Google promises 10% faster pageloads with Chrome 85

Google issued the first stable version of Chrome 85. First and foremast, this new version has a couple of performance enhancements. With Profile Guided Optimization, Google claims users can expect up to 10 percent faster pageloads. Furthermore, Google is also beta testing Tab Throttling, an upcoming feature that aims to reduce resource consumption of idle background tabs.

Simplified, Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) is a compiler optimization technique where the most performance-critical parts of the code can run faster. Because PGO uses real usage scenarios that match the workflows of Chrome users around the world, the most common tasks get prioritized and made faster. It is rolling out with Chrome M85 on Mac and Windows.

PGO was initially introduced in M53 for Chrome on Windows using Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC), our previous build environment. In M85, we are rolling out PGO on Mac and Windows using Clang. Our testing consistently shows pages loading up to 10% faster at the median, and even greater speed improvements when your CPU is tasked with running many tabs or programs.

Besides better performance, Chrome 85 adds a new tab management feature for tab groups. This means you can now collapse and expand grouped tabs. Google also made enhancements to Chrome's PDF reader, you will no longer need Adobe Reader to fill out PDF files and save them.