vBulletin 4 & PHP 7 - drastic speed improvement!

[Dave]

I'm talking about TTFB, not complete page load. (Which is also what I stated in my first post in case you didn't see that.)

http://www.webpagetest.org/result/151208_TR_1KFJ/

Keep in mind that PHP only affects the TTFB. As you can see, it matches the results I posted in my first post.
The forum itself uses quite some images and other third party resources so it's not the fastest when it comes to the complete page load.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Dave

(Which is also what I stated in my first post in case you didn't see that.)

Is this after your edit? Because I sure don't recall seeing anything about FBT.

webpagetest.org/ result/151208_TR_1KFJ/

I don't test using Chrome, because by design and to give the false illusion of being "faster" it ignores certain types of calls. I always test worst case, which is IE11.

http://www.webpagetest.org/result/151208_3G_1M6Y/

FBT is nebulous, and depends on many factors. For example, if you use Cloud Flare (which you are) it is proven to greatly slow FBT. There's many other variables involved including just good old fashioned response of the host server at different times and load conditions.

You deliver 73 requests and 1.4 megabytes. 9 seconds for that isn't murder.

[Dave]

We're going completely off-topic though, you are talking about the complete page load while I'm talking about the time it takes for PHP to process the request.

If you don't believe that PHP 7 makes vBulletin fast (so that is vBulletin's server side processing), then that's fine. I highly recommend you to try it out yourself though.

However when it does come to the complete page load, I rather rely on my own findings instead of a "reliable" web page testing service.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Dave

We're going completely off-topic though, you are talking about the complete page load while I'm talking about the time it takes for PHP to process the request.

If you don't believe that PHP 7 makes vBulletin fast (so that is vBulletin's server side processing), then that's fine. I highly recommend you to try it out yourself though.

I neither believe it nor disbelieve it. If you believe it that's fine with me. I merely choose to work on full seconds reduction, than tiny milliseconds. I could take at least 5 seconds off your full load time with only about 30 minutes work.

However when it does come to the complete page load, I rather rely on my own findings instead of a "reliable" web page testing service.

A "reliable" one that's not trying to sell you anything, and is designed, operated and maintained by Google's tech chief, Patrick Meenan. And is the only objective real-world real-browser real-connection optimization standard out there.

Seconds count, not milliseconds. Bang for the buck - your time is worth something.

Congrats though on getting v4 up to the new PHP standard, that's good work but it doesn't help page load time significantly. And certainly not drastically.

[Dave]

It does help page response time significantly, if you refuse to believe that then there's nothing much I have to say. Also a handful of my users reported to me that they noticed a big difference.

I guess you'll see more posts of users regarding the speed difference in the future when they start to migrate to PHP 7.

[Max Taxable]

Originally Posted by Dave

It does help page response time significantly, if you refuse to believe that then there's nothing much I have to say. Also a handful of my users reported to me that they noticed a big difference.

I guess you'll see more posts of users regarding the speed difference in the future when they start to migrate to PHP 7.

Right. Milliseconds noticeable by the everyday user who wasn't told to look for drastic improvement. Prompted beforehand or not, that's all subjective, and there is no way milliseconds can be drastic or a big difference. That's why they are milliseconds.

I'm just skeptical, I hope that is okay with you just like your belief is okay with me. The test I ran and posted though, you had a pretty poor FBT on that one.

[Dave]

You will indeed not notice a difference if we're talking about a few milliseconds, however a few hundred milliseconds is definitely noticeable. In my case, the server is twice as fast to process the PHP request and return a response ever since I upgraded.

[final kaoss]

Anyways, aside from Max trying to derail the topic... I'm not to familiar on updating php, I'm using centos & want to update it to php 7. Can you write or send me to an article about that?

Oh and max, here you go, page loads in the milliseconds (under a second).
https://gtmetrix.com/reports/www.ody...e.com/EvicPyGk
And note, I'm not trying to make this a discussion about that report. Just responding to a post of yours on page 1.

[Dave]

Have you looked at my article at https://blog.technidev.com/vbulletin...aking-it-work/ ?
It includes a URL on how to upgrade to PHP 7 and how to fix the errors in order to make it work.

[Alan_SP]

Excellent thread, I just wanted to ask if someone already has some experience with PHP7, as I read about it being out: http://php.net/archive/2015.php#id2015-12-03-1

On those who have Plesk servers (servers that use Plesk CP v12.5), it is supported with microupdate 14: http://docs.plesk.com/release-notes/...og/#12530-mu14 On this last news, it appears that there's a bug in Plesk that linux versions still don't have PHP7, but it soon will be there.

From my experience, changing PHP version in Plesk, if you use Plesk's own system for multiple PHP versions is extremely easy. Just go to website settings and there you choose which PHP version you want for that website. It works excellent.

On the other hand, as @Paul M mentioned, vB4.2.4 still doesn't have PHP7 support, but it would be great if we ask for it, as it is still possible. And, vB4.2.4 will be out in foreseeable future.

Here is Jira about that issue: http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBIV-16127

Please help having official support for PHP7 in vB4.2.4

And @Dave, for some reason I can't open your site and blog with your experience and instruction for PHP7 and vB4. Is it only temporary?