I'll post some specifics about the different page generation times using 6.4 and 6.5. This is running on my test server. Same data for each one, both running on the same server and me being the only person on the forums during these tests.
Main Forum Listing
6.4 Generated in .275 seconds. 11 queries took .076 of that time
6.5 Generated in .026 seconds. 7 queries took .016 of that time.
Postlist page
6.4 Generated in .415 seconds. 11 queries took .047 of that time.
6.5 Generated in .02 seconds. 11 queries took .004 of that time
Flat Mode with 40 replies in topic
6.4 Generated in .688 seconds. 14 queries took .045 of that time
6.5 Generated in .031 seconds. 13 queries took .008 of that time.
Search - All forums all dates
6.4 Generated in .575 seconds. 8 queries took .203 of that time
6.5 Generated in .207 seconds. 8 queries took .089 seconds of that time
Now there is more behind the search data as well. That same time was taken if the user went to the next page of search results or they viewed a topic from the result list then went back to the results. In 6.5 when viewing another page of results or viewing a topic then going back to the results it dropped down to .026 seconds and 4 queries taking .001 seconds of that time. The reason being that the search results are cached.
So, you should see substantial improvements with 6.5 in place. We did test 6.4 quite extensively but it's always different went released to the masses. The main problem is that the user's perform very complex searches or searches for things that will show up in just about every post. Not bad if just 1 person does it, but if alot do it then it causes problems.
So, we've addressed as much as we can in 6.5 and then in 6.6 we will probably take one more stab at it and possibly end up doing a search index.
