Someone wants to revive the benchmark wars in web browsers. That someone is none other than Microsoft, and just days before the launch of Windows 10, the Redmond giant is looking for an extra advantage for its new Edge browser. The official Windows blog published three results, and using Sunspider as a reference, Edge would be 112 percent faster than Chrome. The rest of the web picked up the message and proceeded to dissect it…
A few years ago, browser benchmarks were all the rage. Today almost no one believes in them. What happened? The answer is simpler than we think: developers try to cheat. Unfortunately, this isn't limited to browsers—graphics card and smartphone makers, internet providers… every time someone decides to evaluate what they offer, sooner or later they're caught red-handed. The case of Internet Explorer 9 with Sunspider is very special: essentially, it applies the so-called "dead code elimination", an optimization that discards most of the test, generating very favorable results. Dead code elimination is a valid resource in programming, so let's say Internet Explorer 9 enters a hedge maze with a chainsaw. The test itself doesn't consider this action invalid, but it's still being debated whether IE9 cheated or not.
For that reason, when Microsoft announced on the Windows blog that its new Edge browser is 112 percent faster than Google Chrome under Sunspider, several alarms went off. This number is also accompanied by Google Octane and Apple JetStream benchmarks, where Edge would be 11 and 37 percent faster than Chrome, respectively. There are no images or videos of the evaluation. In fact, it's a small part of the announcement about the availability of Windows 10 build 10240, which many already consider as RTM. The choice of Chrome as a "rival" for these benchmarks is no coincidence either. Microsoft Edge is supposed to support Firefox "and" Chrome extensions, which opens up a very interesting range of possibilities; however, this support won't be available at launch.
Personally, I think Microsoft rushed a bit. Windows 10 isn't available yet, and competing web browsers will surely have optimized versions for the new operating system. One thing is certain: Edge is shaping up to be a much better option than the classic Internet Explorer, though it won't be available outside Windows 10. Why? Maybe some of our readers are unaware of this detail, but Windows 7 entered extended support phase at the beginning of 2015, and it will turn six years old next Wednesday. Time flies…
