sunbiz_3000
Adept
Benchmarking is always an interesting topic of debate and especially when you have a cult-feeling around a product, it fun to watch. With the Race to ACID3 over, there is another hot topic of discussion going on in the world of web browsers. And it's JavaScript that is in question. Dromaeo is Mozilla's JavaScript Benchmark Test and I happen to put all the popular browsers on the burner!
JavaScript is an important component in today's web. It's used all over the web and is de-facto standard for browser-side execution. It's used through a lot of frameworks like YUI, Prototype, Dojo, jQuery etc. And then there is AJAX, which uses JavaScript at its base. Thus, when you compare browsers, checking the JavaScript performance makes some sense.
There are a few popular ones for testing JavaScript performance. Infact, you could even write a few of your own and test, but I would recommend one of the popular ones that try to replicate real-world experiences. There is the popular JavaScript test from Webkit called SunSpider. You can find a good comparison of the browsers on that test at CyberNet. I found Mozilla's Dromaeo to be another benchmark which seems to do a lot of things like you would do in the real-world. The following are the browser results from the benchmark.
Safari nighly (Webkit r31368) ===> 1805.40ms (Total)
Firefox 3 pre-beta 5 (2008032005) ===> 1855.20ms (Total)
Safari 3.1 (525.13) ===> 2000.80ms (Total)
Opera 9 Beta (WinGogi: build 636) ===> 2625.00ms (Total)
Opera 9.26 (build 8835) ===> 4158.80ms (Total)
Firefox 2.0.0.13 (release) ===> 7897.40ms (Total)
Internet Explorer 7 (7.0.6001.18000) ==> Unknown (didn't have the patience)
Note: Your results may vary due to various reasons, but the ranking would nearly (tough one between WebKit & FF3) be the same.
IE7 had a hard time completing the benchmark (I couldn't wait for it to complete) and as the Mozilla Wiki on the test mentions, it is a problem with IE7. I couldn't do the test on Konqueror as my Linux box has some issues booting up.
Among other things, the test goes to show the performance increase in Firefox 3. Thus, it is the right time for Mozilla to publicize the improvement in JavaScript performance and thus, I guess they have released this benchmark. Webkit and Firefox 3 are pretty much on the heels of each other in this test. Firefox 3 has also made some progress on decreasing the memory it uses when lots of tabs are open. This should give the Mozilla team something to cheer about after they said sour grapes with not participating in the ACID3 race.
Source: Sunny Talks Tech: Webkit Winning in Dromaeo - Mozilla's JavaScript Benchmark