I'm not sure that you should be using the "recommended tests" option of Dromaeo, since that option includes SunSpider and V8 Bench. We already know the results of those tests (since you ran them separately), so maybe you should just run the Dromaeo-specific tests.
Edit: Do you think it would skew things that much? It seems to show a much wider disparity with Chrome hitting > 5k runs per second and Safari 5 hitting only 308... My only concern about that is the appearance of cherry picking results instead of using their recommended tests.
But: Safari 5 has hardware accelerated graphics on both Mac and Windows for HTML5 video. Which I imagine is as relevant to most people, even geeks like me, as a 10-20% speedup in Javascript.
For example, watch the video at http://videojs.com/ in full screen on Chrome and Safari. Last time I checked it looked way better in Safari. That said, Chrome team moves fast and maybe they will have it fixed soon.
Not only video but also hardware-accelerated CSS animations and 3D transforms. Safari has the most advanced graphics architecture of any browser right now, and all the major browsers are working on catching up.
Opera hasn't publicly announced hardware-accelerated graphics yet, but they are moving to a new codebase that could support it in theory: http://my.opera.com/core/blog/2009/02/04/vega
Chrome actually seems like the least far along right now, which seems odd given their focus on performance. Some of the work was done for them by Apple in WebKit, but there's still a lot to be done.
Apple probably locked down on a stable build of WebKit weeks ago. Google has the luxury of staged rollouts with rollback if necessary, so they can take more risk with WebKit builds.
It's also much more stable on Windows for me. In Chrome a lot of websites just crash the tab (and bring down a few other tabs as well usually - so much about separate processes).
I'm getting kind of sick about hearing about how browser X outperforms browser Y in Z JavaScript performance test. It's good to know that the browser developers are continuing to push JS performance--it's important that it gets better and better--but essentially every browser except maybe IE (haven't used it in years, can't speak to it) has comparable real-world JS performance.
I choose to use Safari because it's the browser that feels the most Mac-like, has ClickToFlash and 1Password, has great H.264 video performance, has a great interface, continues to support the newest web standards, never crashes, and is already familiar to me. As long as it isn't horrendously slower than other browsers, JS performance just isn't a concern to me--it has little real effect on my day to day browsing compared to everything I just listed.
The reason why I did this was because Apple is touting Safari 5 as being "The Worlds Fastest Browser" and specifically said "Powered by the Nitro JavaScript engine, Safari 5 on the Mac runs JavaScript up to 30 percent faster than Safari 4, 3 percent faster than Chrome 5.0,"
Smartphones yes (though many smartphone users don't have much choice as to browser, or at least rendering engine), but netbooks are an arguable case.
I was referring more to people making their desktop browser choices based on benchmarks which have minimal, if any, effect on their day-to-day browsing. It seems like after every new browser release we get bombarded with "X desktop browser runs the SunSpider test faster than Y!" headlines, as if it's something that actually impacts people's browser choices.
One thing nobody ever mentions, but I always notice is how much more CPU power Chrome takes on my macbook. It's a few years old and anything remotely CPU intensive causes my fan to go nuts. I actually like Chrome better (I like the interface, and it's faster) but I stay with Safari because it doesn't hog my CPU...
Personally, I use 4 different browsers at once when I'm on my Mac. Aside from the interfaces, I can't tell much of a difference between any of them. Sadly, I must admit that Firefox on the Mac is a bit lacking in polish.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 57.9 ms ] threadHaving said that - I'm using Chrome 6 on my Mac - it _feels_ faster then Safari 5.
For example, watch the video at http://videojs.com/ in full screen on Chrome and Safari. Last time I checked it looked way better in Safari. That said, Chrome team moves fast and maybe they will have it fixed soon.
If you're interested in progress you can track the issue here: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=38969
Firefox's plan: http://www.basschouten.com/blog1.php/2010/01/18/layers-cross...
IE's plan: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/04/09/benefits-of-gp...
Opera hasn't publicly announced hardware-accelerated graphics yet, but they are moving to a new codebase that could support it in theory: http://my.opera.com/core/blog/2009/02/04/vega
Chrome actually seems like the least far along right now, which seems odd given their focus on performance. Some of the work was done for them by Apple in WebKit, but there's still a lot to be done.
IIRC Google Chrome use Google Skia to reader webpage and graphics, which is based on OpenGL.
I assume OpenGL is automatically hw accelerated?
Chrome updates far more frequently than Safari, is it any surprise it's ahead slightly?
I think the process is per-domain, not per-tab.
I choose to use Safari because it's the browser that feels the most Mac-like, has ClickToFlash and 1Password, has great H.264 video performance, has a great interface, continues to support the newest web standards, never crashes, and is already familiar to me. As long as it isn't horrendously slower than other browsers, JS performance just isn't a concern to me--it has little real effect on my day to day browsing compared to everything I just listed.
http://www.apple.com/safari/whats-new.html#performance
I missed the fact that you were actually referencing a claim made by Apple--sorry for jumping to conclusions!
I was referring more to people making their desktop browser choices based on benchmarks which have minimal, if any, effect on their day-to-day browsing. It seems like after every new browser release we get bombarded with "X desktop browser runs the SunSpider test faster than Y!" headlines, as if it's something that actually impacts people's browser choices.