Google Chrome Speed Tests

These speed tests were filmed at actual web page rendering times. If you're interested in the technical details, read on!

Equipment used:

- Computer: MacBook Pro laptop with Windows installed
- Monitor - 24" Asus: We had to replace the standard fluorescent backlight with very large tungsten fixtures to funnel in more light to capture the screen. In addition, we flipped the monitor 180 degrees to eliminate a shadow from the driver board and set the system preferences on the computer to rotate 180 degrees. No special software was used in this process.
- Camera: Phantom v640 High Speed Camera at 1920 x 1080, films up to 2700 fps


"Why does allrecipes.com in the potato gun sequence appear at once, and not the text first and images second? And why does it appear to render from bottom of the screen to the top?"

Chrome sends the rendered page to the video card buffer all at once, which is why allrecipes.com appears at once, and not with the text first and images second. Chrome actually paints the page from top to bottom, but to eliminate a shadow from the driver board, we had to flip the monitor upside down and set the system preferences in Windows to rotate everything 180 degrees, resulting in the page appearing to render from bottom to top.

"Why does the top one third of the page appear first on the weather.com page load?"

Sometimes only half the buffer gets filled before the video card sends its buffer over to the LCD panel. This is because Chrome on Windows uses GDI to draw, which does not do v-sync.

"The screen wipes are so smooth - how was that achieved?"

The screen wipes up in a gradated wipe because LCD pixels take around 10ms to flip and gradually change color.

More filming details below:

Chrome Browser vs. Potato:
We used a version of the web page allrecipes.com that is accessible when logged in. About four hours into the Potato Gun shoot we decided to use a locally loaded version of the web page to enable more precise synchronization with the potato gun. We finally got the shot we were hoping for after 51 takes.

Chrome Browser vs. Sound:
We loaded an artist page from Pandora.com, a streaming internet radio service directly off the web on a 15Mbps internet connection.

Chrome Browser vs. Lightning:
We used a locally loaded version of weather.com that was legally approved for use in this video (and all the standard website permissions procedures that goes into making videos!)

While we had a super fast 15Mbps internet connection in the studio, any live internet connection introduces quite a bit of variability. To run speed tests on page rendering times, saving locally and loading from the local disk can help reduce this variability.


For behind-the-scenes footage of how this video was made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oarMXGq3gI

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• chrome
• googlechrome
• browser
• speed
• speedtests
• fast
• potatogun
• pirateship
• lightning
• sound
• sonic

[Quikkz]

Thumbs up if you're watching this on Firefox.

[XEZIOR]

Lol, what if you have don't have fast internet.

[metznimbo29]

*cough*WIRED CONNECTION*cough*

[kiba168]

notice they are clicking forward not ENTER

[ar55591]

google lo maximo en tecnologia mundial ha dado un paso acelerado.

[BBbloodbrotherCCCX]

Thumbs up if you are watching this on Google Chrome.

[BBbloodbrotherCCCX]

@XEZIOR I agree. Mine is not that fast. Maybe for the people at Google it is. But not the common people.

[Logan5842]

Actually, he is clicking the forward button. By clicking the forward button, the browser itself is loading the webpage from cache. By doing this, it takes the speed of your actual internet out of the equation, leaving it up to the browser and the computer hardware. These tests are true tests of the browser's capabilities.

Firefox for security, chrome for speed

[10892347592348157]

@Chowdder Well, actually he's right. Building the page from the cache is just a trick. The data in the cache is pre-rendered and is simply rebuilt when clicking the forward arrow. Building a page from ground up takes longer. The Google Muggle tricks here.

[leonardo6232]

thumbs up if Chrome rules, thumbs down if you think IE is better

[Chowdder]

@darthnaruto1475 I thought about that while watching it, but then I realized what you're suggesting is not just testing the browser and computer but rather the ISP speed as well. So by loading from cache are they really testing just the browser + computer.