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Futuremark loved Opera, but the love was not returned
DailyTech recently interviewed Futuremark's Oliver Baltuch. As some of you may know, Futuremark are the makers of the well known hardware benchmarking software, 3DMark. A while ago, they released the Peacekeeper Web browser benchmark.
During the interview it is revealed that Mr. Baltuch apparently uses Opera because he likes the features and user interface. However, he says that the "love" has not exactly been returned:
"Currently, the test covers page rendering using everything from HTML 5.0 to CSS."
"He states, "Some seem to be happy. The Norwegians (Opera) seem to hate us at the moment (FutureMark is Finnish). The guys at Microsoft have been silent so far."
I really don't hope it was my comments about Peacekeeper that led him to this conclusion. I was actually pretty excited when I first heard about Peacekeeper. The tought of an independent party creating a better benchmark which didn't just measure if your JavaScript engine is optimized with certain techniques that have become common in JavaScript engines lately was compelling indeed!
But my initial excitement turned to disappointment when I tried to figure out what Peacekeeper actually does. All public information seemed to confirm that it basically just tested JavaScript performance, and that was it.
The press release states:
Peacekeeper is a new online benchmark from Futuremark that realistically simulates the load placed on the browser by common JavaScript functions as used by popular, modern websites.
Their FAQ confirms that it only tests JavaScript:
Peacekeeper measures your browser's performance by testing its JavaScript functionality.
Peacekeeper is a JavaScript performance benchmark. It does not test your browser’s other features
So it's not that anyone at Opera hates Peacekeeper. It's just that the prospect of an independent party with a proper browser benchmark was rather exciting, so it seemed to be such a waste to just jump on the JavaScript performance bandwagon and leave it at that.
That said, Peacekeeper isn't all "bad news". At least 3DMark is an independent party in the browser world, which means that theirs is probably the most trustworthy JavaScript benchmark at the moment.
And we can always hope that there will one day be a Peacekeeper v2 which focuses on more than just JavaScript. What do you say, Mr. Baltuch? Are you up for it?
(Edit: It's not that a different browser benchmark would necessarily give an objective measurement of a browser's performance since that depends on a large number of things, but it could be more relevant than a pure JavaScript benchmark.)
Readers' comments 9
Left under the original article, as archived.
About this article
| Published in | A Journal from Behind the Trenches |
|---|---|
| Date | August 24, 2009 |
| Author | Haavard |
| Tags | javascript, opera, futuremark, peacekeeper, benchmarks, performance |
| Original | Internet Archive |
Daniel HendrycksMonday, August 24, 2009 12:19:10 PM
Originally posted by haarvard:
+1Brian HuismanMonday, August 24, 2009 1:53:05 PM
Khaled KhalilMonday, August 24, 2009 2:17:10 PM
Originally posted by haarvard:
I will wait Carakan on fire, and then i hope Opera will achieve higher ranks, even in such JavaScript-only benchmarks.Kai OckendorfTuesday, August 25, 2009 10:11:09 AM
Charles SchlossTuesday, August 25, 2009 5:20:18 PM
From what know Peacekeeper test a bit more than Javascript ( I have seen the string and array and dom test)
Daniel HendrycksWednesday, August 26, 2009 12:05:30 PM
FataLWednesday, August 26, 2009 5:53:55 PM
I know some real page examples that scroll very slow and jerky in Opera.
Constantine VesnaSaturday, January 9, 2010 8:25:13 PM
Originally posted by FataL:
Not only in Opera. Some pages lag in every possible browser, even in Chrome.
But its not "scrolling speed", its rather "scrolling feel".
Charles SchlossSaturday, January 9, 2010 8:43:22 PM