Does Edge Now Live Up to Chrome for Online Gaming?

Chrome has consistently dominated the market for more than ten years now, thanks to its speed and ease-of-access for those using the browser on more than one device. Rather than trying to carry over your activity when you switch from mobile to PC, Chrome enables its users to share bookmarks, history, and extensions for a more fluid experience.

Edge, on the other hand, was released in 2015 as a successor to Microsoft’s earlier browser, Internet Explorer. By the beginning of this year, it had undergone a transformation with the help of Chromium’s open source software, and promised to offer users a faster, more streamlined experience online.

Read more below about Edge’s capabilities with online gaming.

Speed

One of the greatest advantages Edge now holds over Chrome is that it has focused its efforts squarely on leaving as much memory free as possible. Though Chrome was once prized for its small footprint, it has begun to encroach upon users’ ram to the extent that the slowdown in performance is tangible. Since one of Microsoft’s top priorities is to use as little memory as possible, Edge can effectively serve to liberate more resources for actual content.

For any resource-intensive processing, such as gaming, any increase in available resources can easily result in noticeably faster and smoother processing. This can benefit a wide range of games, from slots to MMORPGs like RuneScape.

Versatility

Neither Internet Explorer nor Edge have yet been able to live up to Chrome’s ability to sync their users’ devices together, but the early signs of its potential to finally replicate this feature are there. Most importantly, passwords and bookmarks can be shared, which makes logging into gaming sites and transferring gameplay from your PC to your mobile can run smoothly, even if the process is not yet perfect.

Compatibility

Microsoft have also done considerable work to ensure that the plug-ins available for Google Chrome will also work with Edge, thereby ensuring that any gaming sites that use plug-ins will be compatible with the new browser.

In addition, because HTML5 supports smoother cross-platform transitioning, gaming developers are able to create a single version of the game that can be played to a consistently high standard across multiple different devices. Edge has made clear its commitment to optimising the HTML5 engine, which means that you will be able to play all the latest games that are being developed to capitalise on the facilities available with this technology, for which the benefits are being heavily touted by such big-names as Facebook and Apple.

Should You Try It?

Since the new revision of Microsoft Edge is heavily based on Chromium, there currently exists little difference between the two. However, Microsoft’s focus on mitigating the impact browsing has on your computer’s performance, memory, and responsiveness, may well mean that it offers a faster and more fluid platform on which to game.

While it may be tied to many years of criticism from the user community, this new update promises a major leap forward for Microsoft, and Edge users alike.