Large Joomla/Virtuemart store loading very slow

Question

I have built a large store on Virtuemart that has about 200k items but now that I have up loaded the items the site is running very slow (sometimes 10s load times)

I am quite sure it is due to the SQL Query needing to go through such a large database. I ran some speed tests it's taking about 5 seconds to get to the first byte. And pages with no products load just fine.

I can take a few steps that will help a little like optimizing images, etc. But I ultimately need it to query the date base faster.

So maybe I need a faster server, I have no idea. Please let me know any suggestion you may have, there is no way for the site to be successful at this rate. Thank you very much!

You can see the site link and results of the speed test at http://www.webpagetest.org/result/150629_Y4_19A4/1/details/

Answer 1

Tschah, I wrote an answer, it got deleted, I wanted to add a new answer and got the hint, I should change my old answer, now my old answer is still deleted. I tried to contact the guy who deleted it, but when I tried to write a message, the system said I should finish my registration, so I logged in with my FB account and the old session is gone, so I cannot see my old answer, hmm.

In short, use this link https://www.google.de/webhp?#q=how%20to%20speed%20up%20your%20joomla%20site and speed up your page with the common tips (disable plugins, etc)

You did not write which page takes so long. If you want to get an idea of the performance, enter the Backend (admin area), go to the product listing and check the time there for 100 products. So we can exclude whatever 3rd party plugins which can massively slowdown your page.