Flash vs Silverlight: Simple Text Effect Silverlight vs Flash: Mask Rotator
Sep 30

I think most of the people are concerned how well each technology can perform. Obviously, it’s a difficult question for the fact that “well” is quite subjective. Nevertheless, I still try to create some identical samples and let the user to decide which one is better.

In the sample below, I introduced a new control: FPS Meter, which will display the FPS (frame per second) of the application. To start with the stress test, just click on the application continually and compare their differences.

Vote for this sample

Flash is Better! (502 votes)
Silverlight is Better? (467 votes)

Comparison

Flash implementation: 45 minutes (Implemented First)
Silverlight implementation: 50 minutes
What’s the difference?

  • Stress Test Result [AS3] vs [C#]

Source codes

Flash

Silverlight

Stress Test Result [AS3] vs [C#]

These are my findings when running the applications in my Intel Core 2 Quad CPU (Q6600) @ 2.4GHz Computer.

Flash:

  • Initial FPS: 64
  • FPS after 50 clicks: 32
  • FPS after 100 clicks: 16
  • CPU usage after 100 clicks: 45%

Silverlight

  • Initial FPS: 62
  • FPS after 50 clicks: 60
  • FPS after 100 clicks: 36
  • CPU usage after 100 clicks: 60%

It seems that Silverlight has a better performance in handling images.

I think your testing result will be different from mine. Feel free to share your findings as well~

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20 Responses to “Flash vs Silverlight: FPS Meter & Stress Test”

  1. Joseph Says:

    Hmm…Interesting test. I was using an early Flash 10 Beta in I.E. 7 so tried it out. Here are my results. Seems the Flash 10 is better on FPS but not on CPU but that may also be something system related.

    System:
    Processor: Dual Core AMD 5600+ 2.79 GHz
    Ram: 4GB
    OS: XP Pro SP3
    Browser: I.E. 7.0
    Flash Player 10 Beta 10,0,1,218
    Silverlight version 2.0.30523.8

    Flash
    @ 3 images [Start]
    FPS 64.024
    CPU 0% - 1%
    @ 50 images
    FPS 40.5
    CPU 85%
    @ 100 images
    FPS 20.98
    CPU 85%

    Silverlight
    @ 3 images [Start]
    FPS 34.00
    CPU 3% - 4%
    @ 50 images
    FPS 33.2
    CPU 44%
    @ 100 images
    FPS 18.5
    CPU 70%

  2. Jonathan Says:

    After 30 to 50 clicks, Flash was still outperforming Silverlight by about 3 frames. I have the latest Flash Player 9 installed (not 10) and use FF3.

    Intel Conroe2 Laptop

  3. humair Says:

    windows xp pro sp 3 with all updates till october 18 2008
    silverlight 2 final, adobe 10 final
    i am getting this error…using silverligh on ie 7 and firefox 3

    “Install Silverlight

    The site that you visited was built for an earlier, beta version of Silverlight - not the current one. Please contact the site owner to let them know that they must upgrade to the latest release of Silverlight 2. Let us know if the site is not updated shortly so we can try to assist in upgrading the site to the latest Silverlight technology”

  4. humair Says:

    ABOVE MENTIONED ERROR NOW FIXED….THANKS

  5. Dominic Pettifer Says:

    I’m getting identical performance in both implementations. I have Flash 10 installed though, I heard Adobe made substantial performance gains in Flash 10 though, any truth in this? Maybe they’ve now caught up to Silverlight 2?

