The Mozilla
Organization
At A Glance
Feedback
Get Involved
Newsgroups
License Terms
Newsbot
Developer Docs
Roadmap
Projects
Ports
Module Owners
Hacking
Get the Source
Build It
Testing
Download
Bugzilla
Bug Writing
Tools
View Source
Tree Status
New Checkins
Submit A Bug
FAQ
Search
Mail Performance Results

Post feedback to: netscape.public.mozilla.mail-news

General:
Introduction
Test Machine Configuration
Notes
Results:
Startup
POP
IMAP
News
Address Book
Message Compose

Introduction
We are evaluating and testing the performance of various mail tasks. At this time, we are using Communicator 4.7 as a reference to compare the results. Bugs will be filed and tracked for tasks where the performance is not acceptable or slower than 4.7. The builds used are the Netscape commercial builds and the dates of the builds are listed in parenthesis in the results table. We hope to execute these tests on a regular basis as well as add additional mail tasks that can be measured. Improving performance is a continual process and we will be adding more as time goes on!

Test Machine Configurations:

  • Currently testing on Windows. Mac and Linux platform to follow at a later time.
  • Windows:
    • Pentium 133 Mhz
    • 64 MB RAM and 32MB RAM*
    • Windows 95
    • LAN
    *After initial tests were done with 32MB RAM, we increased the memory to 64MB RAM; nothing else on the test machine was changed.
Notes:
  • All the time measurements are in seconds.
  • Currently, tests are done manually with a stop watch. Error rate: +/- 1 seconds.
  • Legend:
    • NI - not implemented in the build being tested
    • NT - not testable in the build being tested; reasons provided in parenthesis
    • SD - Standard Deviation of 5 Test runs.
Results:
Feature/Task Test 4.7 Performance
(32 MB RAM)		 4.7 Performance
(64 MB RAM)		 Seamonkey
Performance (10/7)
(64 MB RAM)		 Seamonkey Performance
(11/04)
(64 MB RAM)		 Seamonkey Performance
(11/18)
(64 MB RAM)
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
MailStartup
Mail Startup after Navigator Launch Navigator and then open Mail
1.68 seconds to password dialog
 1.77
7.36
8.048
0.323
9.536
0.546
Mail Startup First Launch Mail (no other Seamonkey Components are loaded)
9.20 seconds to password dialog
7.91
16.47
17.428
0.213
16.232
0.081
Maximize the Mail Window After starting Mail, maximize the Mail window
1.84 seconds
1.43
2.76
2.512
0.270
2.64
0.057
POP Mail
POP: Mail Download Download 500 messages (no summary file)
7.16
6.19
11.46
12.742
0.468
17.442
0.367
POP: Summary File Creation Create summary file for 1,000 message Inbox (summary file does not yet exist)
11.73
10.81
17.38
18.884
0.186
22.924
0.260
POP: Load Summary File Load summary file for 1,000 message Inbox (summary file exists)
3.07
1.93
6.51
6.38
0.215
7.538
0.261
POP: Sort Folder Select a folder with 1,000 messages; sort by subject, then reverse the sort order of subject
1.62
1.51
10.83
11.246
0.257
11.894
0.113
POP: Display 5 Messages without Attachment Display 5 10-Kb messages that contain HTML formatting
10.18
6.73
18.09
105.784
20.171
128.132
11.13
POP: Display 2 Messages with Attachments Display 2 10-Kb message that each have 100 Kb attachments . .
NT
NT
NT
NT
NT
POP: File 5 Messages File 5 10-Kb messages from the POP Inbox to a local folder . .
NI
NI
NI
NI
NI
POP: Delete 5 Messages Delete 5 10-Kb messages from the POP Inbox
7.32
5.70
26.20
104.044
4.467
NT
NT
POP: Create New Folder Create a new POP folder . .
NI
NI
NI
NI
NI
POP: Undo Delete Message In a POP account, select and delete a message, then undo the delete . .
NI
NI
NI
NT
NT
IMAP Mail
IMAP: Header Download Download 1,000 email headers (no summary file)
20.76 seconds
19.35
20.43
21.768
0.347
26.802
