Macs Faster On Web

Despite stereotypes, Macs are typically faster than Windows PCs on the web, according to data from FutureMark. Best known for its 3DMark benchmark suite, the company says that Apple's systems are about 5 to 10 percent faster on average in its Peacekeeper web code test than Windows computers with equivalent hardware. This includes any browser that runs on both platforms, including Apple's own Safari as well as Firefox and Opera.

Google's currently Windows-only Chrome, as well as Safari, are currently the fastest browsers overall while Microsoft's Internet Explorer trails the pack, completing the tests five times slower than either of the leaders.

Company president Oliver Baltuch doesn't enter into details with DailyTech on the subject but believes many of the general app programming interfaces for Mac OS X are faster in practical terms for web tasks than in Windows. Windows 7 is faster than Vista but still trails behind.

"We believe that is based on the middleware of the OS," he says. "We believe that it is more streamlined."

Similar to the Acid3 tests, Peacekeeper gauges the speed in rendering a number of elements common to web apps or other very intensive pages, such as CSS and JavaScript. It also tests HTML 5.0 rendering for those browsers that support it. Chrome and Safari are both known to have heavily optimized JavaScript engines, something which Internet Explorer lacks, and adhere more closely to web standards than Microsoft.

FutureMark adds that the iPhone is one of the few cellphones whose browser can run the tests.

By Electronista Staff

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