back to article Mozilla claims 25 per cent JavaScript speed boost with Firefox 18

Mozilla has released its latest Firefox build, version 18, and claims the new version offers a 25 per cent speed boost thanks to a new JavaScript compiler dubbed IonMonkey. "IonMonkey is a huge step forward for our JavaScript performance and our compiler architecture," said compiling engineer David Anderson. "But also, it's …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    AJAX

    Now, if only they'd fix the AJAX issue, I'd be happy (Firefox pauses while an AJAX update is taking place, even in a different tab).

  2. n13ldo

    Personally, I'm looking forward to Firefox 26...

    1. JB
      Happy

      You'll only have to wait a few days, then!

  3. rash.m2k

    Bollocks! Everytime I upgrade firefox it just gets slower and slower and just more bloated! I don't see ANY new features but it just seems to take longer to load up!

    1. Bush_rat

      I agree, but after upgrading I did notice a real speed boost of the last versions.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Boffin

      Try disabling the add ons. If it's faster, one of them is slowing it down.

    3. The BigYin

      I concur after trying Sunspider

      Ubuntu 12.10 64bit, KDE 4.9, 4GB ram, Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz

      FF 17 - 293ms

      FF 18 - 323ms

      So based on the mighty evidence of one sample, I say that FF 18 is 10% slower and a regression.

      I believe this comparison to be fair as the same add-ons were enabled in both runs.

      1. The BigYin

        Did a run in a Windows VM on a different PC (I had upgraded the host from FF 17 to FF 18 already). Host is almost the same as above, save it runs Windows 7 and has a 3.1GHz Core 2 Duo

        FF 17 - 263ms

        FF 18 - 312ms (18% slower)

        So I don't know where Mozilla is getting their "25% JavaScript speed boost" from, guess I should have held-off on the upgrades and checked out the V8 benchmark. Can someone else run these before an after upgrade?

    4. itzman
      Linux

      actually that was true up to about version 8 or so but it seems to be getting better now.

      Still had - haven't checked this release - some stability issues that meant it went guru meditation occasionally.

  4. illiad

    I haven't bothered to update FF since V4, due to needed plugins... when they make it 'out of the box' as fully featured as Opera, BUT with the full FF functionality, I may think about it...

  5. JDX Gold badge

    "super excited"

    awesome.

  6. jason 7
    Unhappy

    You know why this is......

    ...no one ever bothers to do any real testing anymore.

    Why bother when version 19 will be out in a month promising it will be better.........

    Rinse and repeat.

  7. nichomach
    Unhappy

    Having left it running...

    ...with a few tabs open overnight and come back in to find it consuming over 900MB and choking when it attempted a page refresh, I'm less than thrilled. Maybe it's just my machine, though.

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