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Mail Performance Results - Linux

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:

  • Linux:
  • Pentium 133 Mhz.
  • 64 MB RAM.
  • Red Hat 6.0
  • LAN
  • Last Build Tested on 2/16/00.
    •
  • Windows:  (Click  here  for latest results)
    • Pentium 133 Mhz
    • 64 MB RAM and 32MB RAM*
    • Windows 95
    • LAN
    • Last Build tested on 02/23/00.
    *After initial tests were done with 32MB RAM, we increased the memory to 64MB RAM; nothing else on the test machine was changed.
  • Mac: (Click  here  for latest results)
  • Mac PPC 8.5.1, 150 Mhz.
  • 64 MB RAM.
  • LAN
  • Last Build tested on 1/27/00.
    •
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.
    • SD - Standard Deviation of 5 Test runs.
Results:
No. Feature/Task Test 4.7 Performance
(64 MB RAM)		 Seamonkey Performance
(2/16/00)
(64 MB RAM)		 Seamonkey Performance
(1/19/00)
(64 MB RAM)		 Seamonkey Performance
(12/21/99)
(64 MB RAM)
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
MailStartup
1 Mail Startup after Navigator  Launch Navigator and then open Mail 3.68
15.546
0.371
16.228
0.429
10.452
0.526
2 Mail Startup First Launch Mail (no other Seamonkey Components are loaded)
6.10
23.962
1.07
28.036
0.821
17.142
1.468
3 Maximize the Mail Window After starting Mail, maximize the Mail window
0.89
9.518
0.722
5.572
0.321
1.756
0.097
POP Mail
1 POP: Mail Download Download 500 messages (no summary file)
12.76
14.826
0.145
16.688
0.581
18.468
0.602
2 POP: Summary File Creation Create summary file for 1,000 message Inbox (summary file does not yet exist)
19.38
22.638
0.304
27.476
0.363
27.438
0.328
3 POP: Load Summary File Load summary file for 1,000 message Inbox (summary file exists)
2.31
8.344
0.221
9.408
0.219
10.108
0.397
4 POP: Sort Folder Select a folder with 1,000 messages; sort by subject, then reverse the sort order of subject
1.17
10.576
0.362
10.966
0.204
12.122
0.250
5 POP: Display 5 Messages without Attachment Display 5 10-Kb messages that contain HTML formatting
4.28
23.188
0.449
23.848
0.678
27.12
1.235
6 POP: Display 2 Messages with Attachments Display 2 10-Kb message that each have 100 Kb attachments
10.07
 . .
NT
 .
NT
 .
7 POP: File 5 Messages File 5 10-Kb messages from the POP Inbox to a local folder
1.39
4.808
0.233
3.354
0.174
NI
 .
8 POP: Delete 5 Messages Delete 5 10-Kb messages from the POP Inbox
4.80
26.508
0.767
28.046
0.242
35.016
1.682
9 POP: Create New Folder Create a new POP folder
0.59
2.132
0.145
2.462
0.135
NI
 .
10 POP: Undo Delete Message In a POP account, select and delete a message, then undo the delete
0.81
1.306
0.097
1.456
0.054
NI
 .
11 POP: Scroll Bar In a POP account, select a folder with 500 messages, Scroll to the bottom of Thread Pane
1. Using arrow button
2. Dragging the Thumb to the bottom
3. Scroll be pages.
0.76
145.238
2.966
69.22
4.199
0.190
0.969
1.832
0.072
 . .
IMAP Mail
1 IMAP: Header Download Download 1,000 email headers (no summary file)
19.42
24.08
0.307
31.654
0.263
27.352
0.654
2 IMAP: Update IMAP Summary File Download an additional 50 headers to an IMAP Inbox that already contains 1,000 headers (summary file exists) .
24.928
1.110
42.178
1.496
NT
 .
3 IMAP: Load Summary File Load summary file for 1,000 message Inbox (summary file exists)
2.89
24.126
0.248
10.748
0.293
12.31
0.363
4 IMAP: Display 5 Messages without Attachment Display 5 10-Kb messages that contain HTML formatting
5.34
20.38
0.404
25.126
2.250
27.822
2.515
5 IMAP: Download and Display 2 Messages with Attachments Download and display 2 10-Kb message that each have 100 Kb attachments
6.70
32.804
0.493
NT
 .
NT
 .
6 IMAP: File 5 Messages File 5 10-Kb messages from the IMAP Inbox to an IMAP folder
1.48
5.772
0.143
3.532
0.207
NI
 .
7 IMAP: Delete 5 Messages Delete 5 10-Kb messages from the IMAP Inbox
6.63
23.986
0.197
26.332
0.191
34.732
1.009
8 IMAP: Move Messages to Local Folder Move 100 10-Kb Messages from IMAP server to local folder
7.44
 . .
10.924
0.157
NT
 .
9 IMAP: Create New IMAP Folder Create a new IMAP folder
0.68
1.83
0.095
3.298
0.089
NI
 .
10 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
0.59
1.038
0.197
0.938
0.045
1.326
0.073
News
1 NNTP: Header Download Download 1,000 news headers from NNTP Server (no summary file)
24.93
20.89
0.410
11.62
0.228
NT
 .
2 NNTP: Update Summary File Download an additional 50 headers to a newsgroup that already contains 1,000 headers (summary file exists) . . .
NT
 .
NT
 .
3 NNTP: Load Summary File. Load summary file for 1,000 message newsgroup (summary file exists)
3.02
13.49
0.773
8.414
0.137
NT
 .
4 NNTP: Display 5 Messages Display 5 5-Kb messages (plain text)
4.11
27.258
0.248
39.066
0.528
50.518
1.427
5 NNTP: Delete Message Delete a news message that you have posted
2.74
3.288
0.103
5.02
0.060
13.158
0.162
6 NNTP: Mark All Read Mark ~500 News Messages as read
2.52
19.244
0.468
72.078
1.012
77.112
0.707
Address Book
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.
1 Open Local Address Book Open a local address book that contains 200 address book cards . . . . . . .
2 View 5 Address Book Cards View 5 address book cards (out of a total of 200 cards in the address book) . . . . . . .
3 Open "Edit Card" Dialogue Open the Edit Card Dialogue by double clicking on an address book entry
0.84
 NT 
(bug  28178 )		 .
20.61
0.357
17.09
0.063
MessageCompose
1 Open Compose Window Open the Compose Window
1.83
10.112
0.361
12.28
0.191
11.224
1.134
2 Auto-complete Auto-complete 5 email addresses against a 200 card local address book . . . . .
NI
 .
3 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
 .
4 Add 2 Attachments Add 2 100-Kb attachments to a message
2.43
5.954
0.093
25.28
0.815
NI
 .
5 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
0.94
5.208
0.181
5.356
0.199
5.758
0.084
6 Send Message (No Attachment) Send a 10 Kb HTML formatted email message
0.76
3.374
0.231
6.706
0.135
5.302
0.120
7 Send Message With Attachment Send a 10 Kb HTML formatted email message with a 100 Kb attachment
1.81
5.276
0.101
30.414
0.685
NT
 .


Table initially created by Sol Goldfarb
Timings updated by Suresh Kasinathan
Copyright © 1998-2000 The Mozilla Organization.
Last modified February 24, 2000.