Mac Browser JavaScript Performance

Posted in: Software, Technology

I ran my browsers through these JavaScript benchmark tests. All tests ran on my 1ghz PowerBook G4. Very surprising results:

Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 Test 6 Test 7 Total
Camino 0.7 2.042 1.378 2.521 1.656 0.680 8.890 1.966 19.130
Firefox 0.8 18.011 4.161 2.371 1.944 0.756 12.613 2.160 42.020
IE 5.2 1.849 0.693 3.325 42.444 2.898 10.787 5.227 67.220
Safari 1.2 67.403 1.929 1.848 25.723 14.694 5.023 16.179 132.800

I use Camino as my main browser but I had no idea the JavaScript performance was that much better. Anyone else have similar/different results?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted March 1st, 2004 @ 3:58 PM

15 Replies

  1. Viper007Bond adds this Comment:

    Very interesting. I use MyIE2 and it did MUCH better than IE does:

    Internet Explorer 5.x
    67.95 seconds
    13 results
    Internet Explorer 5.5x
    44.05 seconds
    5 results
    Internet Explorer 6.x
    42.51 seconds 215 results
    MyIE2
    17.24 seconds
    15 results

    My test completed in about 23 seconds overall, the first text taking a good 60% of that. :)

    March 1st, 2004 at 7:21 pm

  2. Viper007Bond adds this Comment:

    BTW - only tested MyIE2, but it’s very good to know that just ’cause it’s based on IE doesn’t mean that it has to suck as much as IE does. :D

    March 1st, 2004 at 7:22 pm

  3. Michael Heilemann adds this Comment:

    Holy crap! That’s really impressive.

    Tell me, what is the actual difference between Camino and Firefox?

    March 2nd, 2004 at 8:20 am

  4. Alex adds this Comment:

    Camino uses native Mac OS X widgets and the UI is written in Cocoa.

    I like the “feel” better than Firefox, but it doesn’t have accesskey support and Firefox does.

    March 2nd, 2004 at 9:01 am

  5. echeng adds this Comment:

    Tests on a 2.4Ghz P4, Windows XP

    Firefox:
    TEST 1 time: 7.718 sec.
    TEST 2 time: 1.234 sec.
    TEST 3 time: 0.922 sec.
    TEST 4 time: 0.594 sec.
    TEST 5 time: 0.36 sec.
    TEST 6 time: 4.875 sec.
    TEST 7 time: 2.094 sec.

    Total: 17.797 seconds

    IE 6:
    TEST 1 time: 7.5 sec.
    TEST 2 time: 5.703 sec.
    TEST 3 time: 1.047 sec.
    TEST 4 time: 0.735 sec.
    TEST 5 time: 0.656 sec.
    TEST 6 time: 1.812 sec.
    TEST 7 time: 1.313 sec.

    Total: 18.766 seconds

    [edited, totals added by Alex]

    March 2nd, 2004 at 11:17 am

  6. John Strung adds this Comment:

    I have read elsewhere that turning off all languages other than English in Safari (by selecting the Safari App in Finder and doing a GetInfo) can significantly speed up Safari. Has anyone tested this? Does it bring Safari up to Camino speeds?

    I love Camino, by the way, and use it as my default browser, but it does crash a lot which is annoying.

    March 3rd, 2004 at 8:41 am

  7. Alex adds this Comment:

    I’ve had nightlies in the last few months that were a little crash happy but I’m currently using a nightly from a week or two ago that has never crashed (knock on wood).

    March 3rd, 2004 at 9:25 am

  8. john adds this Comment:

    i love camino! (my default browser for a VERY long time) it’s great to know it’s javascript is way up there…

    now if it could only display some pages, like ESPN’s properly, i would never have to use safari! (:

    March 4th, 2004 at 1:25 am

  9. john adds this Comment:

    and oh– i got about 11.7 seconds running that test with about 20 apps running

    March 4th, 2004 at 1:26 am

  10. Michael Heilemann adds this Comment:

    So basically Camino is Firefox for OS X? (roughly speaking :)).

    March 4th, 2004 at 12:37 pm

  11. Alex adds this Comment:

    Sort of, both projects started the same way.

    March 4th, 2004 at 1:20 pm

  12. john adds this Comment:

    is there a place where we can commend the developers of Camino?

    I have always liked this browser and want to see them continue development on it.. thanks!

    March 4th, 2004 at 7:17 pm

  13. Alex adds this Comment:

    Their feedback page is probably a good place to start.

    March 4th, 2004 at 7:25 pm

  14. schmeeve :: blog adds this Trackback:

    Mac JS
    Alex King did some Javascript performance tests on a variety of Mac browsers: Apple’s Safari, the Gecko-based Camino and Firefox, and the now-defunct Microsoft Internet Explorer. 24fun’s Javascript Speed Tests were used. Camino came out on top. I’m …

    March 4th, 2004 at 11:50 pm

  15. Beast adds this Comment:

    Remeber how Apple was claiming that Safari was something like 67% faster than anything else for JavaScript performance?

    Apparently they’re sticking to it - Safari is 28.4% faster than NS7.

    JS performance involves many things. If you were to count just javascript execution of something like strings, Mozilla (and NS7) would far out perform safari. Their test is skewed. Ordinarly folks will see the 28.4% faster and think it sounds good, and probably won’t see what a load of BS it is.

    June 18th, 2004 at 10:40 pm

Add a Comment

Please note: Use of a non-personal web site or blog in the field below and/or comments that are off-topic, personal attacks, or support requests will likely be removed at my discretion.

Note: This post is over 4 years old. You may want to check later in this blog to see if there is new information relevant to your comment.

Tracking Time Spent in Tasks/Tasks Pro » « Building taskspro.com

About This Site

This is the personal web site of Alex King, an independent developer based in Denver, Colorado USA. More...


Crowd Favorite

Crowd Favorite is my software and web development business.

We build web applications, design and develop custom WordPress themes and plugins, and build custom sites using WordPress as a CMS.


I also have a tumblog that aggregates my online content from other services (Twitter, Flickr, del.icio.us. etc.).

Ads