The browser wars are over, and Microsoft Edge has won. Microsoft has declared Edge 91, due for release by the end of this week, to be the king of Windows 10 browsers.

Microsoft expanded on this claim in a blog post aimed at developers (and, let's be honest, non-developers, too), saying that with a few key upgrades, its retooled browser will "take performance to the next level."

"We know you care about developer tools, but we also know you want a great experience when using websites and applications. That's why when Microsoft Edge version 91 is released later this week, Microsoft Edge will be the best performing browser on Windows 10."

Microsoft's bold claim (see what I did there?) is rooted in a feature called Startup Boost, which, according to Microsoft, allows certain browser processes to not consume resources when the Edge browser window is open. load in the background.

Microsoft also mentions Edge's sleep tab feature. This frees up resources from inactive tabs (tabs that are not in the forefront) and improves performance when working with multi-tabbed sites during a browsing session.

Tab sleep is not a new feature. However, Microsoft continues to tweak the underlying code and claims that Edge 91 offers the best version yet, with data collected from preview builds showing memory savings of up to 82%

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"By instantly putting ads to sleep when tabs are put in the background, you can save resources instantly. Sleeping tabs now saves Windows system resources," Microsoft explains.

Chrome in particular has a reputation for being a memory hog. Incidentally, Chrome is also releasing version 91 this week, which seems to be mostly focused on security fixes (Google paid tens of thousands of dollars to bug hunters for a series of security fixes implemented in Chrome 91).

There is a bit of irony in touting Edge as a better browser than Chrome (and all other browsers) in that both are based on Chromium. Microsoft dismantled the old version of Edge and replaced its own EdgeHTML and Chakra JavaScript engines with Google's Blink and V8 engines; Edge began rolling out for PCs a year ago and is currently being tested on the Xbox.

Edge has been a very good browser recently since the overhaul, as Firefox remains the best browser for PC gamers Edge's market share has jumped from about 0.6% to 8% in 12 months The gap with Chrome is still significant, but the gap is no longer insurmountable.