New Firefox JavaScript engine is faster than Chrome's V8

[ViperAFK]

One of the most impressive features in Google's open source Chrome web browser is V8, a high-performance JavaScript virtual machine that was developed by a team of specialists in Denmark. Although Chrome's performance beats the current stable version of Firefox, benchmarks show that Mozilla's next-generation JavaScript engine actually outperforms V8.

Mozilla is using tracing optimization techniques and Adobe's open source nanojit to increase the execution speed of SpiderMonkey, the JavaScript runtime engine in the Firefox web browser. The new engine, which is called TraceMonkey, delivers unprecedented JavaScript performance. The new optimizations have already landed in the latest Firefox nightly builds (but still have to be manually enabled) and will likely be included in Firefox 3.1.

JavaScript creator and Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich ran the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks against Chrome and the latest TraceMonkey-enabled Firefox build, which includes some recent improvements. The benchmarks show that TraceMonkey is clearly faster than Google's V8. Mozilla believes that the optimization technique used in TraceMonkey has the potential to unlock even more performance improvements...

http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/...than-chromes-v8

Edited September 3, 2008 by ViperAFK

[Veedems Veteran]

It is, indeed, faster. My results:

• Firefox 09/01/2008 Gran Paradiso Nightly: 5100ms
  
• Firefox 09/02/2008 Minefield Nightly w/o Tracemonkey: 4500ms
  
• Firefox 09/03/2008 Minefield Nightly w/ Tracemonkey: 2100ms
  
• Google Chrome: 2800ms
  

I'm very impressed.

Edited September 3, 2008 by bangbang023

[Argi]

I'm left wondering if Opera will implement V8 as their Javascript engine or continue with their own.

[Harlem39s Finest]

cool, what's the release date for 3.1 ?

[wst50]

The java race is on... maybe? Google won't like v8 being trumped- will they improve it? They have enough codemonkeys, I'll bet.

[splicer707]

cool, what's the release date for 3.1 ?

I want to know too!

The java race is on... maybe? Google won't like v8 being trumped- will they improve it? They have enough codemonkeys, I'll bet.

So I wonder, will Microsoft enter this race with IE8?

ATM IE8 looks like a 5000lb walrus. :p (Comparing to FF3.1 and Chrome).

[Express]

The Sunspider test don't mean anything at all.

The javascript is converted to machine code and executed several times in a loop.

The test will ignore the highest time and the lowest times. The highest time is the usually the time required to compile javascript to native code.

Real word code on website don't work that way. Most of the code is not executed several times in a loop. Most of the code is just executed once.

For cases where the code is executed just once the engines that do so well on Sun spider are not going to be as performant.

[Veedems Veteran]

The Sunspider test don't mean anything at all.

The javascript is converted to machine code and executed several times in a loop.

The test will ignore the highest time and the lowest times. The highest time is the usually the time required to compile javascript to native code.

Real word code on website don't work that way. Most of the code is not executed several times in a loop. Most of the code is just executed once.

For cases where the code is executed just once the engines that do so well on Sun spider are not going to be as performant.

So, what other tests would you suggest?

[tsupersonic]

Damn, where is Opera stack up in there?

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

cool, what's the release date for 3.1 ?

Below is all that Mozilla has on ot.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox3.1/Schedule

[Veedems Veteran]

Damn, where is Opera stack up in there?

Tp answer your question, I installed the latest Opera update. Compare to my previously posted results:

• Firefox 09/01/2008 Gran Paradiso Nightly: 5100ms
  
• Firefox 09/02/2008 Minefield Nightly w/o Tracemonkey: 4500ms
  
• Firefox 09/03/2008 Minefield Nightly w/ Tracemonkey: 2100ms
  
• Google Chrome: 2800ms
  
• Opera 9.52: 7300ms
  

I'm running an Athlon64 3700+ at stock speed.

[Simon Veteran]

Anyone else remember when Opera was the hands down fastest for rendering anything?

Anyway, good to hear. Guess it's time for me to move back to the nightlies :D

[Farstrider]

So, what other tests would you suggest?

Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know the normal JavaScript still has to be converted to machine code whereas with V8 this step has already been done and therefore much faster, even on slower PC's! Also as far as I know ALL browsers except for Chrome run in a single process whereas Chrome has a process for each tab. So if for example, one tab on a normal browser freezes the browser will fall over as opposed to Chrome being able to handle one or two tabs freezing and not have the browser crash and burn! Anyone who knows a little more about this please feel free to elaborate!

[wellofsouls]

So, what other tests would you suggest?

Mozilla's own dromaeo, and Full Render of progressive ray tracer?

also for me somehow V8 is a lot faster than TraceMonkey in Sunspider.

