JavaScript: Google extends the SunSpider benchmark

Google takes the JavaScript benchmarking tests very seriously. One of the most popular of these is the SunSpider test which has recently been increased to better correspond to reality according to Google… and therefore Chrome.

While the latest web browsers have had extra emphasis on HTML5, CSS3 and hardware acceleration support, the execution speed of JavaScript is once again being spoken about (most Web services use this language). Microsoft and Mozilla won’t disagree with this, as their IE9 and Firefox 4 web browsers have certainly made up a lot of ground in this regard.

Mozilla isn’t planning on stopping here though, as they are looking at competing with Google Chrome’s JavaScript V8 engine with their new Crankshaft compilation. Mozilla is heavily pushing IonMonkey, a new JIT compiler (on the fly) which will improve the performance of the SpiderMonkey engine after the benefits successively brought by TraceMonkey and JaegerMonkey.

Numerous benchmarks indicate what direction the editors are moving in. Among these benchmarks, SunSpider is one of the most popular. It allows you to evaluate the performance and speed at which JavaScript is executed in a browser via numerous tests (mathematic functions, 3D, encryption...).

Popular, but not a great test according to Google, as it doesn’t evaluate JavaScript engines correctly – with the reported execution speed lagging. Google has also pointed out that certain tests conducted in SunSpider are executed too quickly to be significant.

Google has therefore modified SunSpider so that each test is executed 50 times in a row. This solution isn’t a cure for Google, but it does provide information about future optimisations while reporting more realistic performance, with Chrome coming out 30% faster on the modified test than with the classic SunSpider benchmark.

Hosted on Google Code, the modified SunSpider benchmark allows you to move through the normal or extended tests. According to our tests, both Firefox 4 and Opera 11.10 came out better with the 50 iterations per test. This was not the case for Internet Explorer 9 though... Could this be an attack disguised by Google?

Not surprisingly, with the SunSpider changes, Google Chrome 11 comes out a lot faster.