Browser engine performance related to JavaScript

Question: Which browser engine perform better when it comes to JavaScript?

Browsers tested:

• Firefox version 3.5.2
  
• IE8.0.6001.18702
  
• Google Chrome 1.0.154
  

Results:

When it came to rendering a complex page with lots of jQuery client-side activity, they all performed well, but Google Chrome is definitely faster than Firefox as well as IE8. However, in one of the screens I loaded multiple grids (jqGrid) that each calls the server via Ajax asynchronously. The interesting result here is that IE8 outperforms Firefox and Chrome by an order of magnitude. It loaded the 5 grids visibly about twice as fast as both Firefox and Chrome, the last two performing visibly the same. Without getting in to too much technical jargon, IE8 obviously performs some kind of parallel call whereas the other two rendering engines perform the different Ajax calls in sequence. When it comes to design and development work requiring WYSIWYG results, Firefox is king with the Firebug, YSlow, CacheViewer, and other plug-ins. I can recommend Chrome when client-side performance is crucial to users, but Firefox is hard to beat when it comes to plug-in support, security, adherence to HTML and CSS standards compliance.

To put it into perspective here are some stats on the content rendered:

3429 DOM elements on the page!

doc (1)	63.5K
doc	63.5K	11.6K				http://localhost/CRM/Contact.mvc/Edit/1	2009/9/3	624
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT X-Powered-By ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version 2.0.50727 Content-Encoding gzip X-AspNetMvc-Version 1.0 Cache-Control private Expires Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Content-Type text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length 11670
js (2)	1532.3K
js	1066.7K	301.8K				http://localhost/CRM/Scripts.mvc/GetjQueryScripts	2009/9/3	1903
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:36 GMT X-Powered-By ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version 2.0.50727 Content-Encoding gzip X-AspNetMvc-Version 1.0 Cache-Control private, max-age=0 Expires Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Last-Modified Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Content-Type text/js Content-Length 301850
js	465.6K	87.7K				http://localhost/CRM/Scripts.mvc/GetCRMScripts	2009/9/3	2241
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:37 GMT X-Powered-By ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version 2.0.50727 Content-Encoding gzip X-AspNetMvc-Version 1.0 Cache-Control private, max-age=0 Expires Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Last-Modified Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Content-Type text/js Content-Length 87761
css (2)	234.4K
css	60.9K	13.1K				http://localhost/CRM/Scripts.mvc/GetjQueryCss	2009/9/3	691
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT X-Powered-By ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version 2.0.50727 Content-Encoding gzip X-AspNetMvc-Version 1.0 Cache-Control private, max-age=0 Expires Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Last-Modified Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Content-Type text/css Content-Length 13179
css	173.5K	31.1K				http://localhost/CRM/Scripts.mvc/GetCRMCss	2009/9/3	1175
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:36 GMT X-Powered-By ASP.NET X-AspNet-Version 2.0.50727 Content-Encoding gzip X-AspNetMvc-Version 1.0 Cache-Control private, max-age=0 Expires Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Last-Modified Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Content-Type text/css Content-Length 31122
cssimage (25)	38.1K
cssimage	0.2K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/VerticalBarGradientFade.png	no expires	490	"4a555bb21a3c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:01 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:49:22 GMT Etag "4a555bb21a3c91:983" Content-Length 275
cssimage	13.6K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/BannerImages/BusinessGroups/VM-healthcare_crm.png	no expires	490	"c0e5ab32bcfca1:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:01 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:47:11 GMT Etag "c0e5ab32bcfca1:983" Content-Length 13673
cssimage	0.3K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/VerticalButtonBarGradientFade.png	no expires	492	"83e97b821a3c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:01 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:49:18 GMT Etag "83e97b821a3c91:983" Content-Length 322
cssimage	0.06K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/ArrowRight.gif	no expires	493	"327e28b921a3c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:01 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:49:19 GMT Etag "327e28b921a3c91:983" Content-Length 64
cssimage	0.08K					http://localhost/.../ui-bg_inset-hard_100_fcfdfd_1x100.png	no expires	494	"34a9e3aa7cd9c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:02 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Wed, 20 May 2009 18:56:22 GMT Etag "34a9e3aa7cd9c91:983" Content-Length 88
cssimage	3.4K					http://localhost/.../ui-bg_gloss-wave_55_5c9ccc_500x100.png	no expires	496	"34a9e3aa7cd9c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:02 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Wed, 20 May 2009 18:56:22 GMT Etag "34a9e3aa7cd9c91:983" Content-Length 3457
