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Google Sputnik Test – Opera 10.6 vs. Firefox 3.6.6 vs. Google Chrome 5.0.375.86 on Ubuntu


I was free, so just decided to see how browsers compare on Google’s sputnik test. Its a test about javascript conformance. Well, here’s the introduction from site:

Sputnik is a JavaScript conformance test suite containing over 5000 tests. It tests how well a JavaScript implementation adheres to the ECMA-262 specification version 5, looking only at those features that were also present in the previous version, version 3, and not the new features added in version 5.

So, in essence its a test which checks how complete a browser’s javascript engine is and how well does it complies to standards.

I decided to test:
Mozilla Firefox 3.6.6
Google Chrome 5.0.375.86 and
Opera 10.60

All the browsers used for test were clean installs on Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat Alpha.

Mozilla Firefox 3.6.6:

Firefox 3.6.6 Sputnik Test

Firefox 3.6.6 Sputnik Test


There were 5246 total tests. Firefox failed in 262 of them. Firefox used 80-95% CPU the whole time with sometimes dropping to as low as 20% for few seconds. Memory usage was 190mb to 220mb.
It even gave a prompt to stop the script because it was memory intensive. This was a good thing. Here’s a screenshot:
Stop unresponsive script prompt on Firefox

Once the tests were over, memory usage dropped to 48mb indicating that the memory was released.

Google Chrome 5.0.375.86

Sputnik Test on Google Chrome 5.0.375.86

Sputnik Test on Google Chrome 5.0.375.86


Google Chrome 5.0.375.86 failed in 222 of them (Yes, 3 times would’ve made it devil’s number :P ). Chrome used 70-85% CPU and used around 220-240mb memory. The memory was freed once the test was over. However, failing in 222 on a test made by its own company is kinda shameful. This also however proves that Google is impartial.

Opera 10.60

Sputnik test on Opera 10.60 on Ubuntu

Sputnik test on Opera 10.60 on Ubuntu


Opera 10.60 had quite astonishing results. It failed on only 78 tests. That was a big margin win from other two. Opera is really doing some work on its engine.
Just like the other two, it used 80-90% of CPU during testing and consumed around 200-220mb memory. However, it didn’t seem to release the memory once the test was complete. Even after closing that tab, memory used still showed 205mb. Now that could really become one big negative point. Maybe its just on linux (windows user please comment). But they must really sort out this issue.

Conclusion

With such a huge margin, Opera is clearly the winner. I am starting to think ‘Was this even needed?’

Its become customary now – cheers!

Category: Reviews, Ubuntu (Linux)

Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

  • ac

    Opera’s turbocache uses up to 15% of the available system memory by default, meaning that everything you browse (including the content of the closed tabs) stays in memory and starts to get dropped only when that limit is reached.

    Of course you can change this behavior in opera:confog, make a quick search in the opera forums for more info.

  • ac

    Opera’s turbocache uses up to 15% of the available system memory by default, meaning that everything you browse (including the content of the closed tabs) stays in memory and starts to get dropped only when that limit is reached.

    Of course you can change this behavior in opera:confog, make a quick search in the opera forums for more info.

  • http://www.techmindz.com Deepak Mittal

    I did search in the opera forums and saw all the users complaining about the same thing. Though all complains were for v10.53. Even though, I tried optimizing the config but still the same. Its sitting there with 1 blank tab using 235mb memory.

  • http://www.techmindz.com Deepak Mittal

    I did search in the opera forums and saw all the users complaining about the same thing. Though all complains were for v10.53. Even though, I tried optimizing the config but still the same. Its sitting there with 1 blank tab using 235mb memory.

  • http://giulivo.blogspot.com giulivo

    IMHO there’s more to say and it is that while firefox and chrome are distributed under the terms of a free licence, opera isn’t

  • http://giulivo.blogspot.com giulivo

    IMHO there’s more to say and it is that while firefox and chrome are distributed under the terms of a free licence, opera isn’t

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/2ZJNVBSQJGXD26JLR3FUARYMMA Joseph

    Opera simply never gives back any memory it grabs, EVER. You can open up tabs ’til it’s using 1GB of memory, close all the tabs, and just about nothing will be released, even after 10 minutes and emptying the closed tab trash bin. It’s been like this for ages and Opera refuses to even acknowledge the problem. There’s something really wrong with it and mods love to close threads about it over on their forums. I’m thinking about switching browsers now because of it.

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