The tests were running with extra extensions disabled, no other software running, no other browser tabs open, and with a fresh restart of the browser beforehand. For another perspective, I also tested on a 2009 Dell Studio XPS running Windows 8.1, where I could throw Microsoft's Internet Explorer into the mix but where Safari isn't available. I performed my tests with the latest stable versions of the browsers on a 2012 MacBook Pro Retina-display model. That shows that Safari's new FTL JavaScript engine seems to be doing the job. So it's no surprise browser makers have been locked in a speed race for years.Įven though it wasn't a clean sweep for Apple's browser, Safari 8 showed significant improvements over Safari 7, including an 81 percent better score on JetStream, 89 percent improvement on Speedometer, and 35 percent jump on Octane. On Apple's JetStream test of browser JavaScript performance, Safari 8 soared past Safari 7 and its three biggest browser rivals for a top score.įaster browsers are important for another reason, too: They let Web developers make more sophisticated sites and apps, giving new power to tools like Google Docs and games like Cut the Rope. Mixed results on benchmarks are nothing new: it's impossible to create a synthetic test that predicts how well a system will do with the vast variety of real-world computing challenges.īut browser makers have picked these tests to guide their development, and high scores generally mean browsers will be faster when you're posting to Facebook, searching at Bing, buying at Amazon or typing at Google Docs. But on two other tests, Google's Octane and Mozilla's Kraken, Safari lagged. On a third test, called JSBench - the one Apple chose to highlight last week as it announced the release of Yosemite - Safari far outpaced those rivals. On two new speed tests Apple introduced this year called JetStream and Speedometer, Safari vaulted over Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, and Opera Software's Opera. With its new Safari 8 browser built into its OS X 10.10 Yosemite operating system, Apple delivered on its promise for a significant boost in browser performance. For browsers including Apple's Safari, speed is key.

Fastest mac web browsers