  6. Nicholas W. Says:

    Flash
    000 clicks - 99 fps
    010 clicks - 94 fps
    020 clicks - 55 fps
    030 clicks - 38 fps
    040 clicks - 26 fps
    050 clicks - 19 fps
    100 clicks - 07 fps

    SilverLight
    000 clicks - 93 fps
    010 clicks - 90 fps
    020 clicks - 47 fps
    030 clicks - 40 fps
    040 clicks - 32 fps
    050 clicks - 24 fps
    100 clicks - 09 fps

    Flash is better for light loads to moderate loads on my machine.
    128 MB ATI Radeon Mobility 1250

  7. Ethan Says:

    Silverlight is faster on my machine
    vaio sz48G - core2duo NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400

  8. Nxt Says:

    Amd 5000+ 3Gb Ram Gf8600GT
    Silverlight dont work with Chrome
    On ie7 flash work with worst performance but silverlight stuck at 3 clic -_-

  9. Anonymous Says:

    Anyway Flash version 10 and Silverlight are “BOTH” good.. It depends on the usage of the program and it depends to the person who will used. I know there is a comparison between of the two but for me BOTH are good depending to the usage of the program only.

  10. MokkMan Says:

    Dell Dimension 9150 3.4 GHz dual core intel process and Vista. GForce 7300 LE graphics card
    Flash:
    3 image / approx. 63 FPS
    10 image / approx. 58 FPS
    30 image / approx. 22 FPS
    30 image / approx. 11 FPS

    SL:
    3 images / approx. 98 FPS
    10 images / approx. 90 FPS
    30 images / approx. 23 FPS
    50 images / approx. 11 FPS

  11. Julian Turner Says:

    I note that if both flash and silverlight are visible in IE at the same time (windows XP):-

    - flash continues unchanged
    - silverlight slows right down (as if flash gets first call on the CPU)

    Could be their order on the page.
    As soon as flash is hidden, silverlight backup to top speed.

    Wierdly for me the number of clicks makes no difference to the fps. Flash was steady at 63 from 0 - 50, Silverlight steady at 90 from 0 - 50

  12. john Says:

    Thanks for interesting article

  13. Bezobav Says:

    Vista x64 sp1, ie7, Intel Core2 Duo (E6750) 2,66 GHz (3 images)
    Flash 64 FPS, Silverlight 100 FPS

  14. leon Says:

    OS X 10.5.6, 2.8 Ghz Intel Core duo

    Silverlight is faster with 8 images (85fps vs 50fps) but feels a lot less smooth than flash. It seems to jump, or speed up and slow down.

    Flash animation looks silky smooth, silverlight animation (on my Mac) definitely not.

    Flash is also more consistent in the frame rate. With 18 images:
    Flash : 48 - 55 fps
    Silverlight : 45 - 80

  15. Muh mah Says:

    ”AMD Athol tm 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ 2.51 GHZ, 3.5G ram”

    Start… (Flash) Strat… (Silverlight)
    65 FPS 94 FPS
    10 Click’s 64 10 Clikc’s - 89
    20 - 63 20 - 78
    30 - 56 30 - 50
    40 - 43 40 - 43
    50 - 34 50 - 36
    100 Clicks - 10 FPS 100 - 28
    150 - 5 fps 150 - 8
    200!!! - 5 Fps

  16. Programming with Silverlight, WPF & .NET » (JavaFX vs) Flasch vs Silverlight Says:

    [...] wurde erstmal ein altes Beispiel “Fps Meter“. Eine Implementierung in JavaFx sollte nicht ganz einfach sein. Ich werde mich nach [...]

  17. Damon Carr Says:

    No duh… Silverlight does not have hardware acceleration. Try your ‘test’ with Silverlight3 beta and turn on the magic by turing it on via init params for the html object tag and turn on caching for whatever you want enhanced. I’d be glad to help on this.

  18. jr Says:

    I think both are not good. I think the performance was ok in the late 90’s but now I think its just embarrasing. Don’t you ever ask yourself why you are playing shooters etc.at 1200px with 60fps but in the web you are happy about 100 pictures with 30 fps on 400px? Try java (not the fx crap) with jogl. 3000 pictures on 60 fps.

  19. Stress Personalities Says:

    Thanks for a great blog! Checkout my site if you like. Really a nice design and content you got here…

  20. anon Says:

    Most people will start using the silverlight app without refreshing the page, causing the flash app to slow down the silverlight one.

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