Internet Explorer 10 RTM Benchmarked

[Regenerati0n]

Since Windows 8 RTM is now available on MSDN and TechNet, we were able to benchmark IE10. Has IE gotten any faster? Read on to find out.

http://www.ngohq.com...enchmarked.html

[Shane Nokes]

The taskbar shortcut actually links to IE64, not IE32.

[Yorak]

Well...they made some progress. Still looks bad compared to Chrome and Firefox, though.

[Regenerati0n]

The taskbar shortcut actually links to IE64, not IE32.

Well, here on a clean installation, the taskbar shortcut links to IE32, Metro links to IE64.

[StevenJ]

I don't understand why Firefox memory usage is so low compared to the rest. Since the 0.x beta days they had a huge memory leak. However they never acknowledged it as a memory leak: they called it a 'feature' in that it saves the browsing sessions of closed tabs and previous pages.

They should test these browsers after they've been opened and fully used for a couple of hours (that is, tabs open, tabs closed, after watching youtube videos and other things) and should also test them after they've already opened flash or javascript items in some tabs.

My website, which uses a lot of CSS3 animation, chokes up on firefox so much it's ridiculous.

[Shane Nokes]

Well, here on a clean installation, the taskbar shortcut links to IE32, Metro links to IE64.

Ok, how are you verifying that it's liking to the 32-bit version? If you're using the 'tell-tale' jump-list it actually switched between 7 & 8. 64-bit now shows the jump-list and 32-bit does not.

I verified by going to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer and when I right click 'Unpin from Taskbar' is shown. When I go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer and right click 'Pin to Taskbar' is there.

That tells me 64-bit is default and 32-bit is not. Are you seeing different behavior?

[Ci7]

or just look in task manger

you would see (32 bit) next to the application name

[still1]

Lost faith in MS when they took 5 years to get IE7.

They though customers will use the web browser even if they do nothing??

[Shane Nokes]

or just look in task manger

you would see (32 bit) next to the application name

That also shows that it's the 64-bit version...since there's no 32-bit next to it. So double confirmed on my clean install that 64-bit is the default IE. So wondering why the OP is not having the same behavior.

[Mr. Gibs]

Lost faith in MS when they took 5 years to get IE7.

They though customers will use the web browser even if they do nothing??

Microsoft pretty much controlled the market when IE6 was released. And when a company controls a market they don't feel the need to release new products since there's no competition and hence no incentive to do so.

When Firefox and then Chrome started to become popular Microsoft took notice and released IE7, 8, 9 and now 10. If Chrome ever reaches the marketshare IE6 once had, Google will start doing the same thing Microsoft did simply because it saves them a ton of money. Though one can hope that they learnt from the mistake MS made and will keep improving their product.

[Ci7]

That also shows that it's the 64-bit version...since there's no 32-bit next to it. So double confirmed on my clean install that 64-bit is the default IE. So wondering why the OP is not having the same behavior.

he upgraded Vista/7 => 8 and the setting got carried over perhaps? my speculation

Microsoft pretty much controlled the market when IE6 was released. And when a company controls a market they don't feel the need to release new products since there's no competition and hence no incentive to do so.

When Firefox and then Chrome started to become popular Microsoft took notice and released IE7, 8, 9 and now 10. If Chrome ever reaches the marketshare IE6 once had, Google will start doing the same thing Microsoft did simply because it saves them a ton of money. Though one can hope that they learnt from the mistake MS made and will keep improving their product.

Google has more incetive to keep improving since they mainly internet company

unlikely

[Mr. Gibs]

Google has more incetive to keep improving since they mainly internet company

Google is mainly an ad company. Chrome is just another way to get people to use, and sign up for, Google services and therefore make Google money (default search is Google, syncs to GApps etc).

[adiaga]

the problem with IE is that it if even it would be better than most browsers now it will remain behind pretty fast as the others will bring updates much quicker than microsoft which releases a new IE version when a new OS comes out.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

That also shows that it's the 64-bit version...since there's no 32-bit next to it. So double confirmed on my clean install that 64-bit is the default IE. So wondering why the OP is not having the same behavior.

IE10 should always launch a 64-bit frame, and will default to 64-bit tabs. However, it can/will use 32-bit tabs for some things (depending on add-ins you have installed, intranet vs internet maybe, etc).

[Shane Nokes]

IE10 should always launch a 64-bit frame, and will default to 64-bit tabs. However, it can/will use 32-bit tabs for some things (depending on add-ins you have installed, intranet vs internet maybe, etc).

