Google Chrome performs better than Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 … at least for now

Reports have been rife that Mozilla’s TraceMonkey JavaScript engine would leave Google’s V8 in the dust. As of the latest build, this does not seem to be the case. 

TraceMonkey is the new JavaSctipt engine that would be integrated in Mozilla’s next release of the Firefox web browser (v 3.1). Presently the alpha release of the browser is available for download and since its still alpha TraceMonkey is disabled by default. To enable TraceMonkey for Firefox 3.1a1, go to the about:config URL and add a Boolean preference with the name javascript.options.jit.content and set it to true.

I used the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark tests to see how Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox 3.1a1 measure up against each other. Here are the results:

Mozilla Firefox 3.1a1

Total:                     2413.0ms +/- 1.4%

3d:                   	    267.0ms +/- 5.8%
	cube:                89.4ms +/- 0.8%
	morph:               78.2ms +/- 2.6%
	raytrace:            99.4ms +/- 15.1%

access:                     340.2ms +/- 5.1%
	binary-trees:        42.8ms +/- 32.8%
	fannkuch:           156.0ms +/- 2.0%
	nbody:              101.8ms +/- 3.7%
	nsieve:              39.6ms +/- 5.7%

bitops:                     272.8ms +/- 1.6%
	3bit-bits-in-byte:   51.6ms +/- 1.3%
	bits-in-byte:        67.4ms +/- 1.0%
	bitwise-and:         66.8ms +/- 4.6%
	nsieve-bits:         87.0ms +/- 1.8%

controlflow:                 31.6ms +/- 2.2%
	recursive:           31.6ms +/- 2.2%

crypto:                     167.0ms +/- 1.7%
	aes:                 60.8ms +/- 0.9%
	md5:                 53.0ms +/- 4.7%
	sha1:                53.2ms +/- 4.2%

date:                       201.8ms +/- 12.2%
	format-tofte:       122.2ms +/- 20.6%
	format-xparb:        79.6ms +/- 2.4%

math:                       257.0ms +/- 1.5%
	cordic:             114.0ms +/- 0.8%
	partial-sums:        91.2ms +/- 2.2%
	spectral-norm:       51.8ms +/- 8.4%

regexp:                     209.0ms +/- 10.2%
	dna:                209.0ms +/- 10.2%

string:                     666.6ms +/- 2.8%
	base64:              67.4ms +/- 2.8%
	fasta:              120.4ms +/- 3.3%
	tagcloud:           118.0ms +/- 4.9%
	unpack-code:        273.6ms +/- 4.3%
	validate-input:      87.2ms +/- 9.2%

Google Chrome

Total:                     1291.8ms +/- 1.5%

3d:                          92.6ms +/- 1.8%
	cube:                22.8ms +/- 13.6%
	morph:               39.8ms +/- 8.1%
	raytrace:            30.0ms +/- 10.2%

access:                      66.6ms +/- 4.7%
	binary-trees:         5.4ms +/- 12.6%
	fannkuch:            22.8ms +/- 4.6%
	nbody:               23.2ms +/- 17.9%
	nsieve:              15.2ms +/- 6.8%

bitops:                      49.2ms +/- 2.1%
	3bit-bits-in-byte:    4.2ms +/- 13.2%
	bits-in-byte:         9.0ms +/- 13.8%
	bitwise-and:         14.4ms +/- 7.7%
	nsieve-bits:         21.6ms +/- 8.7%

controlflow:                  2.6ms +/- 26.2%
	recursive:            2.6ms +/- 26.2%

crypto:                      44.6ms +/- 2.5%
	aes:                 17.0ms +/- 5.2%
	md5:                 14.4ms +/- 4.7%
	sha1:                13.2ms +/- 7.9%

date:                       215.8ms +/- 5.0%
	format-tofte:       136.4ms +/- 3.6%
	format-xparb:        79.4ms +/- 10.1%

math:                        86.0ms +/- 4.2%
	cordic:              46.6ms +/- 6.7%
	partial-sums:        29.2ms +/- 1.9%
	spectral-norm:       10.2ms +/- 13.4%

regexp:                     309.2ms +/- 1.8%
	dna:                309.2ms +/- 1.8%

string:                     425.2ms +/- 2.4%
	base64:              53.6ms +/- 11.0%
	fasta:               46.0ms +/- 0.0%
	tagcloud:           117.0ms +/- 2.8%
	unpack-code:        148.8ms +/- 2.0%
	validate-input:      59.8ms +/- 0.9%

Well from these results it looks like Google Chrome is almost twice as fast as Mozilla Firefox 3.1a1 in its present form.  Firefox trumps Chrome in the date tests and the regexp tests. In all the others Chrome outdoes Firefox by a huge margin.

Hopefully the final version that would be coming out of Mozilla will have better results.