IE is faster than Firefox

[KenAF2]

If you are using Firefox, make sure you are using the latest version optimized for your platform. The "official" version of FireFox is up to 20% slower than the A64/P4 and P3/AthlonXP versions. Folks at IBM (which produces the POWER5/POWERPC) and SUN working on the Firefox project have worked to remove the SSE and SSE2 optimizations from the official builds.

The latest optimized versions can be found here.

Latest SSE2 version of Firefox v0.9.3 for Athlon64 / P4 (August 19)

Latest SSE version of Firefox v0.9.3 for AthlonXP / P3 (August 11)

Here are benchmarks comparing the optimized versions of Firefox 0.9.3 to the official Firefox 0.9.3 release and nightly builds.

[KenAF2]

The discussion thread for the optimized builds is right here.

[Samoa]

my experience with Both, IE is faster and better. :D

[sMiK]

I think mozilla and opera are much more faster than IE. But netscape is too slow, will never use that :cool:

[morebaker]

firefox is faster and less clutterd :whistle:

[dreamthief]

I think mozilla and opera are much more faster than IE. But netscape is too slow, will never use that :cool:

now here's a bias opinion.

You do know Netscape is actually using mozilla under the hood? Netscape is just a rebranded version of Mozilla. How can netscape be slower?

[insanekiwi]

im on dialup andi must admit IE's rendering sucks bigtime. firefox loads sites much faster for me.

[wrex]

According to this test, IE came in faster than Firefox... but I couldn't care less.

No way known I'm going back to IE ever again, other than for testing websites I build.

[sMiK]

dreamthief it can because i've tested using it for a few days. 1: it starts up too long. 2: opens pages TOO slow. 3: it's size is about 30 MB. Nothing good here

[Catharsis]

Just felt like saying that if anyone thinks IE is faster, they obviously haven't tweaked the network.http setting in Firefox yet. Type about:config in the address bar and boost the numbers of the items listed under network.http.

[vincent]

Just felt like saying that if anyone thinks IE is faster, they obviously haven't tweaked the network.http setting in Firefox yet.  Type about:config in the address bar and boost the numbers of the items listed under network.http.

585034424[/snapback]

great way to your first post bringing up a played out flamewar topic on this site

welcome to neowin? :dontgetit:

[Slimy]

ie

Throughput (2)

47221 Bps

bytes per second

Throughput

378 kbps

kilobits per second

I use ie because it is faster, that is the main reason

this is tested with a couple of ie windows open

[Elliott]

Well, on my system (12" PowerBook 1.33GHz) Firefox beats IE, but Safari rapes both of them, big time.

[Erftek]

Well, on my system (12" PowerBook 1.33GHz) Firefox beats IE, but Safari rapes both of them, big time.

585039714[/snapback]

I totally agree. But really people, how many freakin' times are we gonna have posts on this topic....yawn :sleep:

[fatgirl319]

Mine was

Firefox:

Throughput (2)

77583 Bps

bytes per second

Internet explorer:

Throughput (2)

45662

bytes per second

[blowMeNeo]

I tested my browser the old fashion way, with a stop watch. Put the exact same bookmarks in each browsers bookmark toolbars, I have 10 in mine, click through each one once so that they are in the cache and then click through them again with the stopwatch running. If this were a drag race, Firefox wins by 2 car lengths. Plus, for those who argue that they think their IE is faster, do a security test. There is no contest in that caregory, Firefox wins hands down!

[blowMeNeo]

The new Netscape is based on Firefox. The old Netscape is Mozilla. There is a major difference. The Mozilla browser is slower than Firefox. This might be the reason for it being slower. And even though the new Netscape is Firefox, it comes with standard features that weigh it down and make it slower.

[Julius Caro]

May I ask what does the test actually measure?

I don't really believe the results. On the same computer, the same thing should give similar results, no matter what browser you're using. Firefox and Opera give almost exactly the same result. So I belive this results, and not IE result. (evul!).

I may believe this if someone explains me what is this test for.

Because I'm tired of doing all those test-your-browser speeds servers. Because it's pretty obvious they're always wrong! Depending on the test you do, opera will get the best results, Firefox will rape other browsers, or IE would simply be superior.

[EduardValencia]

IE is faster on my PC according to this test :blink:

[Danrarbc]

Because I'm tired of doing all those test-your-browser speeds servers. Because it's pretty obvious they're always wrong! Depending on the test you do, opera will get the best results, Firefox will rape other browsers, or IE would simply be superior.

585040154[/snapback]

Very true, fanboys code half of these to make a browser look bad. The other half code to make one look good :p

A stopwatch and a set of bookmarks for pages you regularly view is still the best way to see what's faster for you. You are benchmarking the sites you visit, and not some arbitrary set of data that really has nothing to do with the way you surf the internet.

[blowMeNeo]

I kinda left you all in the dark when I posted the stop watch test. I own a computer repair center. I load Firefox on my customers machines and make adjustments to their IE (with their permission of course) to get it as close to Firefox's speed as I can. Even after the adjustments, IE is still a tad slower, but comparable to Firefox. The main issue that I always present to my customers is, yes Firefox and IE are comparable in speed, but you won't have to come see me as often if you use Firefox simply because Firefox is safer to use. In time, that may change, but for now you can use Firefox because it is as fast, if not faster, than IE plus it is alot safer. I'll use a car comparison again. If you go out and test a couple of new cars with the same features, but one car has the five star government crash test rating and the other only has a 2, which car are you gonna buy? There is no contest, you pick the safer car with the five star rating. Yeah, I like Firefox, but if you insist on IE, use a safer browser that uses the IE engine (Like MyIE for example). IE is an old clunker that hasn't had any MAJOR changes in years. I've been told that when Longhorn comes out that IE will get the major overhaul that it needs and I hope it does. The moral of this whole browser war is this, you have IE fans and you have Firefox fans, if you like IE, it will always be better in your mind and if you like Firefox, it is the better browser. It is a personal preference thing. So, there isn't any reason to take up anymore space discussing this on Neowin. I'm done using Neo's space discussing this and I think you all should consider the same.

[+thexfile Subscriber²]

IE is faster because it takes less processing.

Load Firefox on a 166 and you will see the truth. :laugh:

[Sandor]

IE : 280 kbps

Avant : 284 kbps

FF : 213 kbps

Opera : 208 kbps

the reason i fired in avant is because im told its based off IE. they are similar as expected. and like every other speedtest ive run for the browsers, IE is far ahead with FF and opera quite close to each other.

i'll stick with IE, its my fav anyway.

[naap51stang]

Browsers (to the technically inclined) are starting to become the "my car is better than your car" catigory.

I personally use FF, not because it is faster or better than IE, but because I can customize it the way I want to. I have the ability to add functionality as I see fit,

not how some programmer wants it to work.

:alien:

[planetik]

Firefox: 536 kbps

IE: 676 kbps

Weird...

Anyway, that test is fun to look at! :p