.png)
For quite some time, Google Chrome has been the most popular browser on the market. As of January 2022, Chrome accounted for more than 63 percent of the overall browser market. Opera GX, a version of Opera designed specifically for gamers, is not as popular as Chrome. However, the gaming browser provides a viable alternative to Google's giant. As long as you don't install it only for the ostensible gaming perks. But how do the two browsers stack up against one another?
Let's compare Opera GX and Chrome to find out.
If you're having trouble deciding between Oprea GX and Chrome, this comparison is excellent for both gamers and casual users. Chrome is a popular choice among Windows PC users, but privacy and memory utilisation remain challenges. Opera GX is a feature-rich browser with strong privacy and security protection. Discover which of these two provides the finest performance, design, and more.
The greatest gaming browser is used by true gamers: GX Opera
Opera GX is a specialised version of the popular Opera browser designed exclusively for gamers' demands. Opera GX, which is packed with unique features, will let you get the most out of your gaming and browsing every day:
- CPU, RAM and Network limiter with hot tab killer
- Integrated with Twitch, Discord, Instagram, Twitter and Messengers directly
- Built-in sound controls and custom music
- Custom color themes by Razer Chroma and force dark pages
- Free VPN and Ad blocker
- Download Opera GX
Google Chrome is one of the most popular cross-platform web browsers. Chrome is a popular choice for both new and seasoned users, thanks to its open-source Chromium engine and a plethora of addons. However, due to privacy concerns, Chrome alternatives are rapidly emerging. Opera GX is a popular Chrome alternative. Power users and gamers will benefit from a browser built on the open-source Chromium project. Explore our Opera GX Review for additional in-depth information on this subject. While both browsers use the same underlying technology, Opera GX provides additional customization and privacy options. The Chrome alternative offers extra features such as a free VPN, an ad blocker, and Flow. Is it, however, the ideal moment to move to Opera GX? We tested both browsers in a variety of criteria, including performance, functionality, design, security, and others, to determine which was the superior browser.
Is Opera GX better than Chrome?
A few factors must be examined in order to answer this question, such as how you want to use your browser and what you anticipate from it. If you enjoy gaming, Opera GX offers several good gaming-related features that might be useful, whilst Chrome allows you to extend its capabilities by installing extensions. In the part located later in this guide, we will break down all areas of comparison between these two powerful browsers, so make sure to read all of the offered information.
Opera GX vs. Google Chrome: which one should you choose?
Opera GX Features
Opera GX highlights many unique browser features on its landing page. Here are some of the ones that stand out.GX Control
When I initially learned about Opera GX, this was the most exciting feature. The browser allows you to set RAM and CPU limitations while also recognising which tabs are using the most resources on your computer. Coming from Chrome, where I frequently have 40 tabs open, consuming almost 4 GB of RAM, this was an intriguing suggestion! I opened my regular Chrome tabs in both Google Chrome and Opera GX at the same time to evaluate the RAM use. Both tabs had the identical exact tabs open, yet the task manager showed 6-9 more tasks active in GX. The amount of jobs in each browser varied, including items like crash reports. Without any resource constraints, Opera GX utilised around a fifth of the RAM that Google Chrome used! Interestingly, Opera GX appears to consume more power than Chrome. While working without resource constraints, I have not observed any performance difficulties. Additionally, anyone using Opera GX on a laptop should use the power saver option to extend battery life. As long as you enable the 'Hard Limit' option, Opera's RAM limiter does restrict your resources. When I raised the memory limit to 1 GB, Opera GX used roughly 1.6 GB of RAM without it. RAM Limiter appears to increase the power utilisation of Opera GX, thus I'm betting something intense is going on in the background. After a few minutes, power utilisation dropped to moderate-to-high, although it still sometimes reached "Very High." Even though all of my initial 18 tabs remained open, the number of tasks decreased by around 33%. When I enabled the 'Hard Limit,' Opera GX updated all of my tabs and my memory consumption fell below 1 GB. However, it took some time for several sites to return to normal, particularly those with a lot of video and graphic material. After a few minutes, I gave up on Twitch working effectively with the hard restriction and had to remove the limitation. While disheartening, having 1.6 GB vs 1.0 GB occupied by a browser when I have capacity to spare isn't the end of the world. If the Opera GX team can make all tabs operate on machines with lower resources, say 4 to 8 GB, this would be a considerable save! The CPU Limiter also functioned successfully, although the minimum setting is still 13%. With my 18 tabs, I was seldom in the double digits in terms of CPU utilisation %, thus this shouldn't be an issue.
GX Control is an excellent addition to the browser space. Because gamers are attempting to reserve resources for broadcasting and playing games, the community will welcome this.
GX Cleaner
We could all use a decent cleaner in our lives. To improve your surfing experience, Opera GX Cleaner eliminates unneeded garbage files. Rather than having to hunt through cleaning choices in settings, Opera GX allows you to select min, med, or max to effectively cleanse your life of clutter. Alternatively, you may choose which browser files to erase manually. The procedure is painless and takes only a few seconds. The GX Cleaner's simplicity and intuitiveness appeal to me!
