WCF Web Service - Custom Binding (binary encoding) is slower than basicHttpBinding - performance

Question

I have an ASP.Net MVC application which gets it's data from WCF Web Services. They both hosted on the same server and on IIS 7.5
Recently, my MVC application started to get increased hits and needed some optimization. Google insight results showed server response times could be a problem so I decided to start with optimizing WCF services first. (as the mvc application does not work with the database directly but uses WCF services to get data)
Since I can not implement these changes on the live application, I created a PTR version of both the MVC application and WCF services.
The live web service uses basicHttpBinding and in PTR version I switched over to the customBinding with binaryMessageEncoding, however, two Google insight reports for two seperate applications showed that Live version is actually faster than the PTR version.
I don't quite understand what's going on with the results. Is there something that I'm doing wrong or is it expected to binaryMessageEncoding slower than basicHttpBinding's text/xml encoder?
I'm using .Net Framework 4.5 and my services are working on database tables that contains roughly 2 - 10K records per table.
Google insight results are: 2.1 seconds server response for the live application, 4 seconds for the PTR version.
I also have caching and compression enabled on IIS.
These are the web.config files for Live application:
Live WCF Web Server web.config
<system.serviceModel>
<serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="True" aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="True" />
<behaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior name="Development">
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" />
<dataContractSerializer ignoreExtensionDataObject="false" maxItemsInObjectGraph="2147483646" />
<serviceThrottling maxConcurrentCalls="200" maxConcurrentSessions="800" maxConcurrentInstances="400" />
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<bindings>
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="KPHttpBinding"
maxBufferSize="2147483647"
maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647"
closeTimeout="01:50:00"
openTimeout="01:50:00"
sendTimeout="01:50:00"
receiveTimeout="01:50:00">
<readerQuotas maxDepth="128"
maxStringContentLength="2147483647"
maxArrayLength="16384"
maxBytesPerRead="4096"
maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
<security mode="None" />
</binding>
</basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<diagnostics performanceCounters="All" />
<services>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.NewsService" behaviorConfiguration="Development">
<endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.INewsService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.UserService" behaviorConfiguration="Development">
<endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.IUserService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.BlogService" behaviorConfiguration="Development">
<endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.IBlogService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.ContentService" behaviorConfiguration="Development">
<endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.IContentService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.MediaService" behaviorConfiguration="Development">
<endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.IMediaService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
</services>
</system.serviceModel>
Live MVC Application web.config
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="KPHttpBinding" maxBufferSize="2147483647" maxBufferPoolSize="524288" maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647">
</binding>
</basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<behaviors>
<endpointBehaviors>
<behavior name="ServiceBehaviour">
<dataContractSerializer maxItemsInObjectGraph="2147483647" />
</behavior>
</endpointBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<client>
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/BlogService.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBehaviour" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KPBlogService.IBlogService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IBlogService" />
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/ContentService.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBehaviour" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KPContentService.IContentService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IContentService" />
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/NewsService.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBehaviour" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KPNewsService.INewsService" name="BasicHttpBinding_INewsService" />
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/UserService.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBehaviour" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KPUserService.IUserService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IUserService" />
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/MediaService.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding" behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBehaviour" bindingConfiguration="KPHttpBinding" contract="KPMediaService.IMediaService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IMediaService" />
</client>
</system.serviceModel>
PTR WCF Web Service web.config
<system.serviceModel>
<serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="True" aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="True" />
<behaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior name="Production">
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" />
<dataContractSerializer ignoreExtensionDataObject="true" maxItemsInObjectGraph="2147483646" />
<serviceThrottling maxConcurrentCalls="200" maxConcurrentSessions="100" maxConcurrentInstances="100" />
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<bindings>
<customBinding>
<binding name="BinaryHttpBinding">
<reliableSession />
<binaryMessageEncoding compressionFormat="GZip" maxSessionSize="2147483647" />
<httpTransport maxBufferSize="2147483647" maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647" />
</binding>
</customBinding>
</bindings>
<services>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.NewsService" behaviorConfiguration="Production">
<endpoint address="" binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.INewsService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.UserService" behaviorConfiguration="Production">
<endpoint address="" binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.IUserService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.BlogService" behaviorConfiguration="Production">
<endpoint address="" binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.IBlogService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.ContentService" behaviorConfiguration="Production">
<endpoint address="" binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.IContentService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
<service name="KP.ServiceLib.MediaService" behaviorConfiguration="Production">
<endpoint address="" binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding" contract="KP.ServiceLib.Interfaces.IMediaService" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" />
</service>
</services>
</system.serviceModel>
PTR MVC Application web.config
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
<customBinding>
<binding name="BinaryHttpBinding">
<reliableSession />
<binaryMessageEncoding compressionFormat="GZip" maxSessionSize="2147483647" />
<httpTransport maxBufferSize="2147483647" maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647" />
</binding>
</customBinding>
</bindings>
<behaviors>
<endpointBehaviors>
<behavior name="Production">
<dataContractSerializer ignoreExtensionDataObject="true" maxItemsInObjectGraph="66560" />
</behavior>
</endpointBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<client>
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/ptr/NewsService.svc"
binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding"
contract="KPNewsService.INewsService" name="BasicHttpBinding_INewsService" behaviorConfiguration="Production" />
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/ptr/BlogService.svc"
binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding"
contract="KPBlogService.IBlogService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IBlogService" behaviorConfiguration="Production" />
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/ptr/ContentService.svc"
binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding"
contract="KPContentService.IContentService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IContentService" behaviorConfiguration="Production" />
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/ptr/MediaService.svc"
binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding"
contract="KPMediaService.IMediaService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IMediaService" behaviorConfiguration="Production" />
<endpoint address="http://mydomain.com/ptr/UserService.svc"
binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="BinaryHttpBinding"
contract="KPUserService.IUserService" name="BasicHttpBinding_IUserService" behaviorConfiguration="Production" />
</client>
</system.serviceModel>