Performance is essential to your success, which makes it core to ours. To help ensure the browser doesn’t slow you down, we always keep performance in mind as we continue to improve Microsoft Edge. We’re always working to make Microsoft Edge faster and more efficient than ever before.
To deliver a world-class browser, our definition of performance has four components:
Speed
When you open your browser, you have a goal in mind, and we want to help you achieve it as quickly as possible. We look at each step in the most common browsing scenarios to help reduce the time from start to finish. In March 2020, Profile-Guided Optimizations (PGO) shipped in Microsoft Edge 81 Stable Channel, followed by Link-Time Optimizations (LTO) in Microsoft Edge 83. These changes improved browser speed as measured by the Speedometer 2.0 benchmark by as much as 13% as compared to previous versions of Microsoft Edge.
Responsiveness
The web today is dynamic and interactive. You expect the browser to respond to your typing, touch, and clicks. That means seeing letters appear on the screen instantaneously, a smooth scrolling experience from the top of the page to the bottom, and improved responsiveness to clicks. In April, we shared information about several scrolling personality improvements in Microsoft Edge and other Chromium-based browsers. These improvements help Microsoft Edge feel smoother and more responsive to the mousewheel, keyboard, or scrollbar scrolling.
Resource Usage
We know people don’t like the amount of memory and CPU modern web browsers use. And we’ve heard your concerns that when memory and CPU usage is high it slows down your device and slows you down too. We’re reducing the amount of memory and CPU required to power your browsing habits, while providing more information and control to meet your needs. With the Windows 10 May 2020 Update, Microsoft Edge leveraged Windows segment heap memory improvements available for Win32 applications to manage memory more efficiently and reduce overall memory usage. Internal testing showed memory reductions of up to 27%.
Size
We want you to be able to make the most of your device, and that means leaving room on your device for you to save what matters most to you. To help maximize the amount of device storage you have, we shrunk the size of Microsoft Edge by half over the last year.
Delivering the fastest browser drives our team, and we aren’t slowing down.
We’re just getting started. Watch for more exciting announcements over the next few months. To be the first to experience our performance innovations, become a Microsoft Edge Insider and send us your feedback. We want to hear from you.
– Kim Denny, Principal PM Lead, Microsoft Edge