Google recently confirmed that the latest version of Chrome, version M99, has set benchmarks on Apple’s own Speedometer tool and says that on Macs, Chrome is faster than Safari.
According to Google, their browser is the fastest on the Mac M1, with a benchmark score about 7% more than Safari. Chrome M99 also set a speed record with a score of 300 on the benchmark tool created by Apple’s WebKit team.
Google ran the test on a 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Max chip and 64 GB of RAM. Google says: “We are pleased to announce that in M99, Chrome on Mac achieved the highest score to date of any browser – 300 – in Apple’s Speedometer benchmark. Building on many performance changes over the last year, we’ve enabled ThinLTO in M99, a code optimization technique that focuses on browser speed. Result? Chrome is 7% faster than Safari.”
Since most of the code engine in Chrome also applies to Chromium-based browsers, such as Microsoft Edge and Vivaldi, these browsers are expected to receive similar improvements after updating the codebase.
Google also says that Chrome’s graphics performance is now around 15% faster than Apple Safari’s, thanks to the aforementioned ThinLTO improvements and additional codec. Browser graphics performance is mainly useful for web applications that process images and videos, as well as websites with 3D content, such as Google Earth.
Reference: TheVerge