Opera enables hardware acceleration, matches IE9, beats Firefox and Chrome (video)

After the most pregnant of pauses -- like hot and lazy Spain, things moves slowly in the oil-rich barrens of Norway -- Opera has finally released a build of its 11.50 browser with hardware acceleration and WebGL support.

Like Chrome, Opera has opted to use OpenGL for hardware acceleration -- at least for now: DirectX, and presumably Direct2D, support is coming at a later date. The OpenGL backend means that Opera will be capable of hardware accelerating almost every platform -- including OS X, smartphones and Web-enabled TVs -- unlike IE9, which can only be used with Windows 7 and Vista.

WebGL support is also a nice touch, but with so few examples of it being used on the Web, it's hard to get excited about it. Google Body works just fine, however -- but the awesome Flight of the Navigator WebGL demo, which will blow you away in Firefox 4 and Chrome, doesn't seem to work in Opera.

Anyway, now it's time for the bit you've been waiting for: a side-by-side comparison of Opera, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. You will probably be surprised by the results. Watch the video after the break.

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Opera enables hardware acceleration, matches IE9, beats Firefox and Chrome (video) originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/01/opera-enables-hardware-acceleration-matches-ie9-beats-firefox/

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