Music for the background
Users can choose one of five backdrop songs from the music area. When you have website audio, Opera GX intelligently mutes the background music and resumes it whenever the audio on your website is done. While the collection is modest, they have fantastic composers providing the songs, and I'm enthusiastic about the music library's future expansion. It's a good change of pace to listen to music as you wait for your favourite streamer to start gaming! Separately, when the team adds new connectors, customers may connect directly to platforms to expand the audio collection. This music is ideal for gaming, working, or watching your favourite stream.
Razer Chroma Integration
Customizing lights is all the rage these days. You may sync your browser with your devices for an immersive lighting experience with the Razer Chroma integration. Since its first release, Opera GX has introduced Logitech and CORSAIR choices to make the GX Lights customisation more appealing to the general public. People who enjoy experimenting with lighting will undoubtedly enjoy this function, although I doubt that this section will be used very much.
GX Corner
This is by far my favourite feature of Opera GX (and I saved the best for last)! GX Corner is the kind of HUD that gamers would create if they had complete control of the internet. You receive everything from a gaming release schedule to game trailers to, wait for it, an assortment of free games! I'm a slickdeals junkie, therefore I'm all about freebies. This browser will show you which video games are free to play and where you can play them! If that isn't enough, GX Corner also displays discounts on popular titles. Overwatch is one of my favourite shooters, and it appeared on the list with substantial discounts. Finally, there's enough gaming news to keep you busy for dozens of hours. Simply simply, GX Corner is an excellent site for any gamer.
Extras
- Compatibility with some of my commonly used extensions, like LastPass
- One-click screengrabs
- Control of your music library
- Overall had a very clean design
Opera GX vs Google Chrome: visual design & aesthetics
The design of Opera GX is aggressive, with sharp angles and vivid colours that evoke strong retro wave emotions. Using Opera GX is similar to using Winamp before skin support was added to the famous player. Almost every theme in Opera GX screams 2004, and DJ Mike the Llama. If we were to relate it to a modern device, think of all those gaming phones like the ROG Phone or Legion Duel 2, and you'll get the idea. Fortunately, there are many other colour themes to pick from, and we identified a handful that are dominated by grey tones that look very well. Opera GX also has a sidebar with useful functionality like as bookmarks, history, and Opera GX-specific functions. In contrast, chrome is all about rounded corners. We enjoy that UI components don't have any harsh edges. It's entirely up to you when it comes to themes and colours. You may use muted hues or make a firework out of vivid pink and radioactive green. Overall, we prefer Chrome aesthetics, although this is a completely subjective area, and your tastes may differ drastically from ours. We would want to see Opera GX support Chrome themes. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Opera provides an extension that allows users to install almost any extension available for Chrome, this does not work for themes. In terms of user interface, we like Opera GX. You may access the aforementioned sidebar as well as a quick settings tab called "East Setup" with a single mouse click. By clicking anywhere on the tab bar, you may also open a new tab card. To launch a new tab in Chrome, click the + symbol in the tab bar. Aside from these tiny modifications, the UI in Chrome and Opera GX is extremely identical. But little things like the ones we just discussed make using Opera GX a little more enjoyable.
Opera GX vs. Chrome RAM usage
Opera's browser is not only more memory efficient, but it also has built-in resource management capabilities. Among the most intriguing features is the GX Control, which incorporates a RAM and CPU restriction. To access the CPU and RAM limiter settings, press the GX control button. You may force the browser to use a portion of your system's RAM and restrict CPU consumption to 10% by using GX control. This may slow down the browser, however it is useful if you want to give your games extra resources. Many gamers have their browsers open while gaming, and GX control should let you to better utilise your resources.
If you are concerned about Chrome using your memory resources, the GX browser provides superior control and is a winner in this category.
Opera GX vs. Chrome speed tests
To obtain precise performance test results, our team of professionals used the BrowserBench online platform and the Speedometer 2.0 benchmark test. This benchmark evaluates the browser by simulating several brief activities that the browser must cope with, allowing it to count the number of runs completed in a minute of testing.A higher number in the test results indicates improved speed and performance.
As shown in the table above, Opera GX could do 130 activities per minute, but Chrome could only perform 126 concurrently. Despite the little difference, the answer to the inquiry Is Opera GX quicker than Chrome is unequivocally yes.
Opera GX vs. Chrome performance tests
Our testing team utilised the Jetstream 2 and MotionMark benchmarks to evaluate the performance of both browsers:
As you can see from the data shown above, even though Chrome is an excellent browser with a lot of addons and fast surfing, Opera GX still wins. The benchmark results back up our hypothesis, since Opera performed better in the JetStream 2 and MotionMark tests. By using the Workspaces feature, you can completely divide your business and personal lives while still having simple access to your social media accounts, chat, music player, and even a built-in VPN service. Based on these considerations, we would recommend Opera over Chrome, but the best solution for your specific situation will be determined by your decision based on the information you've read.
