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.

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~

Shares and Enjoy~

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83 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.

  21. LT999 Says:

    I have tried several times and every time silverlight has been faster than flash, I am using windows 7 with silverlight 3, but only have flash player 9 but the silverlight has twice the images and is running at 12 fps, while flash is at 2 fps

  22. l0000t Says:

    weird… win7 latest flash10 and latest sl 3..

    50 clicks flash 32 sl 28
    100 clicks flash 9,8 sl 8,9

    also… the flash animation looks better (less flicker).

  23. FPS Meter & Stress Test | Silverlike - A Free Microsoft Silverlight 3 Directory Says:

    [...] Terence Tsang created this Carousel application for you stress test the Silverlight performance of your computer. It also included a FPS counter to display the current frame per second index. [...]

  24. lovepc Says:

    i got like 96-103 fps up till 21 clicks and then it dropped like 5 fps each click

  25. Robbinski12 Says:

    Flash performs WAY better than Silverlight on my machine.
    I stopped at about 100 clicks and Flash was still > 200% the speed of Silverlight

    Thanks for this test which learned me not to use Silverlight :)

  26. Robbinski12 Says:

    Right this time, I kept the stats. My results:

    Clicks - FPS Fl - FPS SL

    0 100 98
    1 100 110
    2 99 98
    3 98 93
    4 97 77
    5 97 85
    6 97 85
    7 93 50
    8 70 45
    9 70 40

    10 68 35
    20 40 28
    30 28 17
    40 22 13
    50 15 7
    60 15 6
    70 13 4
    80 10 3
    90 7 3
    100 6 2
    110 5 1.5
    120 4 1.3
    130 3 1.2
    140 2.1 1.1
    150 2.2 .8

    200 1.97 .4

  27. alikos Says:

    Я тоже иногда такое замечал, но как-то раньше не придавал этому никакого значения.

  28. JavaFx vs Flash vs Silverlight!!! Says:

    [...] picked up one of my previous sample Fps Meter and clone it using JavaFx. To reduce my effort, I started my implementation using the Carousel [...]

  29. Paul Says:

    Great Post! I love to read articles that are informative and beneficial in nature. Thank You for sharing your knowledge.

  30. Sean Says:

    Great Post indeed!

  31. Neo Says:

    Nice one!

  32. John Says:

    Cool!

  33. Will Says:

    When both are fully visible, silverlight runs way slower after about 20 clicks, around 10 to 20 fps while flash is still at 100. Isolated, flash still gets around 100 and silverlight is around 90!

    On with flash!

  34. JavaFX – FPS Meter « Rakesh Menon Says:

    [...] of putting this approach to use in a carousel. There are lots of interesting samples available at shinedraw.com – Flash vs Silverlight Repository. Below is JavaFX port of [...]

  35. kesley Says:

    I’ve got a good performance with both them

    flash 10.1 (hardware aceleration)
    30 clicks - 95 fps
    50 clicks - 48 fps
    80 clicks - 24 fps
    100 clicks - 15 fps

    silverlight 3.0.5
    30 clicks - 100 fps
    50 clicks - 61 fps
    80 clicks - 31 fps
    100 clicks - 23 fps

    core 2 duo E8400 ~3,0Gz
    GeForce 8800gt 512 in SLI (for flash)

    ‘m thinking how many fps flash would get without the graphic card…
    hmm…

  36. Evgenuy Says:

    my result:
    i’m use Silverlight 4 RTM and Flash 10.

    On Flash after 10 clicks fps down.
    example: 50clicks FLASH: 27 Silverlight: 43.
    80 clicks Flash: 8 Silvelight: 23.
    Silvelight WON!

  37. Pavel Verevkin Says:

    Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz, Vista 64, Firefox 3.6, 100 clicks:
    Flash 10.0.45.2: 16 FPS
    Silverlight 4.0.50401.0: 36 FPS

    The following simple-calculations-heavy test shows much higher difference (300 Silverlight vs 25 Flash):
    http://www.3djam.com/roozz/Demo/Speed_demo.aspx

    So 36 FPS looks like graphics limitation.