0.463
IMAP: Update IMAP Summary File Download an additional 50 headers to an IMAP Inbox that already contains 1,000 headers (summary file exists)
not set up for this at this time
 .
NT
NT
NT
NT
NT
IMAP: Load Summary File Load summary file for 1,000 message Inbox (summary file exists)
3.42 seconds
2.64
5.33
7.176
0.165
7.496
0.168
IMAP: Display 5 Messages without Attachment Display 5 10-Kb messages that contain HTML formatting
6.77 seconds
7.01
21.41
90.376
14.945
132.116
10.361
IMAP: Download and Display 2 Messages with Attachments Download and display 2 10-Kb message that each have 100 Kb attachments
3.13 seconds when view inline=off
6.81 seconds when view inline=on
 .
NT
NT
NT
NT
NT
IMAP: File 5 Messages File 5 10-Kb messages from the IMAP Inbox to an IMAP folder
1.7
 .
NI
NI
NI
NI
NI
IMAP: Delete 5 Messages Delete 5 10-Kb messages from the IMAP Inbox
1.8
7.63
32.26
139.184
30.96
NT
NT
IMAP: Move Messages to Local Folder Move 100 10-Kb Messages from IMAP server to local folder
10.53
 .
NT
NT
NT
NT
NT
IMAP: Create New IMAP Folder Create a new IMAP folder
1.5
 .
NI
NI
NI
NI
NI
IMAP: Expand Folder List Select an IMAP account and expand the folder list for that account; the folder list should contain at least 20 folders
0.30
0.35
1.06
1.104
0.046
1.16
0.085
News
NNTP: Header Download Download 1,000 news headers from NNTP Server (no summary file) . .
NT
NT
NT
NT
NT
NNTP: Update Summary File Download an additional 50 headers to a newsgroup that already contains 1,000 headers (summary file exists) . .
NT
NT
NT
NT
NT
NNTP: Load Summary File Load summary file for 1,000 message newsgroup (summary file exists) . .
NT
NT
NT
NT
NT
NNTP: Display 5 Messages Display 5 5-Kb messages (plain text)
4.11
3.97
19.76
105.342
7.412
123.632
5.341
NNTP: Delete Message Delete a news message that you have posted
3.47
3.33
8.91
NT
NT
NT
NT
NNTP: Mark All Read Mark ~500 News Messages as read . . .
56.890
0.893
55.41
0.366
Address Book
Scrolling the Address Book entries results in random crash. Also, there is no 'Status Bar' in Address Book. We couldn't test "Open a local address book that contains 200 address book cards" and others at this time.
Open Local Address Book Open a local address book that contains 200 address book cards . . . . . . .
View 5 Address Book Cards View 5 address book cards (out of a total of 200 cards in the address book) . . . . . . .
Open "Edit Card" Dialogue Open the Edit Card Dialogue by double clicking on an address book entry .
0.5
6.5
4.338
0.122
4.846
0.144
MessageCompose
Open Compose Window Open the Compose Window
3.5
1.43
5.39
5.498
0.124
5.426
0.437
Auto-complete Auto-complete 5 email addresses against a 200 card local address book . .
NI
NI
NI
NI
NI
Address Message to 10 Recipients Address an email message to 10 recipients: type in first email address, press return, type in second email address, ... . .
NI
NI
NI
NI
NI
Add 2 Attachments Add 2 100-Kb attachments to a message . .
NI
NI
NI
NI
NI
Compose HTML Message After addressing message and entering subject line, tab into message body and:
  • Bold some text
  • Insert a link
  • Insert a GIF image
  • Add a bulleted list
  • Indent a paragraph
  • Center a paragraph
  • Select and delete some text
Note: must use exactly the same text, images and formatting across tests
2.1
1.20
3.85
4.386
0.282
4.956
0.057
Send Message (No Attachment) Send a 10 Kb HTML formatted email message
1.15
1.07
3.70
4.230
0.178
4.392
0.069
Send Message With Attachment Send a 10 Kb HTML formatted email message with a 100 Kb attachment . .
NT
NT
NT
NT
NT


Table initially created by Sol Goldfarb
Timings updated by Suresh Kasinathan
Copyright © 1998-1999 The Mozilla Organization.
Last modified November 19, 1999.