Microsoft Edge has a new "Performance Mode" that outperforms rival browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

This performance mode automatically optimizes web browsing speed and responsiveness, reducing CPU, RAM, and battery usage. This mode is especially beneficial to users who run their browsers in parallel with additional applications or games, as it frees up space for more power-consuming programs to use.

This mode runs in parallel with the Sleeping Tabs feature that Microsoft added to Edge in 2020. This freezes browser tabs when not in active use, again reducing CPU and RAM usage. Tests have shown that Edge's sleeping tabs are more effective at reducing memory than Chrome's equivalent feature. Google has done little to address users' complaints that the browser consumes too much computing power.

The bad news is that for now this performance mode is only available in Microsoft Edge Canary 9 (basically a test build of Edge that has been released to some users). However, this feature will be rolled out to all users in late 2021.

In the meantime, Windows Latest has been testing the performance mode and the results are quite significant. According to the magazine, Edge forced tabs not in use in performance mode into sleep mode within five minutes, whereas using sleeping tabs on their own took two hours before the tabs were in a low usage state. [This feature is surprisingly clever. For example, if you have a tab that is playing music or video and you want to listen to it in the background while performing other tasks, Edge will automatically keep that tab active instead of putting it in sleep mode. This should come in handy for people who like to listen to music or video while using programs like PhotoShop or while gaming.

As noted above, Chrome users have been complaining for some time now about the browser's heavy load on their devices' RAM and power consumption, so this feature may convince users to switch permanently to Edge later this year.