Mozilla Firefox 64bit Build Performance Compared to 32bit

[madeinheaven]

Mozilla Firefox 64bit Build Performance Compared to 32bit



If you go to Mozilla’s website to download the latest version of Firefox web browser, there is only a 32-bit version of it which can be installed and ran on both 32bit and 64bit of Windows. However many wonder if there is a 64-bit version of Firefox since theoretically it should load quicker and is much more responsive than the 32-Bit build on a 64bit Windows. Actually there are 64-bit nightly builds available for Windows but it is not officially released due to incompatibilities and with popular plugins. Other than the official nightly builds, there is another 64-Bit version of Firefox called Waterfox where the Firefox source code is taken and compiled with optimizations so that it will run more efficiently and faster for 64-Bit Windows computers.

Since many modern computers comes pre-installed with Windows 64-bit operating system, I thought I should test if the Firefox 64-bit build is faster than the 32-build on Windows 7 64-bit.


To do a simple benchmark, I installed Firefox 8.0 32-bit, Waterfox 8.0 64-bit, Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit and 64-bit on a clean Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit with all latest updates. All history are cleared after each test because all 4 Firefox builds shares the same profile and followed by a restart before performing the next benchmark.

1. Application Cold Boot Startup Time
Firefox 8.0 32-bit: 2.1535s
Waterfox 8.0 64-bit: 1.7947s
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit: 1.3266
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 64-bit: 1.8571s

2. Application Warm Boot Startup Time
Firefox 8.0 32-bit: 0.3s
Waterfox 8.0 64-bit: 0.28s
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit: 0.28s
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 64-bit: 0.27s

3. Kraken JavaScript Benchmark
Firefox 8.0 32-bit: 5370.6ms
Waterfox 8.0 64-bit: 4961.4ms
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit: 3401.8ms
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 64-bit: 3870.3ms

4. Peacekeeper Browser Test
Firefox 8.0 32-bit: 1665
Waterfox 8.0 64-bit: 1701
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit: 1811
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 64-bit: 1761

5. SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Firefox 8.0 32-bit: 234.9ms
Waterfox 8.0 64-bit: 248.8ms
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit: 236.4ms
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 64-bit: 236.8ms

6. Idle Memory Usage
Firefox 8.0 32-bit: 29844K
Waterfox 8.0 64-bit: 41468K
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit: 31944K
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 64-bit: 40416K

7. Memory Usage after visiting 4 websites (Raymond.CC, Yahoo, CNN, YouTube)
Firefox 8.0 32-bit: 81652K
Waterfox 8.0 64-bit: 95920K
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit: 82600K
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 64-bit: 82212K

8. Memory Usage when simultaneously opening 10 tabs with different URLs
Firefox 8.0 32-bit: 173260K
Waterfox 8.0 64-bit: 223492K
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 32-bit: 160092K
Firefox Nightly 11.0a1 64-bit: 211564K

From the benchmark results shown above, I can tell that Firefox 32-bit build definitely consume less memory usage if compared with 64-bit but the 64-bit build performs slightly better than the 32-bit build. The nightly build performs really well with better memory management so we can expect an improved Firefox in future. If you would like that extra performance from the current Firefox 8 on your Windows 64-bit, then go ahead and install Waterfox. Do note that Waterfox requires Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64) to be installed. The Firefox Night Builds are for testing purposes only but you can still go ahead and use it if you’re the adventurous type.

[ Download Firefox 64-bit Nightly | Waterfox ]

Source: raymond.cc

[SacredCultivator]

From those at least of when you tested seems like 64-bit isn't actually that great in comparison to the 32-bit (Nightly).

Unless I'm misreading the scores.

[NightWalker]

32-bit is faster in your tests :huh:

[Tunerz]

64-bit isn't as optimized as its 32-bit counterpart as of the moment. When Mozilla finally announces official 64-bit support, the build would get the same treatment with 32-bit.

Check mozillazine for in-depth discussions about nightly builds.

[visualbuffs]

64 bit will become more stable promise

[mattyschannel666]

Mozilla has lost me as a user and many folks cause they update to much even Ubuntu is thinking ABOUT REMOVING THEM AS THE MAIN BROWSER HAHA which i agree with but in the final version 64 bit will be faster then 32 but first they need to rewrite all code for 64 bit

[dcs18]

My experience with Raymond, when it comes to browsers is that instead of using his mouth to talk, he uses an organ 1 meter above sea level - he just does not know what he's talking about!!!

[dcs18]

Until yesteryear, the x64-bit iteration was handicapped due to a lack of x64-bit support from both - Java and Flash (today this particular issue is not present.)

However, the x64-bit Firefox is limited only by add-ons which continue to be rolled out as x32-bit releases.

Would like to repeat here that the x64-bit Firefox does not follow the performance tweaks that are rampant on the net for the x32-bit. The x64-bit needs to be configured differently and separately (starting with an absolutely new profile without any debris in the registry from previous instances.)

[RobrPatty]

Palemoon x64 is a great browser. Its also optimized like waterfox.

[dcs18]

When testing a program that uses the same application folder, a Reviewer needs to ensure that different iterations and flavors of the samples that are to be reviewed are tested using different - dedicated, and identically set up rigs for a fair result.

I can also swear by Raymond's butt that he must have committed the sacrilege of using add-ons in those performance tests which renders the comparison equal to an apple v/s lemon sampling.