➡ Features
It is simple to switch from Chrome to the Opera GX browser. When you install the browser, you will be prompted to import all of your browser data automatically. This is normal behaviour in newer browsers, but it's still a good feature. Finally, when it comes to extensions, Chrome has the greatest ones accessible, due to the Chrome Store. That is not to say that Opera GX falls behind in terms of extension availability. Extensions may be installed via the Opera add-on website and Chrome extensions through the Chrome web store. Almost all of the Chrome extensions we loaded on the Opera GX worked well. Beginning with the built-in Snapshot capability, Opera GX provides various features that Chrome does not. Click the camera icon to capture the full screen or a specific region. Not only that, but you can edit and annotate recorded screenshots with text, emoticons, annotations, blur text, and even add a selfie. The Privacy button is located next to the snapshot symbol. When you click on it, the ad and tracker blocking features will appear. The built-in adblocker function is useful since it eliminates the need to install third-party ad blocker addons to remove intrusive in-page and pop-up video adverts. By using the Block Tracker option, websites will be prevented from monitoring users throughout the Internet. Switch to the Dark Mode. Yes, Chrome lacks this functionality. Unfortunately, Google's browser does not support the full Dark Mode functionality of third-party websites. Some extensions exist, but they are unreliable. This is a task that Opera GX excels at. Oprea will enable the dark mode for the specified web page if you right-click on any open web page and select the Force Dark Page option. This is a fantastic and necessary feature that all web browsers should implement. There are a few additional GX features that are not available in Google Chrome. We've gone through them in depth below.
GX Cleaner - Click the GX Cleaner symbol on the left tab. A built-in cleanup programme cleans up your browser to make it quicker and smoother. You can choose to clear your browser history, downloads, sidebar icons, cache, and cookies.
Shortcuts for social media and streaming apps - The GX browser provides rapid access to Facebook Messenger, which launches in the browser. Then there's a Twitch shortcut that launches the Twitch web app in-browser. You can log in and utilise the streaming platform without having to switch tabs.
Play - Three main music streaming platforms are represented by the play button: Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music. While Spotify and YouTube Music may be accessed with or without a membership, you can log in to your Apple Music account and listen to music without leaving the browser.
My Flow - Another unique feature of Opera browsers, including GX, is My Flow. It enables you to use My Flow to link all of your devices and transmit messages and files between your mobile and PC.
To utilise the functionality, download the Opera Touch browser on your phone and scan the QR code.
The Chrome browser excels in its seamless integration with Google services such as email, calendar, documents, and maps. Chrome has an advantage over Opera GX if you use these services often in your browser.
➡ Syncing
Chrome browsers can sync practically everything, including passwords, bookmarks, and history, across devices. It also manages sync across all of your devices, regardless of platform. Opera GX also provides excellent sync for practically every feature of the browser, including bookmarks, speed dials, history, passwords, and more. However, it is still in the early stages of development.
➡ Security and Privacy
Opera GX offers additional privacy options than Chrome. Furthermore, being a Google product, Chrome has always been a source of contention when it comes to data privacy. Chrome disables third-party cookies and includes a browser cleanup tool for detecting and removing harmful malware as well as identifying risky websites, extensions, and downloads. Most of these capabilities, as well as several others, are available in Opera GX. The built-in ad-blocker, for example, prohibits users from visiting fraudulent websites, blocks all third-party trackers, and offers anonymous surfing via a built-in VPN.Opera GX vs. Chrome privacy tests
To conduct these tests, our testers utilised the BrowserAudit web tool to look for any security or privacy vulnerabilities in these two browsers. To eliminate duplicating test results, these benchmark tests were performed under the same conditions. The BrowserAudit programme performs 400 checks, covering the complete spectrum of features essential for your browser to ensure online privacy and streamline the procedure. As a result, we will only record the number of tests that passed out of the total.
The findings of our testing are shown below:
Tests of Opera GX vs. Chrome vs. Firefox
Choosing the best browser from these three will also depend on your own preferences and how you want to use your browser.According to the data shown above, Opera GX wins in terms of CPU consumption levels, followed by Chrome and Firefox. Firefox topped the BrowserAudit privacy and security test with a score of 376/400, Opera GX came in second with a score of 368/400, and Chrome came in third with 365/400.
When the speeds of these browsers were tested, Opera came out on top with 130 runs per minute. Chrome is in second position with 126 runs/minute, and Firefox is in last place with 117 runs/minute.
Conclusion
When compared to Firefox or Chrome, Opera comes out on top, providing greater performance due to lower CPU consumption and amazing surfing speeds unrivalled by the other two alternatives.
➡ Cross-platform compatibility
Opera GX is a game-inspired browser that is accessible for Windows OS, which is, of course, the market's sole core PC gaming platform today.
Chrome is available on nearly all major platforms, including Chromebook, Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, macOS, and iPadOS.
Opera GX offers everything that Chrome does and some more
It has excellent security features, an ad blocker and tracker blocker built in, a VPN to surf anonymously, and integration of major social media applications like Discord, YouTube, Twitch, Reddit, and more without leaving the browser. To summarise, Opera GX is the best browser for gamers and normal users who frequently consume multimedia material online. The customisation possibilities available are unlike anything we've seen on a Chromium-based browser before. Furthermore, control over resource utilisation and improved privacy features make it an excellent alternative to Google Chrome.