[PricklyPoo]

Noooo, my precious opera is slackin off big time. :p

[booboo]

Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know the normal JavaScript still has to be converted to machine code whereas with V8 this step has already been done and therefore much faster, even on slower PC's! Also as far as I know ALL browsers except for Chrome run in a single process whereas Chrome has a process for each tab. So if for example, one tab on a normal browser freezes the browser will fall over as opposed to Chrome being able to handle one or two tabs freezing and not have the browser crash and burn! Anyone who knows a little more about this please feel free to elaborate!

The process thing is utter crap, try putting this into the address bar: qwer%:

see what happens ;)

[Veedems Veteran]

Mozilla's own dromaeo, and Full Render of progressive ray tracer?

also for me somehow V8 is a lot faster than TraceMonkey in Sunspider.

Dromaeo does paint a different picture for me:

Chrome: 568ms

Fx w/ TraceMonkey: 1531ms

[random_n]

Also as far as I know ALL browsers except for Chrome run in a single process whereas Chrome has a process for each tab. So if for example, one tab on a normal browser freezes the browser will fall over as opposed to Chrome being able to handle one or two tabs freezing and not have the browser crash and burn!

IE8 has this as well. It's a pretty recent thing, but quite effective as long as the parent process doesn't crash. One interesting application is that you can use the Windows Task Manager to change process priority on the individual tabs, and making a page that taking an excessive amount of CPU low priority can be quite helpful for those of use still using single-core processors. (Automating that would be icing on the cake :))

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Depending on what benchmarks you use, you'll end up testing other parts than you mean to. A pure JS benchmark is good, one that tests the DOM will be inaccurate (Most of your time will be spent in native code within the engine), and that relies on rendering speed of the engine will be dependant on drivers, memory speed, etc.

Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know the normal JavaScript still has to be converted to machine code whereas with V8 this step has already been done and therefore much faster, even on slower PC's!

...

V8 isn't magic, it still has to compile the JS to native code, just like TraceMonkey and SquirrelFish do.

[wellofsouls]

Depending on what benchmarks you use, you'll end up testing other parts than you mean to. A pure JS benchmark is good, one that tests the DOM will be inaccurate (Most of your time will be spent in native code within the engine), and that relies on rendering speed of the engine will be dependant on drivers, memory speed, etc.

well, still, Chrome is twice as fast as the latest WebKit nightly with SquirrelFish in the ray tracer test, that's really something. It shows despite being built upon an old webkit, it has quite some speed improvements on both javascript and DOM.

V8 isn't magic, it still has to compile the JS to native code, just like TraceMonkey and SquirrelFish do.

AFAIK, SquirrelFish doesn't compile it to native code, but just byte code only?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

It's strange with the raytracing test, since it's mainly a DOM test (the JS code is small and light), new WebKit should beat old WebKit, unless Apple broke something (or fixed it, but the fixed method is slower)

And yeah, SquirrelFish is actually a bytecode interpreter, so it doesn't go down to the native code level.

Edit: Ages ago I messed around with that raytracer and made it use <canvas> instead, http://alex.thefrapp.com/files/progressive_raytracer.html in FX3 it finishes in around 3 seconds (filling a 1px rectangle on a pixel buffer is much faster than creating a 1px <div>)

[arrrgh]

Dromaeo does paint a different picture for me:

Chrome: 568ms

Fx w/ TraceMonkey: 1531ms

This is mainly because the parts of tracemonkey that would apply in that particular benchmark haven't landed yet. Same goes for the few SunSpider tests where V8 dominates.

This graph does show V8 cleaning our clock on a couple of recursion-heavy tests. We have a plan, to trace recursion (not just tail recursion). We simply haven't had enough hours in the day to get to it, but it's "next".

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/arc...key_update.html

[tsupersonic]

Anyone else remember when Opera was the hands down fastest for rendering anything?

Anyway, good to hear. Guess it's time for me to move back to the nightlies :D

It still feels like it's the fastest browser for me. I'm on a few OC3 connections :cool:

[Pink Floyd Veteran]

It is, indeed, faster. My results:

• Firefox 09/01/2008 Gran Paradiso Nightly: 5100ms
  
• Firefox 09/02/2008 Minefield Nightly w/o Tracemonkey: 4500ms
  
• Firefox 09/03/2008 Minefield Nightly w/ Tracemonkey: 2100ms
  
• Google Chrome: 2800ms
  

I'm very impressed.

hey bangbang, can you link where I can download this version of firefox for mac (if available)

thank you

[brentaal]

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/fir...y/latest-trunk/

Once you start the browser, you'll have to change a setting

javascript.options.jit.content has to be set to True in order for Tracemonkey to work