Firefox 15 Takes On Rivals In Performance Tests: In Pictures

Mozilla released Firefox 15 last week, but how does the latest version of the browser compare to its rivals in terms of speed and performance?

Google Chrome remains the fastest browser on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, but its competitors are catching up. Apple’s Safari 6.0 remains Chrome’s closest challenger and it almost achieved the same results thanks to its improved JavaScript performance. The new version of Firefox remains in third place and Opera is a distant last.

The results of beta versions show that the balance of power is unlikely to change in the near future, with only slight improvements demonstrated in Safari 6.01.

Chrome also produces the best result on Windows 8, with Firefox 15 and Internet Explorer 10 doing little to upset the established order. The Mozilla browser is Google’s closest competitor on the operating system, while Safari’s poor results appear unlikely to improve as Apple has all but abandoned the competition after electing not to release Safari 6 on Windows.

The Google browser leads the way in terms of HTML5 compatibility. Of 500 possible points, Chrome earned 437, followed by Opera with 385, closely followed by Safari with 376 and Firefox 15 with 346. Chrome is also the best at managing resources as it uses the least amount of memory when performing complex JavaScript operations. FireFox uses the most RAM, but releases it once it is no longer needed.

You can see how well each browser did in other performance tests on both OSX Mountain Lion and Windows 8 by taking a look at our gallery above.

This article has been translated from tests by ZDNet.de (part of NetMediaEurope)

Are you a Firefox enthusiast? Try our quiz!