The Current Windows 10 vs. Linux Browser Performance For Google Chrome + Mozilla Firefox

[Vistaus]

There is no need for such. A terminal is enough.

Sure, but PTS doesn't work directly on ChromeOS, even with root access.

Also even for the Chromebooks that have no official Linux application support, crouton was available.

Lolwut? The question raised was about measuring the native Chrome browser, natively on ChromeOS. If you install crouton, you can't measure the native Chrome browser natively on ChromeOS, only the stuff inside crouton.

[birdie]

There are quite a few performance settings that can be changed that makes Firefox a hell of a lot more responsive on Linux. Did a quick scan of my about:config and here are some of the more important ones I've set. Like I posted earlier, Google is your friend.

gfx.webrender.all
webgl.msaa.force
webgl.force.enable
gl.msaa.level (I set it to 4)
gfx.webrender.enable
gfx.canvas.azure.accelerated (doesn't exist by default; you'll want it true)
layout.display-list.retain.chrome
layers.acceleration.force-enabled
dom.webgpu.enable
media.av1.enabled
media.av1.use-dav1d
media.gpu-process-decoder
browser.preferences.defaultPerformanceSettings.ena bled (you'll want that to be false)

Except for the last one and the msaa level, they should all be set to true. Yeah, I have x4 msaa enabled in Firefox. It's an option so why not?

All these options are enabled on Windows and disabled on Linux by default? Can't believe it until I see it.

And after enabling all of them, does Firefox on Linux become noticeably faster? Does it beat Windows 10 in all the tests? I guess you haven't checked.

Also,

MSAA is an antialiasing tech, so it can hardly affect 2D performance.
AV1 is a video codec, so it doesn't not affect 2D performance at all.

So, what are we down to? Seven different options related to WebRender? gfx.webrender.all, gfx.webrender.enable, gfx.canvas.azure.accelerated, layers.acceleration.force-enabled, dom.webgpu.enable, media.gpu-process-decoder, browser.preferences.defaultPerformanceSettings.ena bled?

[skeevy420]

All these options are enabled on Windows and disabled on Linux by default? Can't believe it until I see it.

And after enabling all of them, does Firefox on Linux become noticeably faster? Does it beat Windows 10 in all the tests? I guess you haven't checked.

Also,

MSAA is an antialiasing tech, so it can hardly affect 2D performance.
AV1 is a video codec, so it doesn't not affect 2D performance at all.

So, what are we down to? Seven different options related to WebRender? gfx.webrender.all, gfx.webrender.enable, gfx.canvas.azure.accelerated, layers.acceleration.force-enabled, dom.webgpu.enable, media.gpu-process-decoder, browser.preferences.defaultPerformanceSettings.ena bled?

There's more to life than 2D browser performance so I listed some settings that could help media playback and effect appearance (fonts seem better after the msaa settings were enabled; I didn't notice any other change). You asked for settings that can effect performance so I gave you the ones I've changed.

For me on Manjaro with FF 66.0.2, those were all false by default (or didn't exist and had to be created) and my new tab page went from loading in 3-4 seconds to instantly -- anecdotal, but that combined with no more scrolling lag, screen tearing when scrolling, or video frame syncing issues was all the testing I needed as far as "noticeably faster or better" is concerned. I don't know if they're set by Manjaro or by Mozilla. I'm assuming Mozilla based on what other Phoronix users with different distributions have posted in here and in other Firefox threads...oh, and thanks other Phoronix users for posting your Firefox tips because they've helped me a lot.

I don't have a Windows PC or installation to check and see what their default Windows values are. Perhaps a dual-booting user will check for us. Perhaps a Premium Member will ask Michael to test with them on and off so we have results from a trusted source...I'm not Premium so that's not a request I'm willing to make.

For some other settings that were disabled/false by default (at least on my system) that can effect performance:

layout.display-list.retain.chrome
media.ffmpeg.low-latency.enabled
media.gpu-process-decoder
media.hardware-video-decoding.force-enabled

[andyprough]

There's more to life than 2D browser performance so I listed some settings that could help media playback and effect appearance (fonts seem better after the msaa settings were enabled; I didn't notice any other change). You asked for settings that can effect performance so I gave you the ones I've changed.

For me on Manjaro with FF 66.0.2, those were all false by default (or didn't exist and had to be created) and my new tab page went from loading in 3-4 seconds to instantly -- anecdotal, but that combined with no more scrolling lag, screen tearing when scrolling, or video frame syncing issues was all the testing I needed as far as "noticeably faster or better" is concerned. I don't know if they're set by Manjaro or by Mozilla. I'm assuming Mozilla based on what other Phoronix users with different distributions have posted in here and in other Firefox threads...oh, and thanks other Phoronix users for posting your Firefox tips because they've helped me a lot.

I don't have a Windows PC or installation to check and see what their default Windows values are. Perhaps a dual-booting user will check for us. Perhaps a Premium Member will ask Michael to test with them on and off so we have results from a trusted source...I'm not Premium so that's not a request I'm willing to make.

For some other settings that were disabled/false by default (at least on my system) that can effect performance:

layout.display-list.retain.chrome
media.ffmpeg.low-latency.enabled
media.gpu-process-decoder
media.hardware-video-decoding.force-enabled

This is why we need to have a wide open dialog about such settings in this forum. Too bad there are so many who come here merely to try to stifle the dialog.

