Ever since its debut alongside Windows 10, Microsoft Edge promised a significant departure from its predecessor, Internet Explorer. Initially, its impact might not have been as profound as expected.
However, after transitioning its engine to Chromium, Edge has emerged as a formidable contender among browsers, offering a user experience that rivals, and in some cases surpasses, the competition.
Although ample room exists for enhancement, Edge’s market share hasn’t skyrocketed. Nevertheless, this hasn’t deterred developers from achieving remarkable performance upgrades, particularly on macOS.
Microsoft Edge achieves 20% better scores on macOS
This information is sourced from the official Windows Blogs website, providing insights into the optimizations made for Microsoft Edge on Mac devices equipped with Apple Silicon processors. It appears that Microsoft is gaining a deeper understanding of ARM processors. The company mentions activating a profile optimization that enhances the browser’s scores by 20%.
Outlined below are the differences shared in the Speedometer 2.1a test, which gauges browser responsiveness and overall website performance:
Now it’s the turn of MotionMark 1.2a rendering benchmark for complex web pages full of graphics and animations:
Finally, we show you the data of JetStream, a test to compare how fast browsers start and display code. With JetStream, we can see which browser works best with heavy websites.
Profile-guided optimization is an established compilation technique used in browsers to improve performance. It works by tracking the most utilized functions during operation and then prioritizing those critical paths over less frequent processes. This allows for more efficient resource allocation and faster operational speeds.
Google implemented this in their Chrome browser for Windows back in version 53 over 8 years ago. By compiling the most common operations, they achieved a 14.8% faster new tab page loading time, 5.9% quicker content page loads, and 16.8% speedier launch times.
Microsoft also adopted profile-guided optimization more recently for their Edge browser on Windows devices. Starting with Edge version 81 released in March 2020, Microsoft began using profile-guided compilation. They later augmented optimizations further with link-time optimizations in Edge 83. Details on these performance boosts can be found on the official Windows Blog from Microsoft.
