Internet explorer 8 versus chrome

[husky]

I read many articles explaining to me how chrome is so much faster than ie8....Claims of up to eight times faster and everything.

However, after installing chrome...nothing impressive. Everything runs at the same speed. Curious, I installed firefox, opera, safari and they all seem to run at the same speed...In fact, ie8 seemed to run faster at some pages.

Are the claims of chrome being so fast or ie being so slow overrated? (I have also tried the ie9 preview and liked it, though I cannot feel any speed difference...)

 

[CarlTR6]

Speed is dependent on a lot of factors, eg. the speed of your system, the speed of your internet connection, the complexity and graphic intensity of a website, browser addons, etc. Those ratings you read are taken in labs with everything optimum and have little in common with the every day machines and conditions. Read those as potential speeds under the ideal circumstances.

As for real world, I can definitely see and measure a difference in IE8 vs Firefox. I cannot tell much difference at all in FF vs. Chrome vs. Opera. The initial loading of FF is slow; but after that, I don't see much difference in page rendering speeds.

 

[nate42nd]

YouTube - Benchmark your browser - how fast is it?

Check this out. With new web tech starting to saturate websites Chrome is WAY faster. Chrome saves me hours a week at work where I have to use apps which run 5-10X faster on Chrome compared to IE.

 

[rct0725]

I'm writing this on Opera, but I have IE8, FF and Chrome also installed. It "seems" Opera runs the fastest, and that includes the new Chrome build with Flash.

Still, IE8 64-bit runs pretty fast on my 64-bit Win7, BUT I don't use it very much because of the absolutely maddening lack of Flash support. Adobe lost me with its reader and I cannot wait to ditch it completely because of Flash. But then again that's a rant for another topic...

 

[Firestrider]

With sites heavy in graphics (SVG, canvas) and client-based scripts Chrome is a lot faster than IE8. I can see a huge difference on my school's site which uses a bunch of JavaScript, for example.

Speed of a page load also depends on your network connection. If downloading HTML, CSS, JS, and content (images, fonts, etc) files to your machine is the dominant factor in the overall time to display a webpage, then the speed of the browser is less significant. I remember when I had a 1 mbps internet connection I could not see the difference in speed between IE8 and Chrome. Now that I have a 30 mbps connection I can definitely see the speed advantage of Chrome

With sites that use server-based technology like PHP, ASP.Net, CFM, JSP, etc (which a lot of sites seem to be doing now) there won't be much of a difference in speed.

Try playing non-Flash browser-based games like freeciv.net and lord of ultima with IE8. It's either going to not render properly or choke.

 

[husky]

I use internet explorer 8 with simple ie adblock and everything runs perfectly, without any stutter or lag. I have a 25 mbps connection and I don't see what the hype about chrome is. All websites load in less than a second.

On the other hand, Chrome doesn't have a good adblock addon, based on the technical limitations of the program.

I even tried the chrome frame and see absolutely no difference....

On google.com, when I load it with ie 8, the site loads actually faster..I think this is because ie 8 will show you what it is loading while it is loading...Like it will first show you half the page then, finishes loading the entire page....Chrome, on the other hand, won't show you the page until the entire page is loaded...But that's just for chrome.

Also, chrome doesn't have an addon manager. For example, there is no way to disable adobe flash easily. There is no options that allow you to enable or disable them. You do have one for extensions though.
Does anyone know a specific website which can prove that chrome is faster?

 

[Firestrider]

Compare the difference in web applications like GMail, Google Docs (especially the drawing application), and Google Wave. http://Ares.palm.com and http://bespin.mozillalabs.com are web-based IDEs for development and are good indicators of browser speed. The best demonstration of browser speed are games though... Freeciv.net - online multiplayer strategy game and Home - Lord of Ultima are good examples.

Try out www.chromeexperiments.com too.

Chrome does have a plugin manager. Does type "about: plugins" (without the space) in the URL box and you can disable each plugin individually if you want.

 

[MWRed]

I've used both, and anytime I hear anything about "this browser is faster than that one" it's always based on controlled tests, not real world use. Sure, Chrome might be fast, but if you're talking in milliseconds....does it really matter? And based on your PC, it can be different for everyone. If you can't notice a difference just by "using" it, then what's the point?

