It may be from it being ran on SQL Light. You can and should setup with a dedicated SQL server instead. From my experience it’s quite snappy as long as the docker container is ran off of SSDs.
By custom new tab what are you looking for? You can make the new tab display your home page, I think a blank page, and with extensions you can make it do almost anything with a new tab.
Damn son you got dem AGP graphics! At least that is 1 thing that can be upgraded.