    Both tests are quite useless for web-client technologies, although ShineDraw’s is more relevant. Please add JavaScript/HTML test to the list.

  38. Pavel Verevkin Says:

    Correction, in the 3djam’s test Silverlight 4 show only 66, 300 is the result of C++ with roozz plugin.

  39. pehta Says:

    FLASH 10 on LINUX (Ubuntu 8.04) 23 FPS after 50 clicks CPU usage 65%
    MOONLIGTH 3.0 on LINUX (Ubuntu 8.04) 9 FPS after 50 clicks CPU usage 75%

    CLEAR WINER = FLASH 10

    clflush size : 64

    processor : 1
    vendor_id : GenuineIntel
    cpu family : 6
    model : 15
    model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5600 @ 1.83GHz
    stepping : 6
    cpu MHz : 1000.000
    cache size : 2048 KB

    MemTotal: 2067424 kB
    MemFree: 260276 kB
    Buffers: 606812 kB
    Cached: 483648 kB
    SwapCached: 0 kB

  40. Valdas Says:

    CPU: Intel COD E4600 2,4 Ghz
    Windows XP SP3
    4 GB ddr2 800 Mhz
    HD4850
    ——–
    Results

    Flash:
    3 - 95-103 fps
    25 clicks - 89 fps
    50 clicks - 28 fps
    100 clicks - 12 fps CPU usage 81 proc.

    Silverlight:
    3 - 95 fps
    25 clicks - 95-103 fps
    50 clicks - 49 fps
    100 clicks - 19 fps CPU usage ~95 proc.

  41. Flash ve Silverlight karşılaştırması | AdobeHaber Says:

    [...] Flash Silverlight Download [...]

  42. tim Says:

    I get exactly 60fps on Flash — the refresh frequency of my screen - with Flash, when I don’t scroll the page and hold still for a while. I think this is deliberate because it makes the Flash version look smoother than Silverlight, which runs at 100fps. So more FPS are not always better.

  43. .net developer Says:

    Flash 10 - FPS = 60
    Silverlight 4 - FPS = 95

  44. Morgan Says:

    Intel Core2Duo @ 2.2GHz, 2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS 256MB, newest proprietary driver
    Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
    Chromium Browser with Flash Plugin 10.1 and Moonlight

    Flash:
    Initial - 100 FPS
    25 Clicks - 28 FPS
    50 Clicks - 14 FPS
    CPU @ Initial - 62%/35% (Core1/Core2)
    CPU @ 25 Clicks - 82%/67%
    CPU @ 50 Clicks - 79%/70%

    Silverlight (Moonlight):
    Initial - 52 FPS
    25 Clicks - 14 FPS
    50 Clicks - 7 FPS
    CPU @ Initial - Approx. 50%/70% (varies greatly over time)
    CPU @ 25 Clicks - Constant flux between 25% and 95% alternating on both cores
    CPU @ 50 Clicks - Same as 25 Clicks

  45. Chris Says:

    I realize this has probably been up for some time, but the code for the Flash can be cleaned up a bit to add better performance. Just assigning an Array as this “blah:Array = []” makes a noticeable difference over “blah:Array = new Array()” when it comes to performance.

    Anyways, I can mess with this later since enough has changed since Flash 9 that the code should be updated to reflect the current times.

  46. Grafik Says:

    hi wazzup… i just wanted to say that my C64 is exploding when I click on the links… are you using some JavaScript or something?

