Betanews: Opera reclaims performance lead

October 12, 2010 · by Aleksander Aas

Take a look at this performance test from Net1News posted on Betanews. According to the test Opera blows the competition away in more than just speed tests. No other browsers are even close to the performance level of the latest Opera 10.70 snapshots.

As the article points out there are two ways of getting these speed results. One is doubling the memory allocation and try to burn of as much CPU power as possible. However Opera doesn't, the JavaScript engine code-name Carakan actually never exceeds 20% of the test computer's CPU while still winning the tests!

We expect amazing things from this next Opera release!

Readers' comments 32

Left under the original article, as archived.

TamilTuesday, October 12, 2010 9:05:06 AM
http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/ThumbsUp.gif -
ouzowtfTuesday, October 12, 2010 9:21:59 AM
This is really an awesome test result. Be sure to read the whole article and watch the graphs!
JaredTuesday, October 12, 2010 9:33:00 AM
beny syakirTuesday, October 12, 2010 9:48:09 AM
goods
dirkTuesday, October 12, 2010 10:54:54 AM
Artur „Jurgi” JurgawkaTuesday, October 12, 2010 10:56:46 AM
I cannot await tests measuring memory hunger.
I've twice noticed JS apps, that ate over 1GB of RAM and knocked my system.
Zdenko TimulakTuesday, October 12, 2010 11:14:17 AM
YongShunTuesday, October 12, 2010 11:34:50 AM
Yeah its definitely awesome, I bet the Chrome guys are peeing on their pants right now!
prd3Tuesday, October 12, 2010 11:58:17 AM
Originally posted by Jurgi:

I cannot await tests measuring memory hunger.

They did. They specifically address resource usage:

"Conceivably, Opera 10.7 could have achieved its performance gains by throttling up by 50%, doubling its memory allocation, and throwing on the afterburners. It didn't. Instead, its updated engine sipped CPU cycles at 79% peak utilization and just over 8% average utilization, which in real-world numbers means the new Opera never used more than 20% of a quad-core CPU to process more CSS instructions than it will likely ever need to process in a four-minute period."

"The Opera 10.7 beta's total efficiency score of 4.016 makes it the first browser in Ingenus' tests to score above IE8's benchmark of 3.899, and the very first browser to effectively perform better than what's shipped with Windows without sacrificing efficiency or increasing overall memory use."
Charles SchlossTuesday, October 12, 2010 12:12:46 PM
http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/ThumbsUp.gif -
d4rkn1ghtTuesday, October 12, 2010 1:10:29 PM
keroseneTuesday, October 12, 2010 1:20:40 PM
" We expect amazing things from this next Opera release! "

Eagerly waiting for those things
HokkutTuesday, October 12, 2010 2:09:32 PM
sweet, very sweet
Stephen TurrellTuesday, October 12, 2010 4:22:59 PM
Originally posted by Jurgi:

I've twice noticed JS apps, that ate over 1GB of RAM and knocked my system.

Opera is not so good at releasing memory when you clear the cache /delete data , the only way to reclaim all the memory is to restart Opera.
Cutting SpoonTuesday, October 12, 2010 7:26:29 PM
Part of the reason Firefox became so bad with CPU usage was the more aggressive memory reclamation. In my experience I can still open more than a hundred tabs and leave Opera open for several days, so I would most decidedly agree that scaling is quite good. Seeing less than 10% CPU usage on my netbook while running this load, now that's just amazing. On-Demand Plugins needs more exposure to normal users, it is a killer checkbox when running on older/slower CPUs.

But that article barely touched on memory. I would very much like to know whether 10.70 is using more - or less - memory than 10.6x; my own tests have been rather small, and decidedly inconclusive.
DillonTuesday, October 12, 2010 7:58:29 PM
Originally posted by prd3:

"Instead, its updated engine sipped CPU cycles at 79% peak utilization and just over 8% average utilization, which in real-world numbers means the new Opera never used more than 20% of a quad-core CPU to process more CSS instructions than it will likely ever need to process in a four-minute period."

That's only referring to CPU usage.

Originally posted by hellspork:

In my experience I can still open more than a hundred tabs and leave Opera open for several days, so I would most decidedly agree that scaling is quite good.

I'm still in search of this performance. I can only run something like 15 tabs for 6 hours before I have to restart.
prd3Tuesday, October 12, 2010 8:43:09 PM
Originally posted by Astrophizz:

That's only referring to CPU usage.

Uh, no. Also, you ignored the second quote. FAIL.
DillonTuesday, October 12, 2010 9:31:40 PM
The second number doesn't give any numbers for memory either, like he does for CPU.
Cutting SpoonTuesday, October 12, 2010 9:41:28 PM
Dillon: I really am curious what's messing up your performance. Conditions have never been that extreme for me, even early in the 10.50 development cycle (before my RAM upgrade). It would benefit everyone if we could somehow figure out what is causing this...
DillonTuesday, October 12, 2010 9:50:09 PM
I've submitted bug reports for things that I think contribute to the problem but I haven't heard back. And of course complaints about performance in the forums generally get trolled or dismissed by other members who are lucky enough not to have the issues. I don't know what more I can do on my end, clean installs don't help. I might try unpacking the dll but I doubt that will help much.
Cutting SpoonTuesday, October 12, 2010 10:44:05 PM
that is probably the case. Huh. I must admit that I find this beyond strange, and it seems there is nothing we can do to help. The one last gasp would of course be more RAM.
Pablo MendozaTuesday, October 12, 2010 11:16:13 PM
ScorpiuzWednesday, October 13, 2010 6:14:19 AM
Well today's Chrome dev version has GPU acceleration so i hope Opera isnt far behind
prd3Wednesday, October 13, 2010 8:45:56 AM
Originally posted by Astrophizz:

The second number doesn't give any numbers for memory either, like he does for CPU.

Wow, why don't you come up with more excuses so that you can continue trolling?
vipin kumarWednesday, October 13, 2010 1:51:32 PM
Was waiting for this!!
Rahul MukhiyaWednesday, October 13, 2010 5:59:27 PM
Anthony Museatlantis FletcherThursday, October 14, 2010 10:07:40 AM
Wahoo thats great news
Bright KusiSaturday, October 16, 2010 12:11:03 AM
that is why i don't browse, i opera says Enoch:lol:
Erik EngløkMonday, October 18, 2010 2:26:36 PM
Me likey ! Opera is the best
turo62Tuesday, November 16, 2010 8:09:45 PM
My main hope is that this opera 10.7 will use less CPU. I have the pine tree N450 processor
turo62Tuesday, November 16, 2010 8:16:25 PM
I'm hoping this opera 10.7 uses less CPU for any given operation. I have a netbook ao532h acer. It runs fine but the the processor is only an intel atom N450. It gets maxed out to 100% a lot So i just downloaded opera 10.7. Hopefully The task manager will be kind.
Charles SchlossTuesday, November 16, 2010 9:11:24 PM
@turo62 Opera 10.70 will be Opera 11