GPUs Fire Up Newly Launched IE9

It is official. As of today, the web browser – the #1 app on the PC - is now GPU accelerated.

We have worked closely with Microsoft since the start of Internet Explorer 9 development to bring the power of the GPU to the Web. Along the way, we’ve blogged about the advantages of GPU-accelerated PCs and the great HTML5 sites you can soon expect accelerated by the GPU.

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http://blogs.nvidia.com/2011/03/gpus-fire-up-internet-explorer-9/

And as usual MS is late to the party with this feature. But better late then never I guess.

If MS is late, Apple is even later. Safari ships with hardware acceleration...for Windows only (see here). I also believe that the HA is IE9 is much more pervasive than any other browser which is one of the few benefits of being targeted to only one platform. So, they may be late but they've built in much more comprehensive HA support.

Having run the betas and the RC, I have to say that I am impressed with what MS has done. IE7 and 8 were terribly unimpressive and I get the feeling that increasing pressure in the market has finally gotten MS to care about making a good browser.

IE 9 is a great browser and is getting rave reviews. Let's not play the petty anti-MS game when it's not really deserved.

I agree. IE9 is indeed a great browser and even though we love our Macs there should always be room for us to acknowledge when MS does something well.

And BTW, it should be noted that IE9 is not for XP. Vista and Win 7 only. Might be time to upgrade that old copy of XP.

I think MS made the right call in not supporting XP. I think it's worth noting the following from Ars Technica's review:

The performance improvements made by the use of DirectWrite and Direct2D allow a new class of Web application to be developed. They greatly extend the range of what is possible and practical to do on a website. Platform security features that Internet Explorer 9 leverages also make the switch to more modern operating systems desirable. Some of the things that make IE9 a better browser are things that simply do not exist on Windows XP.

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Sometimes you have to leave the old behind for the sake of innovation.

Not that IE9 is a sufficient reason to upgrade but I think it is indeed time to start upgrading those XP machines of yours .

schweb said:

IE 9 is a great browser and is getting rave reviews. Let's not play the petty anti-MS game when it's not really deserved.

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And lets also not accuse people of doing things they are not doing.

I agree IE9 is good. Better then I thought it would be. But I'll wait and see how it shapes up in the long term. This is a good direction MS is taking with this product.

Care to elaborate?

vansmith said:

If MS is late, Apple is even later. Safari ships with hardware acceleration...for Windows only (see here).

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You're reading it wrong. The feature was new in Windows Safari 5; it was in Mac Safari since version 4.

schweb said:

IE 9 is a great browser and is getting rave reviews. Let's not play the petty anti-MS game when it's not really deserved.

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It's a decent browser, and it's getting decent reviews. Compared to its predecessors, it's a quantum leap. Compared to Chrome, Safari, and the upcoming Firefox 4, it's keeping up.

Not to go against the grain here or discredit IE9 as a good browser, but I just came across this interesting collection of infographics comparing the new IE9 against the upcoming FireFox4.

IE9 vs. Firefox 4

technologist said:

You're reading it wrong. The feature was new in Windows Safari 5; it was in Mac Safari since version 4.

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My mistake - it appears you are correct. Ignore my previous comment .