Javascript speed

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I’ve long thought that if you wanted the fastest browser experience on a Mac, you went with the nightly Webkit build from http://nightly.webkit.org/.

So I was surprised today when I happened on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark site and put several browsers through their paces.

One caveat, this test is measuring the core JavaScript engine and no other browser APIs or features. The results (smaller number is better):

Machine: MacPro (dual 2.8 quad-core); OS 10.6.1

Firefox 3.5.3 1036.8ms (32-bit)
Webkit Nightly (r49008) 434.8ms (64-bit)
Google Chrome (4.0.212.1) 434.4ms (32-bit)
Safari 4.0.3 364.6ms (64-bit)