Microsoft Edge gets major performance boost — time to ditch Chrome?

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Microsoft enhances performance in Edge

Microsoft Edge performance enhancements
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft may have been a late adapter to Chromium-based browsers, but it has been updating the Edge browser furiously these past few months. All that hard work is paying off but does it push Edge past Chrome and Firefox? 

Microsoft recently added Performance Mode to its Chromium-based browser with an announcement on Microsoft's Tech Community page giving users detail on how it all works. 

Edge's new Performance Mode is supposed to optimize web browsing speed and responsiveness and reduce CPU, RAM and battery usage. This will work in conjunction with an older sleeping tabs update from 2020 that put open tabs not being viewed to sleep after five minutes and saved on RAM and CPU usage. 

Windows Latest tested out the new mode and stated that "In our tests, we observed that that 'performance mode' forces Sleeping Tabs when tabs are inactive for five minutes. By default, sleeping tabs are set to go to sleep after two hours of inactivity." 

The tech site further stated that "Microsoft Edge will also detect heavy resources activity in the background (such as audio or video) and block those tabs from sleeping. As you may be aware, Edge’s sleeping mode is based on a core Chromium technology that prevents background activities and scripts from minimizing resource usage while saving the browsing data."

Making Edge less of a resource hog is a welcomed update for users who will also have applications working while browsing. With Edge automatically tweaking settings continuously while in Performance Mode, users should see system performance improvements. 

Whether users are looking to switch to Edge over Chrome or Firefox due to these improvements is personal preference and something they will have to try for themselves to find out. Initially, when Microsoft entered the Chromium ecosystem with Edge, it had many catching up to do to try and match the other two. With this new feature, could they have possibly surpassed both Firefox and Chrome? 

Mark Anthony Ramirez
Mark Anthony Ramirez

Mark has spent 20 years headlining comedy shows around the country and made appearances on ABC, MTV, Comedy Central, Howard Stern, Food Network, and Sirius XM Radio. He has written about every topic imaginable, from dating, family, politics, social issues, and tech. He wrote his first tech articles for the now-defunct Dads On Tech 10 years ago, and his passion for combining humor and tech has grown under the tutelage of the Laptop Mag team. His penchant for tearing things down and rebuilding them did not make Mark popular at home, however, when he got his hands on the legendary Commodore 64, his passion for all things tech deepened. These days, when he is not filming, editing footage, tinkering with cameras and laptops, or on stage, he can be found at his desk snacking, writing about everything tech, new jokes, or scripts he dreams of filming.