Is Internet Explorer 9 the new King of speed? -Computerworld (blog)

Internet Explorer, once unregulated derided as the laggard among browsers, seems to have gotten a fuel-injection of rocket with the release of Internet Explorer 9. It is so fast that we must ask: is the new King of speed?

Microsoft recognized that Internet Explorer 9 had to be fast. Web pages have more content every year and take more time to load. Increasingly, the browser replaces the function of an operating system - it is a way to run Web applications and services. A slow browser is the kiss of death.

To this end, Microsoft has developed a new IE9 JavaScript engine called Chakra. It uses multiple processor cores and compiles the scripts in the background. In addition, IE9 also uses GPU computer to speed up the rendering of graphics and text.

In my review of Internet Explorer 9 for Computerworld, I found that paid work. IE9 CADE competition on the SunSpider JavaScript reference. It took 280 milliseconds (ms) to carry out the tests, followed by the Opera 11.01 to Ms. 308.8, chromium 10.0.648 to MS 316,7, Firefox 4 Release Candidate to Ms. 319.1 and Safari 5.0.4 to Ms. 410.2 (I used a Dell Dimension 9200 with a processor Intel Core 2 Quad to 2.4 GHz and 2 GB of RAM running Windows Vista.) (I ran the three series of tests on each browser and on average the results.) You can see the results below.

In practice, there is no discernible difference between the first four. Ms. some here or there be noticed. Therefore even if IE9 is faster on this test, this does not mean that in a real experiment you will notice that it is faster. They were probably will produce even these tasks measured by SunSpider.

Of course, measuring JavaScript is only an indication of the performance of the browser. Microsoft and Mozilla are currently engaged in a spat very public whether the capabilities of GPU hardware acceleration of the IE9 or similar characteristics of Firefox 4 are similar. With no third party tests to compare, there is simply no way to know who is right.

So, IE9 is the new King of speed? Until objective tests on the GPU acceleration is available, it is difficult to know. But at least he is caught up in the competition, which is a big step forward for the browser.

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