Benchmark PHP mysql vs PHP mysqli

In PHP coding, many of my php scripts are still using php mysql extension. Before taking the time to migrate to php mysqli extension, I have decided to run a simple benchmark between the two. I have written 2 scripts and time it. The first script is "test_mysql.php", the second script is "test_mysqli.php". The result is, the first script took an average of 1.01 sec, the second script took 0.86 sec. "test_mysqli.php" is 17.87% faster than "test_mysql.php".

The scripts were tested on Linux 3.8.4, PHP 5.4.12, MySQL 5.5.30.

First script, test_mysql.php

<?php
//-----Start Timer-------------------------------------------------//       
    $time = microtime();
    $time = explode(" ", $time);
    $time = $time[1] + $time[0];
    $top = $time;
//-----Start Timer-------------------------------------------------//   
for($j=0;$j<1000;$j++)
{  
    $link = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password) or die('Error in Server information');   
    mysql_select_db($db,$link) or die('Can not Select Databasse');   
    $query="select * from com_list where field1='value1';";
    $res = mysql_query($query);  //1 is ok
    if (!$res) {
        die('Invalid query: ' . mysql_error()); }

    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($res)){
    $i++;
    }
    mysql_free_result($res);
    mysql_close($link);
}
    echo "Total lines :".$i;
//-----End Timer-------------------------------------------------//   
    $time = microtime();
    $time = explode(" ", $time);
    $time = $time[1] + $time[0];
    $bottom = $time;
//-----End Timer-------------------------------------------------//
    $loadtime = ($bottom-$top);
    echo ("<br> <br>This page generated in $loadtime seconds");  
?>

Second script, test_mysqli.php

<?php
//-----Start Timer-------------------------------------------------//       
    $time = microtime();
    $time = explode(" ", $time);
    $time = $time[1] + $time[0];
    $top = $time;
//-----Start Timer-------------------------------------------------//       
for($j=0;$j<1000;$j++)
{  
    $link = mysqli_connect($host,$user,$password,$db) or die('Error in Server information');
    $query="select * from com_list where field1='value1';";
    $res = mysqli_query($link,$query);  //1 is ok
    if (!$res) {
        die('Invalid query: ' . mysql_error()); }
    while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($res)){        
    $i++;
    }   
    mysqli_free_result($res);
    mysqli_close($link);
}
    echo "Total lines :".$i;
//-----End Timer-------------------------------------------------//       
    $time = microtime();
    $time = explode(" ", $time);
    $time = $time[1] + $time[0];
    $bottom = $time;
//-----End Timer-------------------------------------------------//           
    $loadtime = ($bottom-$top);
    echo ("<br> <br>This page generated in $loadtime seconds");  
?>

Compare php 5.3 vs 5.4

How much faster is php5.4 compared to php5.3? It was benchmarked , 5.4 is almost twice as fast as 5.3. PHP 5.4 significantly improves performance, memory footprint and fixes over 100 bugs.

PHP 5.4.0 offers a wide range of new features:

Support for traits has been added.
Short array syntax has been added, e.g. $a = [1, 2, 3, 4]; or $a = ['one' => 1, 'two' => 2, 'three' => 3, 'four' => 4];.
Function array dereferencing has been added, e.g. foo()[0].
Closures now support $this.
<?= is now always available, regardless of the short_open_tag php.ini option.
Class member access on instantiation has been added, e.g. (new Foo)->bar().
Class::{expr}() syntax is now supported.
Binary number format has been added, e.g. 0b001001101.
Improved parse error messages and improved incompatible arguments warnings.
The session extension can now track the upload progress of files.
Built-in development web server in CLI mode.