For what it's worth, my findings also align with the original poster – Orion uses more resources.
System: M1 MBP, 16GM Ram, Monterey.
Safari 15.3
Orion 0.99-113 beta
Steps to reproduce:
- Open Safari and Orion in split screen (with each occupying exactly 50% of screen space). Only 1 tab each.
- Disable all extensions
- Replicate application settings e.g. content blocking, css rules etc.
- Load this video URL:
- Play both at the same time. (Naturally when clicking from one app to the other there is lag, so pause the lead video and resume playback when the other video catches up. Now they're in complete sync.)
- Take screenshot of activity monitor at several times of the video.
- Compare resource usage activity monitor (using processes identifiably belonging to each app. See images. Blue = Safari. Green = Orion.)
Repeat test case steps 4-6 above several times to ensure consistency of results.
Total CPU process usage (%):
Test results:
[Safari 13.4] [Orion 14.0]
[Safari 14.6] [Orion 21.9]
[Safari 13.1] [Orion 14.4]
[Safari 11.8] [Orion 12.9]
[Safari 13.2] [Orion 13.7]
[Safari 12.3] [Orion 13.7]
[Safari 11.7] [Orion 14.1]
[Safari 12.2] [Orion 13.2]
[Safari 13.6] [Orion 13.9]
Result: Orion used more CPU 100% of the time.
Screenshots:
Side-by-Side
https://ibb.co/4NgvxS8
Activity Monitor
https://ibb.co/StkfN68
https://ibb.co/VV8hWvr
https://ibb.co/yW2vp3D
https://ibb.co/vZP1mjZ
https://ibb.co/bdT6hDd
https://ibb.co/PQdvhSD