The status quo means "uh oh" when it comes to performance
HELSINKI, FINLAND – MAY 12th, 2009 – Firefox and Internet Explorer
between them can claim close to 90% of all web users. Yet results from
over 400,000 users of the new Peacekeeper™ browser benchmark show that
these two are at the bottom of the class when it comes to performance.
With Peacekeeper leaving beta today, Futuremark® Corporation has
released some surprising statistics showing that the browsers with the
highest performance scores are also the least popular with web users.
Peacekeeper - www.futuremark.com/peacekeeper - is a free online tool
for measuring and comparing the performance of internet browsers. Many
websites, such as social networks, video sharing communities and
webmail services, place a heavy load on the web browser. For people who
use these sites a lot, changing browsers to one that performs faster can
make a dramatic difference.
Jukka Mäkinen, Head of PC Products and Services at Futuremark, said,
"People have more choice now in how they experience the internet than
ever before but most seem content to stick with the browser they have.
It’s surprising that even though cost isn’t an issue, the browsers that
offer the best performance are also the least popular, at least for
now."
He went on to add, "We’re finding that Peacekeeper is driving people to
try browsers they may not have considered before. Our data suggest that
Chrome is benefitting most from a combination of strong Peacekeeper
performance scores and features that people seem to like."
Web users can run Peacekeeper now by visiting
www.futuremark.com/peacekeeper
For more Peacekeeper updates and new browser announcements follow
@FM_Peacekeeper on Twitter. www.twitter.com/fm_peacekeeper
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Further information for Editors
Table: Browser performance and popularity in Peacekeeper (beta)
Browser Version Peacekeeper Score* Visitors to Futuremark
Safari 4.0 Beta 1222 0.8%
Chrome 1.0.154.59 874 3.7%
Opera 9.64 463 6.3%
Firefox 3.0.10 397 31.5%
Internet Explorer 8.0 280 57.3%
Caption: Safari and Chrome, currently the fastest browsers, run
JavaScript operations four times faster than the slowest, Internet
Explorer, yet are used by a tiny fraction of all internet users.
* Peacekeeper beta results from a sample PC with Intel Core 2 Duo Q6400
CPU. Scores from the non-beta version of Peacekeeper may vary.
What is Peacekeeper?
Peacekeeper is a free online browser benchmarking tool. With
Peacekeeper it’s quick and easy to compare different browsers to find
out which one offers the best performance on your PC. Web users can run
Peacekeeper now by visiting www.futuremark.com/peacekeeper
How does Peacekeeper work?
Peacekeeper measures a browser’s ability to handle JavaScript
functions. JavaScript is a widely used programming language used in the
creation of modern websites to provide animation, navigation, forms and
other common requirements. For users who prioritize speed and
performance, Peacekeeper helps answer the question of which browser is
best for them.
What does a Peacekeeper score represent?
Peacekeeper scores are measured in operations per second or rendered
frames per second depending on the test. When ‘browser X’ scores twice
as much as ‘browser Y’ on the same PC it means that for a given test
either:
- X ran twice as many operations as Y in the same time period
- Or X ran the test in half the time as Y
- Or X rendered the test with twice the frame rate of Y
Or in plain language, by choosing a browser with a high Peacekeeper
score users are ensuring a faster and smoother web experience.
Complete FAQ: http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/faq.action
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About Futuremark Corporation
Futuremark® Corporation is the leading provider of performance analysis
software and services for PCs and smartphones. Futuremark® is known
around the world for its benchmark products, including 3DMark® (with
more than 45 million copies distributed worldwide), PCMark®,
Peacekeeper, SPMark™ and VGMark™ and value-added services powered by
the ORB, an online database of over 30 million real life benchmarking
results. Futuremark maintains offices in Saratoga, California and
Helsinki, Finland. For more information, please visit
http://www.futuremark.com
