AA fonts in KDE 3.1.4 really screws performance...

[rsk]

Setup:
P4 2.4B, 512RAM
GeForce 3, 64MB
40GB, 2GB swap
Entire System = Updated stable (no ~x86)
Kernel 2.4.22 vanilla, default genkernel command, no customizations (I'm very unadventurous IF things just work

CFLAGS=-march=pentium4 -mcpu=pentiun4 -pipe

USE="-* perl java python png readline alsa cups ssl nas -esd motif slang oggvorbis cdr ldap pam e
ncode opengl samba sdl svga xmms pda nls aalib jpeg png tiff tcltk kde tcpd innodb X qt mysql gif
libg++ zlib dga sse xv truetype dvd -gtk fbcon directfb arts dvb gtk2 ggi gpm xml mmx mikmod cjk
gdbm mpeg spell justify"

** NOTE: I decide my use flags by starting from the system install and using -vp before emerging anything, when I see a flag listed that I want to support, I add it. So if you are wondering why that list looks so big and scattered, that's why.


ALSO, this might be important: XF86Config modules section:
Section "Module"
# Load "freetype"
# Load "xtt"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "dri"
Load "dbe"
Load "record"
Load "xtrap"
Load "type1"
Load "speedo"
EndSection

And lastly, I'm using the newest stable nvidia kernel and glx modules (and using alsa-driver for my Audigy... if that matters)

------- END SYSTEM SPEC, START DESC ------------
Anyway, something I noticed is that when I enabled AA fonts in KDE (with or without subpixel highlighting and no font-range exlusion, AA ALL fonts) the drawing performance (window refresh, etc) of KDE really goes down the shitter.

For example, loading up slashdot with no AA on, and mousing over the links really quickly will draw a line under the link and update the text in the status bar instantly.

if I enable AA and do the same thing, there is a 1/4second pause before the underline is drawn and the status window updated after I mouse over the item, and another 1/4second pause after mousing off of the link.

Not to mention selections... with AA OFF they are fine, little sluggish for really fast selections but overall totally acceptable. with AA on it is VERY sluggish, taking almost 3/4 of a second to start the selection and atleast 1/2 second pauses to update the selection when I drag the mouse down to include more of the paragraph... VERY sluggish (I have heard that selections are sluggish, I'm merely giving a benchmark here).

Is this normal? Are others seeing this as well? I wouldn't expect AA to be free, I realize it will eat up some resources, but for it to be eating up SO many resources had me concerned. If this is the norm, no problem. But if I am missing some module someplace or some flag somewhere that would alleviate this issue, that'd be great.

thanks for any suggestions.
_________________
Best,
Riyad