Learning While Aging

Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview shows big improvements

Microsoft released a platform preview for Internet Explorer 9 last week and I downloaded and installed it today, and compared some results with IE8, Firefox 3.6.2 and Google Chrome 4.1.249 and would like to share the results with you.

First, the release notes of Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview is here. This version can only be installed on Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7, so check your system before download. Even if your system does not meet the requirements, you still can visit the test drive site to see the new and improved features in IE 9.

SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark Results (http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider-driver.html)

Compare to IE 8, IE 9 Platform Preview already has a huge improvement on JavaScript Benchmark test, about 6.5 times faster than IE 8. The results also shows better performance than Firefox 3.6, but not as good as Google Chrome, however, it is very impressive for such a early release.

SunSpider_JavaScript_Benchmark_IE9

Because of the different hardware configuration, I couldn’t get the exact results as above, but the result ratio of IE 9 and other browsers (IE 8, Firefox, and Chrome) is very close. For example, according to the data above, IE9/IE8 = 598.8/3825.53 = 0.1565, my results show that IE9/IE8 = 1358.0/8886.8 = 0.1528. For Firefox, my results show that IE9/Firefox = 1358.0/1711.4 = 0.7935 vs. IE9/Firefox = 598.0/699.8 = 0.8545.

Acid3 Test for Web Standards (http://acid3.acidtests.org/)

IE 8

Acid3ScreenCapture_IE8

IE 8 (Compatible Mode)

Acid3ScreenCapture_IE8_CompatibleView

IE 9 Platform Preview

Acid3ScreenCapture_IE9

Firefox 3.6.2

Acid3ScreenCapture_FireFox

Google Chrome 4.1.249

Acid3ScreenCapture_Chrome

Only Google Chrome passed the Web Standards Test and IE 8 Compatible Mode had the worst result with a poor score of 13/100. IE 8 improved not much and IE 9 still has a long way to go to pass the test.

CSS3 Selectors Test (http://tools.css3.info/selectors-test/test.html)

IE 8

CSS3_Selector_Results_IE8

IE 8 Compatible Mode

CSS3_Selector_Results_IE8_CompatibleMode

IE 9 Platform Preview

CSS3_Selector_Results_IE9

Firefox 3.6.2

CSS3_Selector_Results_FireFox

Google Chrome 4.1.249

CSS3_Selector_Results_Chrome

Google Chrome, Firefox, and IE 9 Platform Preview all passed the test and neither of IE8 or IE8 Compatible Mode passed the test (no surprise I think).

I am impressed by the results of IE 9 Platform Preview and am interested in trying the future release of it.

P.S. At some point, my CSS3 Selectors test results in IE 9 Platform Preview failed. After I relaunched IE 9 Platform Preview and the test passed. Don’t know what caused the problem.

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Jayden Scott
14 years ago

Internet Explorer 8 is very good because it is as stable as Opera. I hate the previous versions of IE like IE6 because it hangs frequently. `