Javascript switch vs. if...else if...else

Answering in generalities:

1. Yes, usually.
2. See More Info Here
3. Yes, because each has a different JS processing engine, however, in running a test on the site below, the switch always out performed the if, elseif on a large number of iterations.

Test site

Sometimes it's better to use neither. For example, in a "dispatch" situation, Javascript lets you do things in a completely different way:

function dispatch(funCode) {
  var map = {
    'explode': function() {
      prepExplosive();
      if (flammable()) issueWarning();
      doExplode();
    },

    'hibernate': function() {
      if (status() == 'sleeping') return;
      // ... I can't keep making this stuff up
    },
    // ...
  };

  var thisFun = map[funCode];
  if (thisFun) thisFun();
}

Setting up multi-way branching by creating an object has a lot of advantages. You can add and remove functionality dynamically. You can create the dispatch table from data. You can examine it programmatically. You can build the handlers with other functions.

There's the added overhead of a function call to get to the equivalent of a "case", but the advantage (when there are lots of cases) of a hash lookup to find the function for a particular key.