Rawhide performance?

[Dax Kelson]

I installed rawhide on a beefy desktop computer.

AMD FX-55 CPU
2GB RAM
300GB SATA RAID1 (testing out the new dmraid integration)
Nvidia 6800GT 256MB video (Qty 2 -- SLI)
1600x1200 resolution

I haven't quantified it yet, but desktop GNOME performance seems very
sluggish. Many seconds to launch apps. Many seconds for the GNOME panel
menu to drop down and populate with icons. In general the lack of
performance is bad enough to be very noticeable and annoying.

Is this to be expected?

Is it cario?
Is it the compiler settings?
Is it kernel compile settings (is there lots of debug turned on)?
Is it the stock nvidia driver? (nvidia proprietary driver won't install)

Dax Kelson