cssimage	0.1K					http://localhost/.../ui-bg_glass_85_dfeffc_1x400.png	no expires	498	"94be6aa7cd9c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:02 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Wed, 20 May 2009 18:56:22 GMT Etag "94be6aa7cd9c91:983" Content-Length 123
cssimage	0.1K					http://localhost/.../ui-bg_inset-hard_100_f5f8f9_1x100.png	no expires	501	"f46de8aa7cd9c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:02 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Wed, 20 May 2009 18:56:22 GMT Etag "f46de8aa7cd9c91:983" Content-Length 104
cssimage	0.3K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/User.gif	no expires	503	"01aabb21a3c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:01 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:49:22 GMT Etag "01aabb21a3c91:983" Content-Length 389
cssimage	0.4K					http://localhost/.../headerleft.gif	no expires	517	"0111e99cde5c81:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:02 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:20:58 GMT Etag "0111e99cde5c81:983" Content-Length 425
cssimage	0.08K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/StyleSheets/Screen/jQuery/jquery.grid/themes/basic/images/headerbg.gif	no expires	519	"0111e99cde5c81:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:02 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:20:58 GMT Etag "0111e99cde5c81:983" Content-Length 87
cssimage	0.08K					http://localhost/.../headerright.gif	no expires	520	"0111e99cde5c81:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:02 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:20:58 GMT Etag "0111e99cde5c81:983" Content-Length 87
cssimage	0.8K					http://localhost/.../grid-blue-hd.gif	no expires	617	"0111e99cde5c81:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:20:58 GMT Etag "0111e99cde5c81:983" Content-Length 821
cssimage	1.0K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/callBlock.png	no expires	612	"302288e6e7aec91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:32 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:25:38 GMT Etag "302288e6e7aec91:983" Content-Length 1042
cssimage	0.8K					http://localhost/.../grid-blue-ft.gif	no expires	520	"0e4ec97cde5c81:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:02 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:20:56 GMT Etag "0e4ec97cde5c81:983" Content-Length 821
cssimage	0.9K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/edit.jpg	no expires	521	"96fc29ba21a3c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:18 GMT Content-Type image/jpeg Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:49:20 GMT Etag "96fc29ba21a3c91:983" Content-Length 906
cssimage	1.3K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/PreCallPlan.jpg	no expires	521	"215721b921a3c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:18 GMT Content-Type image/jpeg Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:49:19 GMT Etag "215721b921a3c91:983" Content-Length 1326
cssimage	1.2K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/Check.gif	no expires	522	"215721b921a3c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:18 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:49:19 GMT Etag "215721b921a3c91:983" Content-Length 1287
cssimage	1.3K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/collapseMultiple.png	no expires	523	"40de144885b1c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:01 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:17:15 GMT Etag "40de144885b1c91:983" Content-Length 1304
cssimage	4.0K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/up.png (status: 404)	no expires	614
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Connection close Content-Length 4040 Content-Type text/html
cssimage	0.3K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/StyleSheets/Screen/jQuery/basic/images/up.gif	no expires	522	"fdf2be77a0a1c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:28 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:51:33 GMT Etag "fdf2be77a0a1c91:983" Content-Length 312
cssimage	0.5K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/StyleSheets/Screen/jQuery/basic/images/refresh.gif	no expires	523	"cfa4b077a0a1c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:28 GMT Content-Type image/gif Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:51:33 GMT Etag "cfa4b077a0a1c91:983" Content-Length 581
cssimage	1.3K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/expandMultiple.png	no expires	524	"a91dbf4f85b1c91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:22 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:17:28 GMT Etag "a91dbf4f85b1c91:983" Content-Length 1305
cssimage	4.0K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/down.png (status: 404)	no expires	614
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:35 GMT Connection close Content-Length 4040 Content-Type text/html
cssimage	1.2K					http://localhost/CRM/Content/Images/scheduleButton.png	no expires	526	"e36ebca1baabc91:983"	smush.it
Response Headers Server Microsoft-IIS/5.1 X-Powered-By ASP.NET Date Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:23 GMT Content-Type image/png Accept-Ranges bytes Last-Modified Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:24:02 GMT Etag "e36ebca1baabc91:983" Content-Length 1296
image (22)	33.1K