Google Chrome Beta Is 34% Faster Than Safari

Leander Kahney ()

chrome4.0

Google Chrome 4.0 Beta  is the fastest webrowser on the planet, CNet claims.

In benchmark tests, the new Chrome beta smoked Safari, rendering JavaScript 34% percent faster.

“It completed the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark in just 657ms. Only 4 per cent faster than its PC brother, sure, but 34 per cent faster than Safari 4.0.3, which scored 886ms on the same 2.0GHz Intel MacBook.”

In the same test, Firefox version 3.5.2 on OS X scored 1,508ms and Opera 10 beta 3 scored 5,958ms, CNet says.

JavaScript rendering is important because developers are using it more and more to add bells and whistles to websites. CNet cautions though that the software is alpha, and will be retested against Safari when the final version ships in several months.

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And while speed is important, the browser is nowhere ready for public consumption. “Chrome for Mac is still riddled with bugs,” says CNet. “Big ones, like those spiders in Eight Legged Freaks, only even more hellacious.”

11 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in News, Software |

  • Gazoobee

    I don’t actually believe this, but even if true Chrome is open source.

    The improvements they make will be integrated into Safari within a week of it’s release no matter what they do, so who really cares?

  • mick129

    How does Chrome get all the way to 4.0 before leaving beta?

  • http://www.cnet.com Greg Penhaligon

    I’ve been running the beta version on my MacBook and it’s been surprisingly stable, more so than I thought it’d be. Can’t wait for a final release.

    And I know it’s confusing but it’s actually “CNET”, not “CNet” :-)

  • keegan

    hahahahahahahahahahaha
    I’ll stick to Safari thank you very much

  • http://www.twitter.com/jazzyl jazzyl

    i use both firefox and Chrome i think Chrome is really faster and its only on beta version.

  • OEB

    I dunno how its that much faster. I just did the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark on Safari 4.0.2 in 724ms. That just 10% slower than chromes 657ms. However, I was playing CoD4 while doing it… Consequently, I think Safari is just fine thank you very much. kkthnxbai

  • http://www.publicspace.net/ Frank Reiff

    Let’s wait how it performs under Snow Leopard. I’m not sure but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t take advantage of “Grand Central” and we’ve already been told that there are Snow Leopard-only features in Safari 4 (such as crash protection for individual web pages).

    Plus.. since when do you “render” JavaScript?

  • Peruchito

    i love the Pokeball

  • Justin

    Chrome ftw.
    I just hope it will be as customizable as FF.

  • Chris Johnston

    The icon you are showing is for Chromium, which is different than the Google Chrome beta for Mac. I have both running on my Macbook Pro. They both are faster than Safari but they are not the same thing.

  • http://enquiringmimes.com Dan Perlman

    Doesn’t seem like there are really that many bugs and it is very fast. I use it full-time on Mac, Windows and Linux.