Opera Wins Another Speed Test

April 25, 2012 · by Anna Rohleder

According to some estimates, Windows XP still powers up to one-third of the world's PCs, with an estimated 100 million users. That's an important part of the reason why the gadget review site Tom's Hardware used XP as the basis for a special edition of their Web Browser Grand Prix. The result?

Opera proves the be the best choice for XP users.

This was an overall result, based on Opera's performance in a number of different performance categories, from basic tasks like startup time to code rendering. Internally, winning Tom's Hardware test comes as a surprise:

"I had no idea we could win a hardware contest - we're a software company! But what we make is pretty hard too."
- Opera employee.

Are any of you using Windows XP right now? What's your experience of running Opera? Let us know in the comments!

Readers' comments 29

Left under the original article, as archived.

Swapnil RustagiWednesday, April 25, 2012 1:49:53 PM
"Are any of you using Windows XP right now?"

Yes, typing from Opera 11.62 on Windows XP. Opera is great - but eats a lot of memory; not bad when I am not running any other applications, but an issue when I am running a big application like Visual Studio side-by-side.
UnrealmirakulixWednesday, April 25, 2012 1:58:32 PM
W7 (x64) matters. And yes, do not forget the memory...
gabrielWednesday, April 25, 2012 1:58:32 PM
comme il fait to day
dżekWednesday, April 25, 2012 2:27:18 PM
Opera - can you start removing all these religious/spam/turkish comments, totally not related to Opera? I see them below every post, that's a bit annoying.

Anyway - I'm on XP too. Opera is really fast, although themed 12.00 is visibly slower. Also I don't know when memory usage started to be this big (I remember times when Opera was taking 300MB, not 600-800), but this is going to be hell, when I'll switch to Windows 7 again (only 2GB RAM) Can't switch to another browser - all of them are missing too much of Opera's features
nycWednesday, April 25, 2012 4:23:18 PM
Latest Opera on XP. Some extensions. MUCH lower CPU and memory usage than Chrome with less extensions. Dunno why but so it is.
That´s why Opera is my choice for many years. Ok, some other features are crucial, too...
Satan D. LuciferWednesday, April 25, 2012 6:30:46 PM
On W7 Sp1 x86 though

but im going to help some people having memory issues in opera

my RAM is 2GB and heres my opera:memdebug configuration

http://i.imgur.com/uoCsi.jpg

some opera:config setup that i did

-Disable "Cache Other" under disk cache tab(this means opera wont cache "OTHER" content like flash videos,mp4 and some multimedia content..downside is that in opera:cache you cant check those videos and audio to search for it.
-Disable Thumbnails
-Disable bittorent
-Disable unite,link
-Disable UI animations
-Disable Special Effects

and if you want ultimate reduced memory usage..
-Disable "Cache Docs and Cache Figs" both under Cache and Disk Cache tab in opera:config(NOT RECOMMENDED to me since it will make opera very slow and not cache'ing content in disk cache and RAM)

as im typing this i have 11 tabs open(2 YT videos the rest is document and images sites) and only using 232 MB of RAM right now.

hope kinda help other people.
a1abhi93Thursday, April 26, 2012 10:07:45 AM
I think there should be one switch button to disable and enable the services listed above. Running browser in low memory mode..
Ayesh IceThursday, April 26, 2012 11:11:01 AM
belive me its too much slow. Im using opera for last 6 years . Opera 11 is bamm. Slow on XP. Im a xp user. But opera 8. 9. Not slow on xp. 10 littibit ok. But opera 11 slow on asian countrys.

U guys must fix that. And at the moment firefox is the best choice for XP users.

Hope opera 12 not slow on xp.

--Ayesh ice--
abdullahThursday, April 26, 2012 6:18:45 PM
Ayesh u right said. Opera 11 is too slow.
Stoyan PomakovThursday, April 26, 2012 6:56:02 PM
Using Opera 11.62 at Windows XP (32). And I think it's fast
D1sasterp1eceThursday, April 26, 2012 7:32:11 PM
Yes, I am using Opera on an old machine with Win XP, but neither my choice is Opera because of the resource usage nor I know how other browsers compare.
Charles SchlossFriday, April 27, 2012 12:47:09 PM
XP has less than 2 years of support left (Microsoft calls it EOL in April 2014)

Glad I could point Opera to another test showing Opera being the fastest
The HobblerSaturday, April 28, 2012 12:16:22 AM
I'm using Opera 11.62 on Windows 2000 (since my XP machine broke down).

Its running fine , no memory problems with Opera, seems fine with 512MB RAM here, fast enough.

I think the Flash Player causes all the memory hog problems.
espoirtchibindaSunday, April 29, 2012 7:16:36 PM
thank u opera because you make me conect with the world
Babiuc Neculai-PetruMonday, April 30, 2012 3:32:25 PM
well probably some things you learn alone,and to learn you must to make experiments,i just started...
Shahmi SaidiMonday, April 30, 2012 4:47:11 PM
Opera in USB device freezes every 2 seconds on my laptop (win7, 4GB RAM, ATI RADEON graphic card, free 500+ GB disk space). That is bad. Opera should fix it. I havent test opening Opera on XP yet, but I bet Opera will crash upon startup of Opera in a USB device!
Kelisha G FerdinandsThursday, May 3, 2012 9:10:01 PM
& so it Should.http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Adore.gif -
raymond chiaFriday, May 4, 2012 7:36:48 AM
how can i download opera on my phone sony ericson xperia 10i
jkfordeTuesday, May 8, 2012 11:19:52 AM
yep, 11.62 on XP and it works great, esp when synced with OM on Android... my one and only gripe is the history settings in Opera and how it handles pre-existing files in cache, there's just something not right, but it's probably just how I've it set up! roll on 12....
HellasSaturday, May 26, 2012 9:54:54 AM
I don't use Opera since 4.05 version for nothing .
Lollo AndersenTuesday, May 29, 2012 8:09:47 PM
speed is good
Alice GreenMonday, June 4, 2012 7:19:14 AM
great job!
Jeff MurrayMonday, June 25, 2012 11:56:38 PM
Opera 12 is incredibly slow on my Toshiba X505-Q898 running Win 7 64x. It takes approx. 15 seconds just to start and loading pages is slow as well. What happened, Opera?
It runs fine on my old XP machine.
xolaniTuesday, July 24, 2012 7:14:32 PM
opera does it all. Now thy hv 2 inport music stores 4 downloads
Fathima Rifqa GhaffarSunday, January 5, 2014 4:08:24 PM
Opera always best with best.
mary angelSunday, January 5, 2014 8:44:33 PM
I've recently found that it seems to eat my memory up, 4 gig. But I'm needing to do a lot of win 7 updates, so that might be part of the problem
zackkimMonday, January 13, 2014 12:10:16 PM
help me..frend
sanu francis duttaThursday, January 16, 2014 2:08:48 PM
There's no doubt in it ! while using TURBO, it works too fast compared to Firefox
kelley jeubanksTuesday, January 28, 2014 8:19:20 AM
I was trying to use opera browser in my window 7 and Window 8 PC. But its too much slow. For This I am using another faster browser.