Safari to receive large speed boost in upcoming build
updated 02:30 pm EST, Sat February 9, 2008
Safari speed boost
Apple's Safari web browser is about to get a large speed boost, if the current development version is giving an accurate depiction of what users can expect in the finished browser. Seth Weintraub, a writer for Computerworld's Apple blog, has been testing WebKit – Apple's developer version of the KHTML-based browser – and says that performance typically peaks at 2.5 times that of Safari, even in its currently unoptimized state.
Weintraub ran tests from Webkit.org, a site with many Javascript test pages, as well as doing a side-by-side comparison of overall download speeds. On the Sunspider test, he started Safari on the test, and about 20 seconds later, did the same for WebKit. Despite the early start in favour of Safari, WebKit was able to churn through the task and finish a minute earlier than the established browser.
The performance boost only comes at a cost of increased CPU usage, which Weintraub says is no more than one or two percent.
are these the nightlies?
02/09, 08:21pm reply
or is there something besides those?
jpellino
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 1999
Is that methodology good?
02/09, 09:17pm reply
If he's running both apps simultaneously and comparing performance, how sure are we that the OS multitasking is 100% even?
I'd rather see 3-5 (or 10) runs of each test, followed by an average with error bars.
That said, the daily builds are faster.
MCroft
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2002
what's faster?
02/09, 10:53pm reply
It sounds like the improvements are in javascript execution (probably due to enhancements made to get it to work at acceptable speeds on the iPhone and iPodTouch).
Is the rendering faster as well?
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Great
02/10, 12:33am reply
Sounds like there doing more optimizing for the Intel hard-wired technology.
syzygi
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2008
all versions of safari?
02/10, 11:59am reply
or just those who have the latest OS? I'm still on 10.4.11...
dpicardi
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2006
RE: all versions...?
02/10, 01:28pm reply
Might be for 10.4.11 users as well, but knowing Apple's trend, might just be 10.5. Time will tell!
64stang06
Mac Elite
Joined: Aug 2007
Stability Over Speed...
02/10, 05:20pm reply
I would happily trade the speed increase for greater Safari stability... Ever since the release of Safari 3.0 I have been experiencing Safari crashes. I removed the plugins and haxies that played nicely with Safari 2 but not Safari 3 and yet the problem persists, albeit less frequently than before.
Mojo
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2000
Duh
02/11, 09:57am reply
The performance boost only comes at a cost of increased CPU usage, which Weintraub says is no more than one or two percent. ----
Um, if I'm web browsing, why doesn't it just use ALL of my processor speed available? Seems odd to leave power on the table.
bjojade
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2007