Browser benchmark: Brave vs Safari performance

[m_emelchenkov]

Browser benchmarks: Brave vs Safari

Since Sonoma I am active user of Brave web browser. For many years I was a fan of Safari. And here is why things now changed…

Environment

MacBook Pro w/ M1 Max CPU, 32 GB RAM. External monitor w/ MacBook closed lid. Sonoma 14.1.2.

Brave Version 1.60.125 Chromium: 119.0.6045.199 (Official Build) (arm64)

Safari Version 17.1.2 (19616.2.9.11.12)

Measurements

See screenshots.

Graphics test (MotionMark) — Safari is 34.3% slower than Brave.

Web App test (Speedometer) — Brave is 22.8% slower than Safari.

General test (JetStream2) — Safari is 29.4% slower than Brave.

Conclusion

Safari is 30-35% slower than Brave. In real-world usage like scrolling sites with lazy-loading DOM and images like different classifieds sites, social network sites etc. Safari shows awful speed. Large DOM models it also handles very very bad.

Apple product owner should really consider fixing Safari performance. It's simply awful both in real-world and synthetic tests.

 

[fisherking]

in real-world use... what does this matter? i use safari (and sometimes chrome), and my experience is fine; pages open quickly, everything works well.

i'd think that internet speeds, modems, routers, etc, would matter more. but nice that you can use brave, i can use safari, and others use chrome, or firefox, or whatever suits them best.

 

[Earl Urley]

What was the resolution of the external monitor set to? I'd prefer to clock how the browsers do with built-in hardware, esp. since I'm not likely to use any external monitor on a plane or train..

 

[bogdanw]

Apple product owner should really consider fixing Safari performance.

Sorry, what? Or who?
You should uninstall those third-party extensions from Safari before running benchmarks and complaining about performance.

 

[m_emelchenkov]

Sorry, what? Or who?
You should uninstall those third-party extensions from Safari before running benchmarks and complaining about performance.

"Product owner" in software development is a person who responsible for the product as a whole, determines the directions of its development.

Sure I also tested with disabled extensions, they are not the root of the situation.

 

[bogdanw]

Sure I also tested with disabled extensions, they are not the root of the situation.

I get better results on MBA M1 8GB Sonoma 14.1.2 (23B92) Safari 17.1.2 (19616.2.9.11.12)

 

[m_emelchenkov]

I get better results on MBA M1 8GB Sonoma 14.1.2 (23B92) Safari 17.1.2 (19616.2.9.11.12)

Yes, your results are much better. Do you have Brave to also make measurements? It's interesting to compare, will be there any significant difference, like on mine setup, or not.

 

[maccan]

Browser benchmarks: Brave vs Safari

Since Sonoma I am active user of Brave web browser. For many years I was a fan of Safari. And here is why things now changed…

Environment

MacBook Pro w/ M1 Max CPU, 32 GB RAM. External monitor w/ MacBook closed lid. Sonoma 14.1.2.

Brave Version 1.60.125 Chromium: 119.0.6045.199 (Official Build) (arm64)

Safari Version 17.1.2 (19616.2.9.11.12)

Measurements

See screenshots.

Graphics test (MotionMark) — Safari is 34.3% slower than Brave.

Web App test (Speedometer) — Brave is 22.8% slower than Safari.

General test (JetStream2) — Safari is 29.4% slower than Brave.

Conclusion

Safari is 30-35% slower than Brave. In real-world usage like scrolling sites with lazy-loading DOM and images like different classifieds sites, social network sites etc. Safari shows awful speed. Large DOM models it also handles very very bad.

Apple product owner should really consider fixing Safari performance. It's simply awful both in real-world and synthetic tests.

And there is a extreme 3D performance difference for Google Earth Web! Zooming rotating etc is very slow in Safari while it flys in Brave. If you go to Settings in the Google Earth Web page "Tools->Settings", it say at the very bottom: "Single Threaded" for Safari while in Brave it is "Multi Threaded".

