Google Chrome is known for offering fast page-loading times. However, on Macs, Apple’s own Safari browser has provided a more responsive experience for years. Google now claims that with the release of Chrome 99, its browser has managed a record score in Apple’s own Speedometer benchmark, making it the new fastest browser on Mac.
Below is a look at Google’s claim, how the tests were conducted, and how it managed to beat Apple’s browser in its own benchmark.
What Is the Speedometer Benchmark?
Speedometer was first released by Apple in 2014, highlighting it as a “benchmark for web app responsiveness” in its announcement on the WebKit blog. It was again updated in 2018, with support for new and common JavaScript frameworks and libraries, TypeScript, transpilers like Babel, and a revamped score calculation algorithm.
You can run the Speedometer benchmark on any device—Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, or iPad—by heading over to the BrowserBench website. As well as the browser engine, the age and specs of the device you are using also affect the score.
How Chrome 99 Beats Safari in Apple’s Own Benchmark
Google has enabled ThinLTO in the latest release of its browser, which is a build-optimization technique that speeds up certain parts of the codebase. You can find the company’s detailed explanation of what ThinLTO is over at the Chromium blog. The change leads to a seven percent bump in performance.
Coupled with graphics optimizations like a pass-through decoder and out-of-process rasterization, Google claims Chrome’s graphics performance is now 15 percent faster than Safari. Two other significant factors behind the speed boost include a new mid-tier V8 Sparkplug compiler that’s more efficient than before and short built-in calls that help optimize memory usage.
Thanks to these underlying improvements, Google claims Chrome 99 on M1 Macs has scored 300 in Apple’s Speedometer browser responsiveness benchmark, making it the first-ever browser to do so. This transforms the debate between Chrome and Safari on Mac. Additionally, the browser has become 43 percent faster on M1 Macs since late 2020.
In its announcement on the Chromium blog, Google notes that it ran the test on a 14-inch MacBook Pro with a 10-core M1 Max chip and 64GB RAM. While impressive, do note that not all these speed improvements carry over to Intel-based Macs. They are limited to Apple-silicon-based Macs. Nonetheless, the performance gap between the Safari and Chrome could further increase on low-end hardware.
Chrome Is Still a Memory Hog
While these speed improvements are impressive, Chrome continues to be a major resource hog and battery life killer. This is an area where Safari continues to excel—your MacBook can last way longer on the battery while using Safari compared to Chrome.
On the positive side, the speed improvements mean Chrome will at least deliver the best browsing experience possible on your Mac.
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