The chaps over at Legit Reviews ran a benchmark on 11 browsers to see which one is the fastest for Windows:

Using a resolution of 1920x1200 and no other applications open, we fired up the brand new Peacemaker benchmark to see which was the fastest browser. After the dust settled Apple's Safari 4.0 beta was clearly in the lead and was found to be over six times faster than the slowest browser, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.0. It should be pointed out that SeaMonkey 2.0 Alpha 3 did very well and offers significant improvements over SeaMonkey 1.1.14. Firefox 3.1 beta 3 was just released this afternoon and it offers better performance than the previous beta. Google Chrome and Opera were at the top of the performance list as well, but what does all of this mean to our readers?

If you are looking to find the fastest Microsoft Windows based browser it looks like Safari 4.0 Beta is the fastest thing out there that you can download today. With the rising popularity of netbooks and small form factor PCs the speed of a browser will become more important as many of the social networking sites are still growing and feature web 2.0 scripting. The one negative about this benchmark is that it is all about scripting speed and not the features that each browser offers. If you'd like more details on what exactly the Peacemaker benchmark is testing be sure to check out the FAQ and try out the benchmark as it is free!