Why is Fusion so slow?

OK, I don't have the fastest computer anymore (used to be) but it's well above spec so sure, I don't expect dual 4090 ti performance but shouldn't I expect it to work?

I built a Fusion comp. 1 static background image and 2 animated stills with just 2 keyframes each. One has a drop shadow, one has a soft edge polygon. I have 2 color corrector nodes just to adjust the brightness / gamma / contrast on the animated images. That's it. Just trying to move the animated stills from A to B.

I turned off high quality. I turned off motion blur. I turned on proxies. No color page work, no audio, no nr. I can't watch this basic animation...animate. Rendering is almost 4 seconds per frame. Cleared the cache, rebooted, tons of free drive space, all work done on an internal nvme, no other programs running, nothing helps.

Is it common to have to do savers / loaders for animating a still image from A to B?? I mean, there's really nothing going on in this comp.

All other software that I use runs at full speed. Resolve is literally the only software I have that can't function properly. Any suggestions?

What resolution are you working in? 4 seconds per frame sounds like a lot for the things you're describing.