diff --git a/benchmark/buffers/buffer-tostring.js b/benchmark/buffers/buffer-tostring.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..948052042d677b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/buffers/buffer-tostring.js
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+'use strict';
+
+const common = require('../common.js');
+
+const bench = common.createBenchmark(main, {
+  arg: [true, false],
+  len: [0, 1, 64, 1024],
+  n: [1e7]
+});
+
+function main(conf) {
+  const arg = conf.arg;
+  const len = conf.len | 0;
+  const n = conf.n | 0;
+  const buf = Buffer(len).fill(42);
+
+  bench.start();
+  if (arg) {
+    for (var i = 0; i < n; i += 1)
+      buf.toString('utf8');
+  } else {
+    for (var i = 0; i < n; i += 1)
+      buf.toString();
+  }
+  bench.end(n);
+}
diff --git a/lib/buffer.js b/lib/buffer.js
index 619b735fe7e74b..4625515c63c91b 100644
--- a/lib/buffer.js
+++ b/lib/buffer.js
@@ -333,8 +333,7 @@ function byteLength(string, encoding) {
 
 Buffer.byteLength = byteLength;
 
-// toString(encoding, start=0, end=buffer.length)
-Buffer.prototype.toString = function(encoding, start, end) {
+function slowToString(encoding, start, end) {
   var loweredCase = false;
 
   start = start >>> 0;
@@ -376,6 +375,16 @@ Buffer.prototype.toString = function(encoding, start, end) {
         loweredCase = true;
     }
   }
+}
+
+
+Buffer.prototype.toString = function() {
+  const length = this.length | 0;
+  if (length === 0)
+    return '';
+  if (arguments.length === 0)
+    return this.utf8Slice(0, length);
+  return slowToString.apply(this, arguments);
 };