Well according to Microsoft YES IE8 is faster then both Chome and Firefox

New IE Faster Than Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Claims

Microsoft's tests pitted IE8 Release Candidate 1 (RC1), which launched in late January, against Google Inc.'s Chrome 1.0 and Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox 3.0.5, a version from mid-December. The company timed how long it took each browser to completely render the 25 most-popular destinations on the Web, as ranked by the Web metrics firm comScore Inc., which included google.com, facebook.com, Amazon.com, and others.

IE8 was fastest in rendering 12 of the 25 sites, said Microsoft, while Chrome took second by beating the others on nine sites. Firefox, meanwhile, was a distant third, coming in first on just four of the 25 domains.

So with that in mind if your a avid Firefox or chrome user would you consider making the switch? I use Firefox 99.9% of the time and I personally don't see me making any change. Personally I like how I can customize my browser via addon's that alone will make me a Firefox fan. The only time I use IE is if the site will not work in Firefox and even then I go onto IE via a Firefox addon. What are your thoughts?