  47. Joe Says:

    Using silverlight 4 and flash 10.1 I get:

    Flash: 26 FPS after 100 clicks
    Silverlight: 45 FPS after 100 clicks

    Intel I7
    AMD 5850
    chrome 7.0.517.24 beta

  48. Mike Says:

    Anyone know of a comparison (like this one) between Flash, Silverlight, and HTML 5? I’d like to see how well HTML 5 does as well. I know it’s not as full-featured as the other two, but still…

  49. Evgeny Says:

    http://alternativaplatform.com/ru/showcase/

  50. Silverlight 2 and Flash 10 put to the test « vdcruijsen.net Says:

    [...] http://www.shinedraw.com/mathematics/flash-vs-silverlight-fps-meter-stress-test/ [...]

  51. Serghei R Says:

    Strange,
    i can’t believe , but silverlight works fast on my laptop.
    I am using new Google chrome browser with HTML 5 support.
    So, it returns :

    Flash/flex:
    26-29FPS for 25 images
    19-24 fps for 35 images
    Silverlight:
    86-94 for 25 images
    39-45 fps for 35 images

    Does it depend on Chrome version?
    I am realy can’t believe. Google supports Silverlight.
    Is it truth?

  52. arcagiakdak Says:

    Я тоже периодически такое замечала, только как-то заранее не придавала этому значения.
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  53. jamesn Says:

    I am not knowledgeable on the esoteric programming intricacies of the subject. But I notice that prior to clicking on either option, Flash FPS hovers around 60 (59+ to 60+) while Silverlight FPS varies from around 79 to 91. This indicates to me that there is some hidden bias.
    My personal interest is in having the capability to posit an equation with variables, and being able to see a graphical plot. Concomitant with that, I want a graphical software which is not difficult to maintain or update. I keep having problems updating Silverlight (along with other software problems). I am not advocating any specific software options, but just looking for information to make intelligent decisions.
    I am weary of all the scripting wars which are so onerous to my simple desire to use the software for its intended purposes. Being an unpaid testing pawn in the corporate machinations for economic dominance is not my ideal of an avocation, nor is being exploited as an unofficial debugger tester my reason for purchasing a computer. I spend way more time trying to cope with software problems than I do with merely using my laptop for my personal use.

  54. adult dvd Says:

    I can’t thank you that you have produce what a nice looking write-up that you have create right here, I thank you for keeping this. Looking forward to seeing more of this within the coming future, thanks

  55. Shmelly Says:

    Flash FPS after 50 clicks : Approx 58

    Silverlight FPS after 50 clicks approx 72

  56. Kangarooo Says:

    Emachines e525 laptop
    Intel celeron 900 @ 2.20 Ghz
    2GB Ram - (video-left 1,93 GB) = video 128mb ?? from ram

    Using Ubuntu
    Start 96fps
    30 clicks = 64fps
    50 clicks = 43fps

  57. Nick.R. Says:

    Guess im the odd one out.

    Flash @ start 100
    flash @ 50 clicks 59

    Silverlight @ start 100
    silverlight @ 50 clicks 99
    Silverlight @ 100 clicks 77

    PC - Win 7 X64, 8gb ddr3 oc, amd phenom x6 oc @ 3.86ghz, zotac geforce gtx 480 amp edition

  58. Ruben Says:

    Flash is running great on my SAMUNG GALAXY S2 phone!
    3 images: 60 fps (caped by phone)
    10 : 60 fps (still caped by phone)
    50: around 26 fps
    100: still around 16 fps

    Silverlight is not running yet

  59. Flash vs Silverlight Gallery « Tam Quang Blog Says:

    [...] Flash Silverlight Download [...]

  60. Mikail Says:

    System:
    Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 840T Processor:2.90 GHz
    Ram: 6GB
    OS: win 7 premium
    hard drive: 1Tb

  61. Mikail Says:

    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%

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  63. plate joiners Says:

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  65. Will Says:

    Flash after 100 clicks: 25 fps
    Silverlight after 100 clicks: Stopped responding.
    Flash 10.3
    Silverlight [whatever is the most recent version]
    2.53 Ghz dual core 4Gb ram
    safari
    Mac OS X

  66. harmtaro Says:

    Flash:

    Initial FPS: 59.999
    FPS after 50 clicks: 59.999
    FPS after 100 clicks: 60.000
    CPU usage after 100 clicks: 19%

    Silverlight

    Initial FPS: 99.994
    FPS after 50 clicks: 99.994
    FPS after 100 clicks: 99/150 (rapidly going up and down)
    CPU usage after 100 clicks: 40%

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  68. Alex Smith Says:

    Sony Vaio PCG-FR102
    AMD Athlon XP mobile+ (1.67Ghz)
    512mb RAM

    Flash 10.3.181.34
    Don’t have Silverlight!

