I have to second the opinion - I've yet to notice any significant BETA performance improvements on my library (~148000 items).
system specs: Win7, 4GB RAM, 2ghz dual Intel, Win Exp Rating 5.3 [robust enough for photoshop, most gaming and multitasking...]
Library runs from USB3 external HD with portable FB install on same HD. I have also tested a local FB install with same external HD library with very little difference.
I have tested my portable FB+external HD on 4-5 other systems (crappy XP laptops to latest win8 quads) and performance slightly varied, so hardware is playing very little role that I can tell.
Using 'fancy' themes, CUI, or playlist/library WSH panels are unusable on my core system with large libraries - I (have to) stick to DUI with facets/esplaylist/simplaylist
example behaviors:
-(in facets) inactive state with no items selected > select an artist: delay ~10-30sec. before selected item is actually playable. Delay is bigger from single artist selection to entire library (or larger group) selection. Delay is minimal (1-4 sec) selecting a single artist to another single artist.
-(in facets) typing letter to go to artist name, initial delay ~10-30sec. before selected item is actually playable; subsequent selections (2-5 sec).
-(facets search), simply typing will slow everything down (although music usually continues playing without problems) and actual search results usually take 1-3 minutes to appear.
-startup (app appears and is usable) ~5+ min./actual FB startup (see below) ;shutdown also ~5+ min.
One note is that in my experience, overall performance is *largely* impacted by HD performance - USB3 and fast (7200RPM) makes the biggest difference as my feeling is HD access is one of the biggest performance bottlenecks.
While the performance can be annoying (especially for new people browsing my library) no other program I've used in the past could come close to managing my library any better, so I keep patient with it.
I have also tried a 2nd local install with small local library (~2-5K) and there were no delays at all, so it is definitely a problem of scale.
----
CONSOLE INFO:
FB startup: (yes I realize I need to update a few of Marc's panels but should have no impact on overall performance)
Watching: S:\A
Watching: S:\B
Watching: S:\C
Watching: S:\E
Watching: S:\F
Watching: S:\D
Watching: S:\G
Watching: S:\H
Watching: S:\IJ
Watching: S:\K
Watching: S:\L
Watching: S:\M
Watching: S:\NO
Watching: S:\P
Watching: S:\QR
Watching: S:\S
Watching: S:\T
Watching: S:\UVW
Watching: S:\XYZ
Watching: S:\~incoming\Clean [to bak]
Watching: S:\various\M-R
Watching: S:\various\S-Z
Watching: S:\various\F-L
Watching: S:\various\A-E
Watching: S:\various\other\The Brain [AUDIO]
WSH Panel Mod (Now Playing by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Now Playing by marc2003): initialized in 12423 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): initialized in 218 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Last.fm & Wikipedia Biography by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Last.fm & Wikipedia Biography by marc2003): initialized in 399 ms
WSH Panel Mod (News / Reviews / Blogs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (News / Reviews / Blogs by marc2003): initialized in 492 ms
WSH Panel Mod (News / Reviews / Blogs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (News / Reviews / Blogs by marc2003): initialized in 42 ms
WSH Panel Mod (News / Reviews / Blogs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (News / Reviews / Blogs by marc2003): initialized in 39 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Last.fm Charts by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common4.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Last.fm Charts by marc2003): initialized in 13500 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): initialized in 191 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Musicbrainz v6.2013-03-17.01 by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common6.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Musicbrainz v6.2013-03-17.01 by marc2003): initialized in 8221 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Last.fm by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common4.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Last.fm by marc2003): initialized in 378 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Last.fm by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common4.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Last.fm by marc2003): initialized in 25 ms
WSH Panel Mod ({43C04E90-D08D-4BCE-90CB-01F5D4EE6771}): initialized in 16 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Discogs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Discogs by marc2003): initialized in 33 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Musicbrainz Releases by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common4.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Musicbrainz Releases by marc2003): initialized in 20 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Musicbrainz by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Musicbrainz by marc2003): initialized in 52 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): initialized in 38 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): initialized in 32 ms
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): Parsing file "S:\~incoming\~apps\foobar2000\marc2003\common7.js"
WSH Panel Mod (Thumbs by marc2003): initialized in 108 ms
w7shell: init started
w7shell: GDI+ initialized
w7shell: COM initialized
w7shell: running on Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
w7shell: DWM composition enabled
w7shell: WA_DISALLOW_PEEK successfully set
w7shell: WA_HAS_ICONIC_BITMAP successfully set
w7shell: WA_FORCE_ICONIC_REPRESENTATION successfully set
w7shell: WA_FLIP3D_POLICY successfully set
w7shell: all green
Autoplaylists initialized in: 0:03.185381
"Rated" : 0:02.198193
"ReplayGain Missing" : 0:00.987117
Startup time : 1:41.867263
w7shell: taskbar button create notification got
Seekbar: taking Direct3D9 path.