Yup, that's what I figured would be the case. That's why I'm wondering why the OP said that the desktop version defaults to 32-bit and that's what he has labelled in the benchmarks. It was a clean install according to them. I brought it up since if they are incorrect it would affect the legitimacy of the benchmark results.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

the problem with IE is that it if even it would be better than most browsers now it will remain behind pretty fast as the others will bring updates much quicker than microsoft which releases a new IE version when a new OS comes out.

Regarding that last bit, Windows 7 came with IE8 (both were released in 2009). IE9 came in between Windows 7 and 8, and now IE10 comes with Win8.

[still1]

Microsoft pretty much controlled the market when IE6 was released. And when a company controls a market they don't feel the need to release new products since there's no competition and hence no incentive to do so.

When Firefox and then Chrome started to become popular Microsoft took notice and released IE7, 8, 9 and now 10. If Chrome ever reaches the marketshare IE6 once had, Google will start doing the same thing Microsoft did simply because it saves them a ton of money. Though one can hope that they learnt from the mistake MS made and will keep improving their product.

Opera didnt seem to stop developing even with low market share... I was a hardcore IE user untill IE8 and then switched.. thanks to MS's laziness.

[Regenerati0n]

IE10 should always launch a 64-bit frame, and will default to 64-bit tabs. However, it can/will use 32-bit tabs for some things (depending on add-ins you have installed, intranet vs internet maybe, etc).

I just reinstalled Windows 8 on the test system just for you. Clean installation (not upgrade). Didn't install anything. Didn't change anything.

Desktop's IE10 uses 32-bit tabs.

Metro's IE10 uses 64-bit tabs.

It even appears in the user agent:

32-bit tab user agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; Trident/6.0)

64-bit tab user agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.2; Win64; x64; Trident/6.0)

See for yourself on http://www.whatismybrowser.com and http://whatsmyuseragent.com.

[Bamsebjørn]

Is Microsoft going to release IE10 for Windows 7? If not, can we still take them (Microsoft) seriously? Really, they break the internet with their different IE versions.

Internet Explorer is a tool to open websites on the internet. If you need a browser, download Firefox/Chrome/Opera.

[Mr. Gibs]

Opera didnt seem to stop developing even with low market share... I was a hardcore IE user untill IE8 and then switched.. thanks to MS's laziness.

Where did I say anything about low marketshare? I said high marketshare (or no competition) tends to lead to laziness. When IE6 was released there really wasn't any competition. Opera was around but it wasn't free, Firefox wasn't around till 2004, Netscape was as good as dead, Chrome didn't exist, and Safari was released in 2003 on OS X. So Microsoft had no incentive to further develop their browser because there wasn't any other product to compete with, and hence no reason for them to spend money developing it further.

Opera was also a paid app until version 10 so their incentive to develop came from their need for money. Nowadays the desktop browser may be free but they earn a good deal of money from licensing (Wii browser is powered by Opera, HTC used to use their browser as default etc).

[Shane Nokes]

I just reinstalled Windows 8 on the test system just for you. Clean installation (not upgrade). Didn't install anything. Didn't change anything.

Desktop's IE10 uses 32-bit tabs.

Metro's IE10 uses 64-bit tabs.

It even appears in the user agent:

32-bit tab user agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; Trident/6.0)

64-bit tab user agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows NT 6.2; Win64; x64; Trident/6.0)

See for yourself on http://www.whatismybrowser.com and http://whatsmyuseragent.com.

Something is wrong then...

Check the Task Manager. Is it showing 32-bit?

[Regenerati0n]

Something is wrong then...

Check the Task Manager. Is it showing 32-bit?

Nothing is wrong. In Windows 8 RTM 64-bit, Internet Explorer always shows up as iexplore.exe (without *32, unlike other software).

Go ahead and launch it from Program Files (x86) and see for yourself.

Also try this: launch IE from the taskbar and check out your user agent as I suggested before.

[torrentthief]

shame that 32bit IE10 is slower than the 64bit version :( Lets hope they hurry up with the windows 7 release of IE10. I want it already.

[Jojo81]

These benchmarks are pretty dumb though the real question is how does it perform on daily tasks the average user will do.

[George P Global Moderator]

These benchmarks are pretty dumb though the real question is how does it perform on daily tasks the average user will do.

I'm with you on this, daily usage and performance is what matters now who has the fastest JS engine which is down to a few ms' now, thus the only way you even notice the difference is if you slow down the website rendering to time laps levels, it's ridiculous at this point. I've been using IE9 as my main browser since the beta which Opera as my 2nd, other than the odd flash crash it really works good for me. IE10 in the Win8RP is faster, I can tell it loads websites like neowin faster than IE9, and for me that's all the difference I need to see.