IE9 Preview 3 vs. Firefox 4.0 pre-Beta vs. Chrome 5.0 – Hardware

[JMH]

IE9 Preview 3 vs. Firefox 4.0 pre-Beta vs. Chrome 5.0 – Hardware

Some of the most recent releases of Firefox and Chrome are no match for Internet Explorer 9 when it comes down to the performance delivered because of hardware acceleration capabilities. Back in June 2010, Microsoft threw Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 2 in the hardware acceleration arena against a set of rival browsers, and the next generation of IE wiped the floor with products traditionally perceived by the public as delivering superior speed. It’s now the turn of IE9 Platform Preview 3 Build 1.9.7.8.74.6000 to leave browsers like Firefox 4.0 pre-Beta 1 and Chrome 5.0 Stable in the dust.

While for the first set of hardware acceleration tests, Microsoft used the Flickr Explorer sample on the IE Test Center website, for the latest browser measuring content, the company leveraged the Amazon Shelf concept application which was released concomitantly with the third IE9 Platform Preview.

“Much like Flickr Explorer, Amazon Shelf is written using standard HTML, CSS and Javascript. Amazon Shelf also incorporates a key new HTML5 feature – the canvas element. Canvas is an incredibly powerful way to draw directly to the screen using simple Javascript API calls,” explained Seth McLaughlin, Program Manager for IE Performance. “When you launch Amazon Shelf, you’re shown a list of the top selling books from Amazon. This data is retrieved using the Amazon Product Advertising API. You can search for specific books, browse, and “open” books to view detailed information and customer reviews.”

More -
IE9 Preview 3 vs. Firefox 4.0 pre-Beta vs. Chrome 5.0 – Hardware Acceleration - With a focus on the HTML5 Canvas element - Softpedia

 

[Colonel Travis]

Back in June 2010, Microsoft threw Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 2 in the hardware acceleration arena against a set of rival browsers...

Back in June 2010? That was last week.
Never thought I'd ever say this but I can't wait for IE9.

 

[Wii Master 64]

When hardware acceleration is enabled in Firefox 4, it flies. I've tried it, and it's awesome!

 

[seekermeister]

When hardware acceleration is enabled in Firefox 4, it flies. I've tried it, and it's awesome!

How do you enable hardware acceleration in Firefox?

 

[BCXtreme]

When hardware acceleration is enabled in Firefox 4, it flies. I've tried it, and it's awesome!

How do you enable hardware acceleration in Firefox?

Yeah, I'd love to know this as well!

 

[cloud8521]

When hardware acceleration is enabled in Firefox 4, it flies. I've tried it, and it's awesome!

where?~!

 

[seekermeister]

I did a bit of Googling, and Firefox 4 is a beta, which I'm not prone to install. The Google returns were a mixed bag, but it appears that hardware acceleration is not included in Firefox 4:

Mozilla adds hardware acceleration to Firefox 3.7 « Icrontic Tech

http://www.conceivablytech.com/1487...ll-not-include-default-hardware-acceleration/

 

[AlexRD]

I did a bit of Googling, and Firefox 4 is a beta, which I'm not prone to install. The Google returns were a mixed bag, but it appears that hardware acceleration is not included in Firefox 4:

Mozilla adds hardware acceleration to Firefox 3.7 « Icrontic Tech

Firefox 4 Beta Will Not Include Default Hardware Acceleration | ConceivablyTech

Is there addon support for Firefox 4.0?
Can i get my theme there?

 

[Colonel Travis]

Enable hardware acceleration in FF4

 

[Bootz]

If fire fox 4 flies with hardware acceleration, how would you describe the performance of IE9!

 

[seekermeister]

I guess that I will have to wait, because it won't work on my old video cards. I wonder if IE9 would also require a 9x or better card?

 

[BCXtreme]

OK, I tried enabling hardware acceleration, but it seriously degraded the quality (especially anti-aliasing) of the Firefox window. Also, it didn't play very nice with the FRAPS framerate counter.

 

[fseal]

Yeah lets see a test of FF with HW acceleration on against IE9 already :/

I dislike FF and it's CONSTANT litany of bugs I have to deal with every day, every version whereas IE seems to nearly always "just work". But comparing current "default settings" in beta browsers which will likely NOT represent the default settings upon release is meaningless. Test HW rendering against HW rendering and SW rendering against SW rendering. Still a bit meaningless at this early stage of betas but at least not completely useless like that article

 

[BCXtreme]

Yeah lets see a test of FF with HW acceleration on against IE9 already :/

I dislike FF and it's CONSTANT litany of bugs I have to deal with every day, every version whereas IE seems to nearly always "just work". But comparing current "default settings" in beta browsers which will likely NOT represent the default settings upon release is meaningless. Test HW rendering against HW rendering and SW rendering against SW rendering. Still a bit meaningless at this early stage of betas but at least not completely useless like that article

I don't know what it is, but I've never had a single bug with Firefox, at least not with the public releases...

 

[fseal]

One immediate example, editing posts on this very site in the quick reply menu randomly hides the cursor when you mouse click around to edit typos. Not all lthe time. but it gets into that "mode" occasionally, it's amazingly hard to edit text without a cursor

But I really just meant that even though my preference is heavily for IE and am looking forward to IE9, it pains me to see such utterly slanted articles about it

 

[Wii Master 64]

OK, I tried enabling hardware acceleration, but it seriously degraded the quality (especially anti-aliasing) of the Firefox window. Also, it didn't play very nice with the FRAPS framerate counter.

Yeah, the quality is the only problem I have really; some person in the comments on that articles listed a patch, but I don't know how to enable it. If you want the link to it, here it is:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=548072

 

[jimbo45]

Hi guys

the problem with this type of stuff is that a lot of Internet performance problems are totally outside the users (or their browsers) control.

If I've got a slow connection it won't really matter how efficient my browser is.

Similarly even if I have a FAST connection but the site I'm connecting to has a problem od bandwidth etc then no browser will fix that problem either.

However better security -- especially for "drive by" type problems would be a much better "sell point" IMO.

I think IE9 will be a success because of its integration with Windows -- for alternative Windows browsers the days of Opera and Firefox have really passed their peak -- there really isn't that much point in using these any more -- although for Non Windows systems there is still a convincing case.

Competition is good but as far as alternative browsers are concerned -- IE9 will have it -- the whole explorer integration is so tightly bound into the Windows kernel that in this instance I'd let MS have it --it really is an integral part of the OS these days.

The competion is still out there but not really for too much longer -- who remembers Netscape or Lotus 1-2-3 evn though at the time of release they were excellent products.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[win7clutz]

Acid3 Test

Not taking a position as I'm not very familiar with browser test, but I have just download the FF4.0b2 beta with hardware acceleration.

Ran the Acid3 test with this result: Left is FF, Right is what the Acid3 site showed as the same test of IE9...

 

[Colonel Travis]

who remembers Netscape or Lotus 1-2-3 evn though at the time of release they were excellent products.

Cheers
jimbo

haha - Lotus 123. I was too much into One-on-One Dr. J Vs. Larry Bird but remember Lotus being a giant way back when.

 

[fseal]

Each release of IE 9 has been moving higher and higher on the acid 3 test. We don't know where it will land on release. Over the last three releases it's gone from like 35 to 85 so it's looking pretty good.