tried caching at the activerecord level with memcached. Yes, there was a speed increase but still there is a noticeable page loading time lag. It doesn't load craigslist fast.

plz post benchmarks from all levels and i'm sure the ruby / ror community would love to help.

when X page (a problem page) loads, what exact times and % of the total load time is taking place at:

http server

ror, broken down into: activerecord, non-AR logic, & rendering

web browser (pulling down JavaScript files, CSS files, etc)

(calculated for several runs, with perhaps an offpeak benchmark & onpeak benchmark to see if there's a major difference)

Chances are, 80% of your slowness can be alleviated by a few small changes in one of the above areas, but each app is different of course.

To be honest, it sounds like RoR or ActiveRecord is doing something wrong.