Microsoft Edge Recently Got a Speed Boost
For many, Microsoft Edge's only purpose is to download another browser entirely, like Chrome or Firefox. But this isn't Internet Explorer: Edge is a competent browser in its own right, whether you have a Mac or a PC. If you do use the browser, you might be pleasantly surprised by how snappy it feels after you update it—at least, according to Microsoft.
Edge 134 and newer's performance gains
In a Thursday post on Windows Blogs, Microsoft confirmed that, starting with version 134, Microsoft Edge is a tad faster than previous iterations. In fact, Edge 134 is up to 9% faster, when you run it through Speedometer 3.0, a benchmarking tool for web browsers.
Microsoft says that when testing Edge version 134 on an Intel i5-13500 running Windows 11, the browser scores a 32.7 on the Speedometer 3.0 benchmark. The company compares it to Edge 133, which scored 29.6, and Edge 132, which scored 28.8.
In addition to this raw benchmark score, Microsoft touted some Edge 134 stats: The company says the latest version of the browser can navigate the web 1.7% faster; browser start is 2% faster; and web pages are 5% to 7% more responsive when compared to Edge 133. Microsoft based their results from its "field telemetry," which simulates how someone may use the web on various devices and sites.
Microsoft didn't point to any specific changes in Edge 134 that could contribute to this performance boost. However, the company credits code changes to Edge and Chromium (the underlying engine that powers many webs browser, Chrome included) to improved browser speeds.
Microsoft does say that these improvements may differ depending on your setup, which should go without saying: Edge 134 may vary in performance between a PC running Windows 11 and a Mac running macOS Sequoia. Similarly, an older Intel Mac may perform slower than the latest Intel chip on PC, and it's not clear how well a Mac running Apple silicon compares to other devices. Whatever your setup, you can likely expect this latest version of Microsoft Edge to perform at least slightly better after the update.
There's a bit more to the story
If you're an avid Edge user, you might know that Edge 134 isn't actually the latest version. That would be Edge 135, which dropped earlier this month. Edge 134 came out on March 6, but Microsoft didn't acknowledge these performance gains until April 10. If you regularly keep Edge updated, you might have already been living with the speed boosts for over a month. However, not all of us are so on it: When checking my own version of Edge, I found it to still be on a version of Edge 133. Now, I'm on 135—I never even had the chance to run 134!
In my own very unofficial test running Speedometer 3.0, 135 only scored 24.4, plus or minus 0.67. That might sound low when compared to Microsoft's tests, but the latest version of Chrome scored 22.1, plus or minus 0.28, while Safari scored 21.5, plus or minus 0.92. I suspect my various extensions could affect the scores, but I did quit all other open applications to run the test (I'm on an M1 Mac).
Performance gains aren't the only improvements to Edge this year. Back in February, Microsoft started testing a feature that can block fullscreen pop-ups. Shortly after, the company rolled out a RAM management feature for gamers that had been in beta testing for some time.