Important versions of Chrome and Firefox were released since our last installment, and though we're ready to leave Windows 7 behind, IE10 brings us back for one more round. Naturally, our exhaustive suite of benchmarks undergoes a massive update as well.

Here’s what has happened in the world of Web browsers since Which Web Browser Is Best Under Windows 8?:
Recent News And Events
11/13/12: The Release Preview of IE10 for Windows 7 is launched
11/18/12: Microsoft claims that WebKit is putting open Web standards in jeopardy
12/17/12: W3C Finalizes the Definition of HTML5
12/27/13: Mozilla intends to include H.264 support in Firefox 20
01/08/13: Mozilla releases Firefox 18 with new IonMonkey JavaScript engine
02/13/13: Opera announces that it’s switching to a Chromium base (WebKit and V8)
02/15/13: President of jQuery sees WebKit as another IE6 in the making
02/16/13: Opera Software purchases Skyfire Labs
02/22/13: Google releases Chrome 25
02/26/13: Microsoft releases IE10 for Windows 7
03/05/13: Chrome’s market share decreases slightly; Firefox, IE, and Safari benefit
03/06/13: EU imposes massive fine on Microsoft for missing Browser Ballot
03/07/13: Reports indicate that Google and Opera tipped the EU on Browser Ballot
03/07/13: Chrome, Firefox, and IE10 hacked at Pwn2Own, Opera and Safari not tested
Wow, what a couple of months, right? Firefox’s long-anticipated IonMonkey JavaScript engine finally landed, Microsoft and jQuery assail WebKit for its use of browser-specific extensions, Opera jumps on-board the Chromium bandwagon, and Google and Opera rat out Microsoft to the EU. Software people are always a riot.
Now, let’s quickly get acquainted with the today’s contenders before checking out the latest changes to our test suite.
- Possibly The Last "Top Four"
- Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera
- Test Setup And Benchmark Suite
- Startup Time
- Page Load Time
- JavaScript And DOM Performance
- HTML5 Performance
- Hardware Acceleration Performance
- Memory Efficiency
- Page Load Reliability And Security
- Standards Conformance
- Windows WBGP Winner's Circle
The composite hardware acceleration scores is most likely the main reason why IE9/10 is so far behind Firefox and Chrome on performane. Yet, from what I can tell, this composite score is heavily influenced by the WebGL scores, which is exclusive to Chrome and Firefox.
In that respect, MS has at some point stated that they do not even wish to support WebGL, as it represents a significant security risk, as it gives the browser close access to the computer hardware.
Long story short, your methods of calculating performance scores heavily favors Chrome and Firefox as they are the only ones to implement support for WebGL.
Additionally, I wish you would make it more clear how you arrive at your composite scores and of course the final Performance Index. How do you add numbers that are so varied in nature, without some method of normalizing the numbers?
My test results: Chrome 26 completion time: 2.3 seconds on 30x30 maze, 6.5 seconds on the 40x40 maze.
Firefox gets completion times of 8.6 seconds and 24 seconds respectively - although Firefox is slower, it is definitely quicker than before (I remember when it took over a minute for Firefox to complete it!) This is on a Intel i5-480m processor, 6gb ram and windows 7 home premium.
I still don't trust what google does with all that lovely data it acquires.