I refuse to ever use chrome. it should be classed as spyware in my technical opinion. i use a waterfox portable edition that works absolutely perfect. i agree though that firefox itself x86 and x64 versions are just too slow anymore.
imho I think Firefox or some derivative, with config tweaks is still the better choice if some level of autonomy is still important to you. (Side note: Opera was sold to a Chinese consortium back in 2016). I didn't find a topic devoted specifically to browsers. I wonder if there is any interest in beginning a dedicated thread for Firefox (or more generically, Web Browsers?)