Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X • Hacker News Board

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#21

Post by bhauer » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 3:28 PM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #17

andreasley wrote: post #8

Note that these tests were conducted on a MacBook – presumably running OS X. Apple invested a lot of time optimizing Safari and OS X for low power usage, so it's not exactly surprising that Safari wins in most cases. It would be very interesting the see a comparison with Windows and Linux (if possible on the same hardware).

Lots of other commenters have remarked about the lacking rigor and narrow scope of the tests. It would be interesting (and time consuming) to re-run this test with many more parameters: * Fresh install of OSX vs fresh install of Win8.1/Win10 on capable Macbook. (I'm unsure about Linux or other distros running on Macbooks, add that to the test if it's feasible.) * Javascript enabled and disabled. * Flash enabled and d…

> Fresh install of OSX vs fresh install of Win7 on capable Macbook

Why Windows 7 and not Windows 10? The article is capturing fascinating data, and I'd like to see how Edge stacks up.

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#22

Post by TheCowboy » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 3:28 PM UTC

daenney wrote: post #15

TheCowboy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised either, but the methodology for the testing doesn't seem to be fully explained, so it might lack rigor. Is it a fresh install of the OS? Are all of the caches and histories clean? What plugins are enabled? Performance can vary based on how you configure your browser and what extensions you have enabled. I get less battery using Chrome, but it's configured in a way that I think is a superior ex…

A little down the article: > We used a factory-restored MacBook Pro Retina 13” to test each website on one internet browser at a time. No programs other than the browser were open. I'm pretty sure a factory resetted Mac is a fresh install and that it won't have any caches or history. And since they don't mention plugins I'm going to make a wild assumption here and say they didn't install any after having loaded up th…

Ah, I skipped down to "Testing Philosophy" out of habit when looking at benchmarks. It still doesn't say if the computer is rebooted fresh after each test, but I'd like give the benefit of the doubt on more obvious things like that.

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#23

Post by josephmx » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 3:40 PM UTC

bhauer wrote: post #21

stephengillie wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of other commenters have remarked about the lacking rigor and narrow scope of the tests. It would be interesting (and time consuming) to re-run this test with many more parameters: * Fresh install of OSX vs fresh install of Win8.1/Win10 on capable Macbook. (I'm unsure about Linux or other distros running on Macbooks, add that to the test if it's feasible.) * Javascript enabled and disabled. * Flash enabled and d…

> Fresh install of OSX vs fresh install of Win7 on capable Macbook Why Windows 7 and not Windows 10? The article is capturing fascinating data, and I'd like to see how Edge stacks up.

Windows 8.1 probably makes more sense, I'm not sure how stale a 1 day old OS would be

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#24

Post by umeshunni » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 3:47 PM UTC

brador wrote: post #9

What effect would turning off Javascript have on those numbers?

Or, turning off Flash.

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#25

Post by noir_lord » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 3:54 PM UTC

leni536 wrote: post #4

I wonder how using ublock and umatrix affect battery life.

Ublock Origin I already use but I hadn't heard of umatrix, that looks like a very handy tool, thanks!

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#26

Post by Eric_WVGG » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 3:55 PM UTC

umeshunni wrote: post #24

brador wrote: post #9

What effect would turning off Javascript have on those numbers?

Or, turning off Flash.

or ad+tracker blockers

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#27

Post by mwcampbell » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 4:01 PM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #17

andreasley wrote: post #8

Note that these tests were conducted on a MacBook – presumably running OS X. Apple invested a lot of time optimizing Safari and OS X for low power usage, so it's not exactly surprising that Safari wins in most cases. It would be very interesting the see a comparison with Windows and Linux (if possible on the same hardware).

Lots of other commenters have remarked about the lacking rigor and narrow scope of the tests. It would be interesting (and time consuming) to re-run this test with many more parameters: * Fresh install of OSX vs fresh install of Win8.1/Win10 on capable Macbook. (I'm unsure about Linux or other distros running on Macbooks, add that to the test if it's feasible.) * Javascript enabled and disabled. * Flash enabled and d…

Regarding Windows 10 on a MacBook via Boot Camp, I can confirm that it works; my boss has been running insider builds on his MacBook for a little while. Just make sure that if you get to Windows 10 by upgrading from a previous version, you repair the Apple driver installation afterward.

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#28

Post by ColinDabritz » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 4:03 PM UTC

This does matter, perhaps pretty charts would help.

Along the lines of "are we fast yet?": http://arewefastyet.com/

perhaps we could have "are we efficient yet?"

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#29

Post by zobzu » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 4:06 PM UTC

josephmx wrote: post #23

bhauer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fresh install of OSX vs fresh install of Win7 on capable Macbook Why Windows 7 and not Windows 10? The article is capturing fascinating data, and I'd like to see how Edge stacks up.

Windows 8.1 probably makes more sense, I'm not sure how stale a 1 day old OS would be

Specially on a macbook woth notably nbad windows drivers...

Re: Safari is more energy-efficient than Chrome and Firefox on OS X

#30

Post by zobzu » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 4:08 PM UTC

Its seems the defacto standard is to assume the world runs osx, but windows still is the most installed os. Might be interesting to test the world popular browsers on the most popular os non?