Since the beginning of Chrome, benchmarks have been a key way by which we drive performance optimizations that benefit users. The most relevant web benchmarks today are Speedometer, MotionMark, and Jetstream. Over the last year Chrome has invested in optimizing against these specific benchmarks and has just achieved our highest scores across all three. These gains were achieved through a combination of large projects and small improvements. In today’s The Fast and the Curious post, we want to share just some of the ways we drove these improvements in Chrome.

We’re bringing a new mid-tier compiler to Chrome. Maglev is a just-in-time compiler that can quickly generate performant machine code for all relevant functions within the first one-hundredth of a second. It reduces overall CPU time to compile code while also saving battery life. Our measurements show Maglev has provided a 7.5 percent improvement on Jetstream and a 5 percent improvement in Speedometer. Maglev will start rolling out in Chrome version 114, which begins release on June 5.

Speedometer measures the responsiveness of websites by putting various JavaScript UI frameworks through their paces. Just over a year ago we shared details about how we increased our score from 100 to over 300 from Chrome version 40 to version 101. Since then, across 13 Chrome releases, we’ve achieved our new highest Speedometer score of 491. In addition to Maglev, the V8 team has achieved this score through both small adjustments, such as optimized function calls, and major, multi-quarter projects. 

Chrome 116.0.5803.2 running on an M2 Macbook Air with Maglev enabled

MotionMark is designed to test how much browser graphics systems can render at high frame rates. Chrome’s graphics and rendering teams have tracked over 20 optimizations since the start of the year, and more than half are available today. Together, these optimizations have almost tripled performance. Some highlights include improvements to Canvas performance, profile-guided optimization, GPU task scheduling, and layer compositing. We also created a novel algorithm for dynamic multisample anti-aliasing and out-of-process 2D canvas rasterization for improved parallelism.

Chrome M115.0.5773.4 running on a 13” M2 Macbook Pro

JetStream is a JavaScript and WebAssembly benchmark suite focused on advanced web applications. Many of the updates that we made for Speedometer also drove significant improvements on Jetstream as we optimized the V8 engine. In addition to these enhancements, Maglev drove the biggest gains in this benchmark. 

Chrome 116.0.5803.2 running on an M2 Macbook Air with Maglev enabled

Because we’re optimizing against these benchmarks, it’s essential that these improvements translate to real user benefits, which is why we’re investing, along with other browsers, in creating the next generation of benchmarks. This has been an ongoing collaboration, and we’re excited to turn our efforts toward this new target in the coming year.

We hope you all enjoy a faster Chrome! 

Posted by Thomas Nattestad, Product Manager