 

[m_emelchenkov]

And there is a extreme 3D performance difference for Google Earth Web! Zooming rotating etc is very slow in Safari while it flys in Brave. If you go to Settings in the Google Earth Web page "Tools->Settings", it say at the very bottom: "Single Threaded" for Safari while in Brave it is "Multi Threaded".

Thank you very much for this observation. I have tried myself—confirm, everything exactly as you wrote.

 

[maccan]

Thank you very much for this observation. I have tried myself—confirm, everything exactly as you wrote.

Interestingly, Google Maps is super fast in Safari. 3D performance is top!

 

[maccan]

And on my Intel Mac Pro 2019 with Vega II, Apple Maps, a sophisticated application has also very bad 3D performance, similar to Google Earth in Safari. Could be that some frameworks are not optimized any more for Intel Macs.

 

[bogdanw]

No significant difference between Safari 17.2 (19617.1.17.11.9) and Chrome 120.0.6099.109 in Sonoma 14.2 MBA M1 8GB RAM https://earth.google.com/web/

Google still has an app for Earth, they just didn’t have the time to make it Universal, it’s still Intel only.
Google Earth Pro (Mac) https://support.google.com/earth/answer/21955
Direct link https://dl.google.com/earth/client/advanced/current/GoogleEarthProMac-Intel.dmg

 

[maccan]

No significant difference between Safari 17.2 (19617.1.17.11.9) and Chrome 120.0.6099.109 in Sonoma 14.2 MBA M1 8GB RAM https://earth.google.com/web/
View attachment 2325330

Google still has an app for Earth, they just didn’t have the time to make it Universal, it’s still Intel only.
Google Earth Pro (Mac) https://support.google.com/earth/answer/21955
Direct link https://dl.google.com/earth/client/advanced/current/GoogleEarthProMac-Intel.dmg

I can confirm, (apart from very outdated i.e. no dark mode, no modern interface elements, the Google Earth app has good performance on Intel mac!

I also have no 3D performance issues on the Apple Silicon machines, only on Intel Macs. In my case, the AMD Radeon Vega II is very powerful, however due to software glitches, 3D performance is very bad in Safari and even Apples own Map application.

See here

Apple Maps very low 3D performance on Ventura/Sonoma on Intel Macs

Hi, The 3D performance of Maps in Ventura/Sonoma on Intel Macs is very low! If you switch to 3D Satelite View (New York for example), dragging, rotating etc lags very much! Even if you have powerful hardware! I observe this on a Mac Pro 12-Core with AMD Pro Vega II. By looking at the Activity...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[m_emelchenkov]

A much more representative example: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/18gpg5i

Check the site that guy complaining about. Then you'll notice a huge difference between browsers.

 

[maccan]

A much more representative example: https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/18gpg5i

Check the site that guy complaining about. Then you'll notice a huge difference between browsers.

The suggested website loaded in Safari (Sonoma 14.2 / Safari 17.2) without any problem within 1-2 seconds. Scrolling its long list with many items was also super fast. For me the worst problem is 3D performance (on Intel machines)

 

[bogdanw]

I also have no 3D performance issues on the Apple Silicon machines, only on Intel Macs. In my case, the AMD Radeon Vega II is very powerful, however due to software glitches, 3D performance is very bad in Safari and even Apples own Map application.

That’s an entirely different topic. Apple is a hardware company that would like very much for us to buy a new Mac and a new iPhone every year.
Slowing down old devices only cost them some millions, when caught and convicted/settled. But Apple’s profits are in the billions. It makes perfect business sense to continue the practice. It’s more subtle and more nuanced now, but the next macOS will probably slow down M1 Macs too.

 

[maccan]

That’s an entirely different topic. Apple is a hardware company that would like very much for us to buy a new Mac and a new iPhone every year.
Slowing down old devices only cost them some millions, when caught and convicted/settled. But Apple’s profits are in the billions. It makes perfect business sense to continue the practice. It’s more subtle and more nuanced now, but the next macOS will probably slow down M1 Macs too.

That's actually sad!
However sometimes performance comes back. In Monterey 12.1 Apple Maps had terrible 3D performance (similar as it has now in Ventura/Sonoma). In 12.2 it was fixed.