According to the latest data from web application performance management firm New Relic, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 currently has the fastest response time of any browser on Windows, leading the company – and Microsoft – to conclude that IE10 is currently the fastest browser on Windows. Looking at the 40 billion web pageviews it monitors every month, New Relic’s data shows that IE9 comes in second, followed by Firefox 15, Safari 5 and Chrome 21.
On the Mac, interestingly, an older version of Chrome (19) showed a faster average response time than any of the newer versions (New Relic’s data doesn’t include measurements from Chrome 23, though, as it was only released today).
Microsoft, of course, is quite happy with these results. One thing the folks over in Redmond don’t talk about in their celebratory blog post today is the fact that once you look across platforms, IE10 starts falling behind quickly. In a full comparison, Chrome 19 for Linux shows the fastest response times, followed by Chrome 19 for Mac (Google clearly did something right with version 19), Chrome 21 for Mac, Chrome 20 for Mac, Chrome 18 for Mac and Firefox 15 for Mac. IE 10 only places eighth in this full comparison.
Here is what Microsoft has to say about today’s result:
Internet Explorer 10 is fast and fluid, and built from the ground up for real-world performance. Growing evidence shows Internet Explorer as the fastest web browser on Windows 8.
To be fair, though, IE10 is clearly ahead of the pack on Windows and that’s pretty much in line with the results of numerous other benchmarks as well. Despite its reputation, then, Microsoft is clearly on to something with Internet Explorer 10. For now, of course, only Windows 8 machines can run IE 10, but a Windows 7 version (or at least a preview) should arrive in the next few weeks.