Seekbar: Frontend initialized.
Components:
Core (2013-07-10 12:45:36 UTC)
foobar2000 core 1.2.9
foo_albumlist.dll (2013-02-11 11:28:58 UTC)
Album List 4.5
foo_audioscrobbler.dll (2011-08-18 21:01:03 UTC)
Audioscrobbler 1.4.7
foo_bpm.dll (2010-04-20 12:35:07 UTC)
BPM Analyser 0.2.4.1
foo_burninate.dll (2013-02-07 18:02:37 UTC)
Audio CD Writer 3.0.3
foo_cdda.dll (2013-03-07 09:48:32 UTC)
CD Audio Decoder 3.0
foo_converter.dll (2013-07-10 12:25:32 UTC)
Converter 1.5
foo_discogs.dll (2013-06-18 12:03:41 UTC)
Discogs Tagger 1.31
foo_dsp_effect.dll (2013-09-03 09:23:03 UTC)
Effect DSP 0.12
foo_dsp_eq.dll (2013-02-11 11:28:58 UTC)
Equalizer 1.0
foo_dsp_std.dll (2013-07-10 12:25:50 UTC)
Standard DSP Array 1.3
foo_facets.dll (2011-08-27 18:05:16 UTC)
Facets 1.0
foo_fileops.dll (2013-02-11 11:28:10 UTC)
File Operations 2.2
foo_freedb2.dll (2013-02-11 11:27:56 UTC)
Online Tagger 0.7
foo_input_std.dll (2013-07-10 12:45:38 UTC)
Standard Input Array 1.0
foo_jesus.dll (2010-09-23 00:34:06 UTC)
Autosave & Autobackup 10
foo_navigator.dll (2010-03-02 08:43:15 UTC)
Navigator 0.64
foo_playcount.dll (2011-07-13 10:47:18 UTC)
Playback Statistics 3.0.2
foo_queuecontents.dll (2012-09-27 17:34:40 UTC)
Queue Contents Editor 0.5.1
foo_random_pools.dll (2012-08-26 15:56:06 UTC)
Random Pools 0.1.3
foo_rgscan.dll (2013-07-10 12:25:36 UTC)
ReplayGain Scanner 2.2
foo_run.dll (2012-07-05 15:59:41 UTC)
Run services 0.3.7
foo_seek.dll (2012-11-08 15:48:53 UTC)
Seek 1.1
foo_simplaylist.dll (2011-08-18 19:01:36 UTC)
SimPlaylist 1.0
foo_textdisplay.dll (2011-08-18 21:01:03 UTC)
Text Display UI Element 1.1 beta 1
foo_texttools.dll (2013-01-12 21:03:39 UTC)
Text Tools 1.0.5
foo_ui_std.dll (2013-07-10 12:45:36 UTC)
Default User Interface 0.9.5
foo_uie_albumart.dll (2007-12-15 22:22:24 UTC)
Album Art Panel 0.2.7.1
foo_uie_biography.dll (2010-12-11 06:47:22 UTC)
Biography View 0.4.2.4
foo_uie_esplaylist.dll (2011-05-28 22:06:46 UTC)
EsPlaylist 0.1.3.9
foo_uie_library_tree.dll (2011-07-24 16:08:24 UTC)
Library Tree 0.3.4.6.1
foo_uie_lyrics3.dll (2012-11-06 13:26:14 UTC)
Lyric Show Panel 3 0.3.6 beta 4
foo_uie_wsh_panel_mod.dll (2013-08-06 19:07:56 UTC)
WSH Panel Mod 1.5.6
foo_verifier.dll (2013-06-18 12:03:41 UTC)
File Integrity Verifier 1.1.1
foo_vis_vumeter.dll (2013-02-16 09:44:26 UTC)
VU Meter 2013-02-16
foo_w7shell.dll (2010-01-17 02:09:20 UTC)
Windows 7 integration 0.2.9.1
foo_wave_seekbar.dll (2013-06-18 12:03:41 UTC)
Waveform seekbar 0.2.39.6