For starters on the note of KDE and Gnome being bloated that isn't true. Compared to other windows managers others say this like it is a codeing issue. This is far from the truth. Both KDE and Gnome are extremely feature packed and these features can consume more memory then other windows managers, this is true. Other windows managers that are 'lighter weight' are just that. They are smaller and offer less for the user on the note of bells and whistles.

Here is another factor to consider is that the windows manager gets loaded into the system ram after it consumes video ram. What is necessary and most important will be loaded into the video cards ram first then it moves onto the pc's ram. The more video ram the more that will be loaded into it and less into system ram. This system I am on is an overcloced PII 266 running as a 333. Currently I have my Radeon 9000 from my usual system in it while I get the parts to repair and rebuild that system. It is night and day running KDE compared to the original card that was in it. Instantanious loading of windows and apps compared to a second or two but it wasn't like 10 or 20 seconds nevermind minutes for an app to load on the original card.

One always has to take into account all hardware on the system before judging because what doesn't work well for one might for another.

well dude, when i first started 2 use linux i did find it a bit slow but that was because my video card driver was generic. Maybe it is ur video card, what kind of video card do u have?

oh yeah and dma i think it is enable no? using_dma = 1 (on)
although ur IO_support is 16 bit, i think ur pc can handle 32 bit no?

but true do check ur video card look 4 linux drivers, if its nvidia or ati some integrated video cards r not linux friendly (YET!!!)

keep us up2date thou