I don't use either anymore, although IE8 always seemed pretty decent considering what it is. Chrome, basically stripped down, clean install, is going to be faster just because of simplicity and nothing getting in the way. I use Opera, I've used almost everything at some point, and the only slowness that I ever find noticeable is cold startup speed. After that, none of it matters.

I don't care about browser tests. They're no different than the PC benchmark tests. Sure, it looks good, but in real use, it really makes no difference.

I've used FF for years before switching to Opera. Now FF is just my backup browser for stubborn sites. But with FF being so bloated, I'm actually tempted to start using IE8 instead.

 

[noel55]

i agree with the above totally

 

[Product FRED]

In terms of speed right now, in order:

1. Opera
2. Chrome
3. Firefox
4. Internet Explorer 8

If you're comparing Internet Explorer 8 vs Chrome, the clear choice is Chrome. Its addons are more plentiful and varied, easier to create, and page loading and rendering is much faster. Firefox vs Chrome is more about UI preference, although Chrome uses a lot less memory than Firefox over long browsing sessions. Chrome's tabs, plugins, and extensions are also run as separate processes, so if something crashes, it's isolated and doesn't bring down the whole browser. I've been using Chrome for over a year now, and I used to be a longtime Firefox fan.

 

[Krispy1]

chromes browsing speed is all hype. but the startup speed is the best for any browser no doubt

 

[Snowdog]

I have pointed this out multiple times.

Browser render speed is almost irrelevant in the real world.

Say it takes 300 milliseconds to load a page.
IE takes 30 milliseconds to render it.
Chrome takes 3 milliseconds to render it. (10x faster)

Now Chrome is 10X faster at rendering. 1000% !

But total page time is:
IE: 330 ms
Chrome: 303 ms

The actual total page time difference is under 10%. Not really withing human detection range.

Use the browser you like the best. I have tried most.

I use:
Firefox as Main browser: Most configurable, most plugins, best plugins.
Chrome as backup: Getting better all the time, but not quite ready for my #1 slot.

Installed but not used:
IE if something doesn't work on the above, which is nothing, so I never use it... supports fewest standards, fewest add ons, Microsoft does update often.

Uninstalled:
Opera: I used it for many years before switching to Firefox, Most recently tried 10.51, but too many quirky behaviors and poor setting import capability.

 

[apple2005]

You people are talking when you are having very high dsl connections....for which there may not be any difference BUT if you have very slow dial up connection then you will understand the difference. For very slow dial up connections, OPERA is the best.. I used it and I found that no other browser could open a page except Opera.

I have been using Firefox since long time but now I think Chrome is superseding....I never use IE....why to use it when we have more sophisticated browsers?

 

[Product FRED]

You people are talking when you are having very high dsl connections....for which there may not be any difference BUT if you have very slow dial up connection then you will understand the difference. For very slow dial up connections, OPERA is the best.. I used it and I found that no other browser could open a page except Opera.

I have been using Firefox since long time but now I think Chrome is superseding....I never use IE....why to use it when we have more sophisticated browsers?

Yeah, because it has Turbo (Compression) technology that relies on their servers to compress a webpage for you. But the thread title is about IE8 vs Chrome.

 

[PeteC]

I am not "anti" Chrome, FireFox, Opera, IE, or anything...IMHO, whatever makes 'ya happy! I am not a fan-boy of anyone's product. (hell, they don't pay me, after all!)

However, I simply am not impressed with Chrome. I tried it, it ran ok, not noticeably faster than IE, but then I do not give a crap about "benchmarks". I simply use the internet daily for a multitude of tasks, want to successfully acces that which I utilize, and have a set-up that I am comfortable with.

Now, I may be more comfortable with IE for the simple reason that I have spent the most time with it, so that is hardly a scientific analysis. On the other hand, I can say without hesitation, for what I use a browser for, Chrome gives me no discernable speed enhancement, and to me, has a more awkward layout in general...so I stay with IE. I understand that Chrome probably is faster in a number of ways, but if I can not "feel" the difference, and I can not, then those speed advantages really are meaningless to me.