Well, there's a slight distinction there. CSS animations are faster than jQuery which is important to remember. You can get the same boost from CSS Animations and even better performance if you're using GSAP (Green Sock Animation Platform) which uses Javascript to give the same benefits you see in CSS animations.
The results confirm what is widely reported on the web - CSS animations are significantly faster than jQuery. However, on most devices and browsers I tested, the JavaScript-based GSAP performed even better than CSS animations (by a wide margin in some cases, like on the Microsoft Surface RT GSAP was probably at least 5 times faster than the CSS transitions created by Zepto, and on the iPad 3 iOS7 transforms were significantly faster when animated with GSAP instead of CSS transitions)
Here's the two articles:
https://css-tricks.com/myth-busting-css-animations-vs-javasc... - this article was written by the author of GSAP
http://davidwalsh.name/css-js-animation
The basic point of the article:
The results confirm what is widely reported on the web - CSS animations are significantly faster than jQuery. However, on most devices and browsers I tested, the JavaScript-based GSAP performed even better than CSS animations (by a wide margin in some cases, like on the Microsoft Surface RT GSAP was probably at least 5 times faster than the CSS transitions created by Zepto, and on the iPad 3 iOS7 transforms were significantly faster when animated with GSAP instead of CSS transitions)