then there can be only one plausible explanation

Utter bolix. There can be many many reasons for bad performance and there is nothing like enough information in the OP's post to make the assertion that "your system is thrashing".

True laziness is hard work

In reply to Re^2: Time efficiency of object creation in Perl (or the "bless" function) by GrandFather
in thread Time efficiency of object creation in Perl (or the "bless" function) by kikumbob

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