a try.

[Bâshrat the Sneaky]

In Firefox, type about:config in the address bar and change/add these values:

browser.cache.memory.enable          true
browser.cache.memory.capacity        131072

This enables browser caching in your PC's memory, using a maximum of 128MB (you can set it higher if you'd like to).

This gives Firefox a very noticeable speed boost, which makes its image & page loading times very similar to Opera's.

Edited July 25, 2005 by Bâshrat the Sneaky

[HybridShadow]

ive used opera, IE (my default one) and firefox and never noticed any diference exept firefox to longer to open the program itself than the others

I like opera but its not free (without ads)

Also witht he speeds of internet these days does it really make a diference?

[boooggy]

sorry mate but firefox and opera load pages faster then ie especially for a slow connection....

[HybridShadow]

Maybe so for a slow connection

but there people telling me this and that saying ie caps at 3mbit and crap it all just getting annoying now - each persons opinion and choices are valid, but that doesnt mean they are true

I personally like IE because i've found it to be less full of crap (which other people do like that stuff but not every has to) and 'I' have found it to load pages ALOT faster than firefox on a high speed connection

and also in that graph it shows that all browsers are faster and slower in diferent areas no browser is perfect or the safest,

I reckon just choose one you like the best and not blast everyone else when they mention another one (not saying you did i'm talking about other threads)

[Zxian]

@matt5108 - I think that what you've heard about Firefox being fast comes from the fact that users need to tweak the settings. Now... think about the average Joe computer user, who is unaware of the severity of viruses and internet security in general. Is Joe going to know how to tweak his browser to make it go faster? Probably not. My parents barely understand the meaning of the word "tweak". Out of the box, Firefox isn't all that great until you start changing all the default settings.

And just another point - for security, check out Secunia. They do security summaries for just about everything out there. You'll see that Opera 8.01 has zero unpatched vulnerabilities whereas Firefox and IE have several unpatched vulerabilities. I'm not going to press very hard here on this, but if you use IE, you are going to need tools like Ad-Aware, Spybot, and MSAS. I ran a scan a month ago for the first time since switching to Opera (about 6 months now - with Firefox as backup) and nothing came up in any of the three tools. Try running that long with IE and getting the same results.

And the point that the tester makes about progressive rendering:

One thing I do not take into account here (although it can play a significant role in real pages) is progressive rendering. For example, with Opera 6, the table was laid out faster, but nothing was displayed until the entire table was complete. With Opera 7+, the table takes longer to complete (about half a second), but it is progressively displayed, so the first part is displayed as soon as it is ready, without having to wait for the rest of the table to complete. As a result, you can actually start reading the page faster with Opera 7+. With pages that are served by slow servers (or if you have a slower connection), this can make overall browsing speed significantly faster.

is very true. Sometimes, when you're waiting for an image to load from a remote server, other browsers will not even show the page. Opera will show you what it's got so you can start reading right away.

Just as a final note (just so I'm not being completely one-sided here) - I showed my parents Opera a while back (after I finished formatting their computer because of spyware/viruses...) and they didn't like it. I showed them a tweaked version of Firefox - they hated it. I showed them Maxthon (which is a bit better than IE) and they love it. For them, using Maxthon and all the anti-spyware tools is fine. It would make me puke, but they like it. So... to each their own.

[chessonly]

what most ppl forget is that only page loading speed is not important 'speed' factor.

For example having tabs is itself a speed booster- allows u to load another page whe n u r reading one.

and thats what makes opera so good- cache handling is so good.

even my 64bit connection compares with any 512bit connection, because of the cache thing.

i can set opera to use caached images only which opens images only from and haddrive, thus speeding things 3-5x times.

also hitting back is instant.

with IE the page shows only when loaded comlpetely. opera ff start showing te page as it loads, so u can read a page while images and ads r still loading.

Lastly things like mouse gestures(rocker gestures) are another way of speedin things

nik