Peacekeeper benchmark enters the browser wars

New online benchmark from Futuremark reveals huge gap in performance between browsers

HELSINKI, FINLAND – MARCH 13, 2009 - Futuremark® Corporation today unveiled Peacekeeper™, a free online benchmarking tool for measuring and comparing the performance of common internet browsers.

Competition between browsers has never been as hotly contested, nor have internet users had as many choices as they do now. The big five: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera, see regular releases of new and innovative features and each camp’s fans keep many a forum and blog busy.

So far, words have been the only shots fired in the long-running browser wars. Now, with Peacekeeper web users finally have an easy to use, impartial tool for measuring and comparing the performance of different web browsers.

Peacekeeper is a new online benchmark from Futuremark that realistically simulates the load placed on the browser by common JavaScript functions as used by popular, modern websites. For users who prioritize speed and performance, Peacekeeper helps answer the question of which browser is best for them.

Jukka Mäkinen, Head of PC Products and Services at Futuremark, said, "People have more choice now in how they experience the internet than ever before. But they may not realize that performance between browsers can vary dramatically, especially on lower-end PCs. With Peacekeeper, it’s simple to compare different browsers and see which one offers the best performance on your PC."

Many websites, such as social networks, video sharing communities and webmail services, place a heavy load on the web browser. For people who use these sites a lot, changing browsers to one that performs faster can make visiting those sites more fun, with less waiting for pages to load and display correctly. Peacekeeper makes that choice easier than ever.

About Futuremark Corporation
Futuremark® Corporation is the leading provider of performance analysis software and services for PCs and smartphones. Futuremark® is known around the world for its benchmark products, including 3DMark® (with more than 45 million copies distributed worldwide), PCMark®, SPMark™ and VGMark™ and value-added services powered by the ORB, an online database of over 30 million real life benchmarking results. Futuremark maintains offices in Saratoga, California and Helsinki, Finland. For more information, please visit http://www.futuremark.com

Note to editors:

Below is a table of the scores produced by Peacekeeper.* The best performing browser has a score more than six and half times greater than that of the lowest performing browser.

Browser	Version	Peacekeeper Score*
Safari	4.0 Beta	1656
Chrome	1.0.154.48	1558
Opera	9.64	662
Firefox	3.0.7	449
Internet Explorer	7.0	243

*Results from a sample PC using an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor

© 2009 Futuremark® Corporation. Peacekeeper™, 3DMark®, PCMark®, SPMark™ and VGMark™ trademarks and logos, Futuremark character names and distinctive likenesses, are the exclusive property of Futuremark Corporation.

Company Contacts
North America:
Oliver Baltuch, President, Futuremark Inc.
Phone: +1 408 517 0910 (PST)
Email: oliver.baltuch@futuremark.com

Europe and Asia:
Jukka Mäkinen, Vice President, PC Products and Services
Phone +358-20-7598250
Email: jukka@futuremark.com