Forum Discussion
Battery and graphic performance
Am curious on what kind of specs you have?
For me personally Chrome / EdgeChromium doesn't have working hw accelerated video (Intel HD 3000) and I tend to use EdgeHTML for streaming because it is much more fluid.
Haven't tested the browser on a Surface Pro 5 yet but I mainly stick to EdgeHTML for surfing.
"In one test that is a multi-layer map, EdgeHTML renders all the layers instantly at once, and with EdgeChromium/Chrome the layers paint in, with transparent images in upper layers requiring an additional redraw each layer beneath it. Then when scrolling the map, EdgeHTML is instant and the map looks like a single image, where in EdgeChromium/Chrome the layers redraw with each shift."
"As a colleague referenced, Chromium uses a document/display model, where IE9-EdgeHTML use a compile/execute model, and the feel is very different, with Chromium feeling more like IE8 than the last 10 years of IE. (Sadly)"
From what I understand EdgeHTML/Spartan renders pages in a much more efficient manner whilst also having a lighter footprint and better optimised hardware acceleration.
This is really noticable on older hardware.
Sincerely hope that the Edge dev team manages to make improvements to the hardware acceleration and rendering of sites/pdf docs.
Eeuhm I was not planning on commenting on this issue at this point because MS has touted Edge Classic's low resource use (and hence lower battery drain) and better video performance vis a vis Chrome as a selling point in the past, so I assume that MS will make a point of improving Edge Chromium as much as it can to use less resources and improve video performance before release.
I'm using Edge Dev as my primary browser (sole browser for all practical purposes) on three computers: (1) Dell XPS 8920, i7 processor, AMD Radeon 580, 16gb RAM, two 500gb SSD primary drives and a 2tb backup drive, Dell P2717H monitor at 1920x1080 resolution; (2) Dell Latitude 7180 laptop, i5 processor, Intel 620 graphics, 8gb RAM, 128gb SSD drive, 12.5" screen at 1366x768 resolution; and (3) Dell Inspiron 3185 laptop, AMD 9420e processor, AMD R5 graphics, 4gb RAM, 128gb SSD, 11" screen at 166x768 resolution.
My browser startup opens 8 tabs on the 8920, four on the 7280 and one on the 3185. The 8920 runs 24x7, and daily browser use about 3-5 hours depending on the day. I use the 7280 for an hour or so at night, almost all of it browsing. I use the 3185 two days a week at a railroad museum where I volunteer, on/suspend from to time time over a 6-hour period. I have not noticed any difference in fan operation on the 8920, but I wouldn't expect to given the specs on that computer. I have noticed that battery use is higher on the 7280 (dropping from 8-10 hours down to 8-9) and the 3185 (where I now have to keep an eye on my use to make it through the day with anything left).
The battery drain difference is nowhere near as great as the difference between Windows 10 and Linux (Linux eats batteries for lunch), but it is noticeable. I assume that MS has benchmarks available from testing between Edge Classic and Chrome, and is doing similar benchmarking on Edge Classic versus Chrome versus Edge Chromium.
I suspect that there isn't a lot that MS can do about higher resource use (as Von Crisp pointed out, differences between the browser engines give rise to the issue) but I appreciate the fact that the Build Team will look for ways to tweak the Edge Chromium and reduce resource use and battery drain to the extent possible.