Timer Performance in Browsers

courtesy of Telstar Logistics / Todd Lappin

After finishing Meetup.Tweener, I started to do lots of animation by JavaScript. In JavaScript, all animation happens by built-in timer. You can call either window.setTimeout or window.setInterval. So it’s all about how accurate the timer is fired, if you want to do precise animation.

I guess I have read somewhere before, but I just made up tiny JavaScript page here.

Timer Check @ archive.nydd.org

My observation:

• Firefox 3 is not that accurate. The interval tends to be much more wobbling than others. My Firefox is significantly slow.. Maybe because theme (Gray Modern 2), Firebug or something else.
• Safari is not bad. Sometimes, it does GC? it takes 10 times more than usual. But mostly, the performance is constant.
• Google Chrome is supreme. It has the best accuracy. If I cut counter update, I guess it can do much more.
• IE 6 is actually very good too. It never hits less than certain point, but the interval is very steady.
• Opera is also not too bad too. I don’t understand why, but it sometimes hits double time, very periodically.
• IE7, IE8, I will take a look at it soon.

Try the page! Questions and comments are all welcomed, And let me know if you find something interesting.