[rat1x]

this is one of the threads that make me ask myself:

1. I have better battery life in windows
2. I have games, ms office, photoshop and sony vegas on windows
3. browsers are faster on windows
4. My nvidia card works better, no CUDA, gcc and lower level compatibility issues

then I ask myself why am I here?

then I answer myself
1. In linux I can customize my desktop environment with convenient shortcuts
2. code compiles faster
3. I have more free RAM available
4. bash

Hope I don't ask myself for much longer..

for me it goes like this:

1. i3

[Bsdisbetter]

[...snip...]

Windows users aren't paying Google or Mozilla anything for Chrome or Firefox either. Google and Mozilla don't focus on Windows because Linux and BSD users are cheap, they focus on Windows because Windows still has 90% of consumer desktops worldwide.

Of course these browsers are free but Google definitely concentrates on Windows for commercial reasons. They're not in it for altruism. More eyeballs means more money in ads/data harvesting - you don't get that with a small community of open source nerds.
The chrome engine seems to be the best; even MS is going to it. Even safari is faster than firefox. So it's no surprise to me about these benchmark results.

Mozilla basically are rudderless now following all the trends dictated by MS. They have a dwindling market share, a horrible browser, poor direction and should probably quit the MS eco-system and concentrate on niche open source os like *bsd & linux.

[Bsdisbetter]

All these options are enabled on Windows and disabled on Linux by default? Can't believe it until I see it.

And after enabling all of them, does Firefox on Linux become noticeably faster? Does it beat Windows 10 in all the tests? I guess you haven't checked.

Also,

MSAA is an antialiasing tech, so it can hardly affect 2D performance.
AV1 is a video codec, so it doesn't not affect 2D performance at all.

So, what are we down to? Seven different options related to WebRender? gfx.webrender.all, gfx.webrender.enable, gfx.canvas.azure.accelerated, layers.acceleration.force-enabled, dom.webgpu.enable, media.gpu-process-decoder, browser.preferences.defaultPerformanceSettings.ena bled?

I checked a few, couldn't be bothered with all of them. Most either don't exist or are the same default value. However that might depend on actual versions because these defaults might change version to version.

I think the basic truth is don't look to mozilla to produce a fast browser. It's more focussed on maintaining a look and feel of windows 10 it seems.

[rat1x]

I think the basic truth is don't look to mozilla to produce a fast browser. It's more focussed on maintaining a look and feel of windows 10 it seems.

Unfortunately it's the only Linux browser -at least for now- which supports 120+fps

[Michael_S]

Of course these browsers are free but Google definitely concentrates on Windows for commercial reasons. They're not in it for altruism. More eyeballs means more money in ads/data harvesting - you don't get that with a small community of open source nerds.

Right - that's what I was saying too.

The chrome engine seems to be the best; even MS is going to it. Even safari is faster than firefox. So it's no surprise to me about these benchmark results.

Mozilla basically are rudderless now following all the trends dictated by MS. They have a dwindling market share, a horrible browser, poor direction and should probably quit the MS eco-system and concentrate on niche open source os like *bsd & linux.

Firefox performance is behind Chrome but dramatically faster than it was a few years ago. I don't have the patience, but it would be fun to run the same benchmarks on the same hardware with Firefox 50 or 40 or similar. So Mozilla is improving their product. They just literally have less than 1% of the budget to throw at the problem that Google, Apple, and Microsoft do.

I'm not saying the product or the organization is perfect. They aren't. But a lot of people condemn them for failing to win an impossible battle.

Earlier this year Google announced changes to Chromium that would prevent ad-blockers from working. There was a public outcry, and they decided not to go forward with the change. If you didn't know about this already, it's easy to find with a web search - or articles like this, https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/0...legal-threats/

If WebKit/Blink owns 97% of the world browser market in a few years, which it's on track to do, then Google will undoubtedly make that change and others like it to strengthen the influence of their advertising model on the web. Firefox is one of the best remaining options to fight this. I'm running FF from Linux and the performance is sufficient. If I did a lot of browser-based 3D gaming the Chrome advantage would matter, but for day to day stuff there's no noticeable difference.

[bwat47]

There's more to life than 2D browser performance so I listed some settings that could help media playback and effect appearance (fonts seem better after the msaa settings were enabled; I didn't notice any other change). You asked for settings that can effect performance so I gave you the ones I've changed.

For me on Manjaro with FF 66.0.2, those were all false by default (or didn't exist and had to be created) and my new tab page went from loading in 3-4 seconds to instantly -- anecdotal, but that combined with no more scrolling lag, screen tearing when scrolling, or video frame syncing issues was all the testing I needed as far as "noticeably faster or better" is concerned. I don't know if they're set by Manjaro or by Mozilla. I'm assuming Mozilla based on what other Phoronix users with different distributions have posted in here and in other Firefox threads...oh, and thanks other Phoronix users for posting your Firefox tips because they've helped me a lot.

I don't have a Windows PC or installation to check and see what their default Windows values are. Perhaps a dual-booting user will check for us. Perhaps a Premium Member will ask Michael to test with them on and off so we have results from a trusted source...I'm not Premium so that's not a request I'm willing to make.

For some other settings that were disabled/false by default (at least on my system) that can effect performance:

layout.display-list.retain.chrome
media.ffmpeg.low-latency.enabled
media.gpu-process-decoder
media.hardware-video-decoding.force-enabled

Firefox on linux has no support at all for gpu video decoding, so those hardware decoding options won't do anything