Nov 19, 2010 17:22 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has been touting the advantage of best in breed hardware acceleration for Internet Explorer 9 over rival browsers, and rightly so, with the latest development milestone of IE9 offering additional proof that the next generation of IE does a better job at leveraging the GPU compared to the next versions of Firefox and Google Chrome.

IE9 Platform Preview 7 is now available for download, and with the release, the IE team has also made available new tests on the IE Test Drive Center.

Early adopters should really grab IE9 PP7 and see what the browser has to offer when it comes down taking advantage of the GPU not just for HTML5 but also for compiled JavaScript.

Testers need only a copy of IE9 PP7, which will install alongside the IE9 Beta released in mid-September 2010, and three new tests from the software giant, Galactic, HTML5 Sudoku and Shakespeare’s Tag Cloud.

According to Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President IE, when it put together the new IE9 tests, the IE team found inspiration in real world scenarios.

“Real world websites use JavaScript to respond to user input, manipulate strings, and move objects around the screen, and much more. We looked at common patterns and made adjustments to IE9’s script engine,” he said.

“Running these sites in other browsers like the latest Google Chrome or FireFox 4, shows significant performance differences.”

Users should also make sure to have a look at the videos embedded at the bottom of this article. The first two clearly demonstrate IE9’s superiority over the latest releases from Mozilla and Google, namely Firefox 4.0 Beta 7 and Chrome 9.0 Canary.

“In Shakespeare’s Tag Cloud, you see the performance advantage of compiled JavaScript and ECMAScript5 support with script-intensive operations. IE9 can run through a large body of text and build a tag cloud much more quickly.

“That same ECMAScript5 support combined with HTML5 Canvas delivers an HTML5 Sudoku solver that can solve puzzles faster than other browsers running the same site.

“With Galactic, you see fast JavaScript and hardware accelerated graphics together creating a 3D interactive experience. The frame rate in IE9 is significantly better than what the other browsers do today,” Hachamovitch said.

Also the last video below is a must see. It features Jason Weber, Principal Program Manager Lead IE, basically the guy responsible for boosting performance in Internet Explorer 9.

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Beta is available for download here.

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 7 (PP7) is available for download here.