    Start - 60 fps
    50 clicks - 19 fps
    100 clicks - under 1 fps!!

  69. JD Says:

    Flash 60fps start
    Flash 50 clicks 60fps
    Flash 100 clicks 60fps

    SL in same order of clicks

    93
    93
    102 fps (not sure how it boosted at 100 but it went up.)

    Nvidia Geforce 550gts SLI 1gb
    AMD Phenom II Black 1090t 6x processor
    Windows 7 64b

  70. falaki Says:

    System:
    (dual core)AMD Athlon X2 215 2.70 ghz
    2.00 gb ram (1.75 usable)
    64 bit windows 7 home premium
    shared graphics ati radeon 3000 (according to dxdiag)
    Test:
    Flash:
    Start:1% cpu 60 fps
    50 clicks:cpu87% 59 fps
    100 clicks: cpu 85% 29 fps
    Silver Light:
    Start: cpu60% 99.994 fps
    50 clicks:cpu 100% 57 fps
    100 clicks:cpu 100% 22fps

  71. custom web design Says:

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  73. josh Says:

    win 7
    amd fx 8 core black edition
    radeon graphics
    12gb ram ddr3 1333mhz
    200gb hard
    flash
    0 clicks 60 fps
    50 clicks 60 fps
    100 clicks 60 fps
    150 clicks 45 fps

    silver
    well you get the point

  74. josh Says:

    cpu usage 10 percent ram usage 20 percent

  75. Chris Brandstetter Says:

    System:
    Dual Quad Core Xeon 2.8GHz w/10GB RAM
    Silverlight Version: 5.0.61118.0
    Flash Version: MAC 10,2,152,33
    Firefox: 8.0.1
    Mac OS X 10.5.8

    Silverlight:
    –50 Clicks
    70 FPS
    42% CPU
    –100 Clicks
    37 FPS
    57% CPU
    –150 Clicks
    24 FPS
    63% CPU
    –200 Clicks
    16 FPS
    67%

    Flash:
    –50 Clicks
    60 FPS
    33% CPU
    –100 Clicks
    54 FPS
    45% CPU
    –150 Clicks
    35 FPS
    49% CPU
    –200 Clicks
    30 FPS
    54% CPU

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  78. joseph rich Says:

    hello there i wanted to test the flash and the sliverlight on the linux side well first sliverlight on linux is called moonlight and it turned out the moonlight did not work but flash work like a pro it even work very good on a netbook and we all know how slow it is intel atom?

  79. joseph rich Says:

    turns out the the firefox plugin did not install but works in chomium open source browser of (chrome) but moonlight is a lot slower on linux then flash

  80. Doguhan Uluca Says:

    Flash 11.1 vs Silverlight 5 on Chrome 15
    @0 - 60 vs 100
    @1 - 60 vs 100
    @10 - 60 vs 100
    @50 - 60 vs 100
    @100- 30 vs 85
    @150- 18 vs 40

  81. AppleSux Says:

    On a MacBook Pro @ 0 clicks Flash 11 gets 60 while Silverlight 5 gets 99 on Chrome 15

    This is a Core i7 MacBook 4GB RAM with an Nvidia GeForce 330

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  83. David Says:

    1000 clicks on Flash -> 8fps
    1000 clicks on Silverlight -> 2fps

    There is your difference!

    CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5420
    Browser: FF12.0

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