Google makes changes to Chrome that should improve speed in Windows

Google has announced that its Chrome browser from version 53 will run faster on Windows systems. For example, a new tab loads about fifteen percent faster and the browser starts about seventeen percent faster.

The search giant writes that the speed gain is possible by applying Microsoft’s profile guided optimization. This technique keeps track of which functions are most common in the browser’s source code. For example, some functions are often used and others less so, explains Google. Frequently used functions are optimized so that they can be executed faster.

Less-used functions also undergo an optimization process, applying less code that is slightly slower. Moreover, the technology ensures that popular functions are stored in a different place in the memory than less popular variants. This should allow the CPU’s instruction cache to be used more efficiently, as it avoids caching of rarely used code.

In addition to faster loading times for new tabs and for the browser itself, Chrome should render pages about six percent faster, claims Google. The 64-bit version of Chrome uses pgo from version 53 and the 32-bit version from version 54. These have since been released.