Your browser is slowing you down! Raspberry Pi Browsers Finding the Best performance on 32bit and 64bit Raspberry Pi OS

When it comes to our browser its one of the few things we often over look. We might just be comfortable with Google Chrome or Firefox and think well I just have to deal with the slowness and random quirks with them on the Raspberry Pi.  But what if there was a better solution a browser that would actually function quickly efficiently and more so do all the things we want it to do.

I set off on a mission to try and test as many browser as I could on my Raspberry Pi 4 8GB model.  With both the 32-bit and 64-bit version of the Raspberry Pi OS.  I will say this I did not have any huge expectations when I first started testing.  I was going to make a video about it which I might still do but I found by data collection and testing across both a raspberry pi 4 8gb and even testing on my main laptop to find out which is truly the best alternative to use on the Raspberry Pi.  Those that use the 64-Bit version of Raspberry Pi OS know that sometimes it has issues and now that I have upgraded my main Pi Desktop to a 64-bit version.  I had to find out what might make the transition from the 32-bit version to the 64-bit version just a bit more easy. 

I would greatly appreciate anyone to add their test results to the thread here as I would love to see other models of the Raspberry Pi's results as well as I have not yet cracked out my other models from all the moving I have been doing the last year.  Currently I am bound to my home and doctors offices and hospitals.   Searching for more answers within my aging body.

All my tests where done through https://browserbench.org and  if there is a 0 either it wouldn't run the test or it failed part way through or was completely irrelevant to the browser. Remember higher the score the better.  so here is my list so far of my test results.   Maybe you will find time to try a few different browser out as I did.

As you can see the test results are very interesting. Now I do not expect the Raspberry Pi to compete with my windows 11 Laptop which is a Acer Nitro 5.  Now I was using my Raspberry Pi 4 8GB Model in a Argon one case with m.2 drive which is WD Blue.   Lineage OS was tested on my Raspad 3 which houses a Pi 4 8gb as well. 

The results above are without the addition of my Laptop just so you get a better idea of  each browser results and how they compared to one another.  Now most were pretty much in the ballpark of where I thought they would be but one jumped out at me as the clear winner.

Now just to show you how it compares to my laptop.  check the image below here.

So, once again even compare to the laptop Puffin Browser actually almost kept up with the results on the laptop minus Motion Mark being just so much better on the laptop.  

When I first started using the 64-bit OS I tried playing some video on Pi and it was lagging out and not playing nice compared to the 32-bit version. 

I tried the top 2 browser on the 64-bit version of the pi to see which one I would the most.  I really wanted to enjoy the one browser it was going smoothly and everything.  But it had one flaw any videos on the browser wouldn't allow for full screen.  So Flow had to go.  And on to Puffin which did the trick and was a lot more enjoyable even felt a bit smoother then chromium was on the 32-bit version which based on the results doesn't really surprise me that much.

I was going to flood this post with all the browser screen shots from the tests but decided I will just keep them for my own record unless someone requests. 

So now that you have seen the results and maybe your on the 64-bit or even 32-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS are you thinking about testing a new browser out now?  Let me know in the comments about your browser issues and the browsers you have tested and which you think is the best for your needs.  Now for me until proper 64-Bit support is done with chromium on the Raspberry Pi 64-bit OS  I will use Puffin as my main browser for a bit to further test it but checking in the odd times on chromium to see if starts acting any better.  Yes I have also tried to configure it as much as I could for maximum performance on the 64-Bit OS as well but to no avail it just didn't give me the result I wished it would have.

One thing I forgot to mention is I did try Puffin on my Raspad 3 to see if the result would be different as we all know the output size of the screen can very the screen I was testing them on is a Sansui 22" ES-22X3 Monitor and the Raspad only has a 10.1" display on it. So Monitor and Display size does play a factor in results as well.

OK I think I have said enough on this for now so onto my next project on the pi as I think for now this is where this one stops but remember if you test toss your results below include the following.

Raspberry Pi Version:

Operating System Version:

Screen size and resolution:

Motion Mark Results:

Jetstream Results:

Speedometer Results: 

Notes:

Thanks for checking out the post and hopefully someone finds this info a bit useful.  Have a wonderful day everyone and take care eh! Post below your results or questions.

Here is  the full specs of the Pi I used in 64-bit as well as 32-bit versons

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="11"
VERSION="11 (bullseye)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /etc/debian_version
11.7

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 6.1.45-v8+ #1671 SMP PREEMPT Fri Aug 11 14:49:25 BST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor    : 0
BogoMIPS    : 108.00
Features    : fp asimd evtstrm crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer    : 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant    : 0x0
CPU part    : 0xd08
CPU revision    : 3

processor    : 1
BogoMIPS    : 108.00
Features    : fp asimd evtstrm crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer    : 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant    : 0x0
CPU part    : 0xd08
CPU revision    : 3

processor    : 2
BogoMIPS    : 108.00
Features    : fp asimd evtstrm crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer    : 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant    : 0x0
CPU part    : 0xd08
CPU revision    : 3

processor    : 3
BogoMIPS    : 108.00
Features    : fp asimd evtstrm crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer    : 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant    : 0x0
CPU part    : 0xd08
CPU revision    : 3

Hardware    : BCM2835
Revision    : d03114
Serial        : 100000000e924719
Model        : Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ free -h
                      total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7.6Gi       1.0Gi       2.2Gi       156Mi       4.4Gi       6.4Gi
Swap:           30Gi          0B        30Gi