NFS Howto Optimization
From Linux NFS
Optimizing NFS Performance
Careful analysis of your environment, both from the client and from the server point of view, is the first step necessary for optimal NFS performance. The first sections will address issues that are generally important to the client. Later (Section 5.3 and beyond), server side issues will be discussed. In both cases, these issues will not be limited exclusively to one side or the other, but it is useful to separate the two in order to get a clearer picture of cause and effect.
Aside from the general network configuration - appropriate network capacity, faster NICs, full duplex settings in order to reduce collisions, agreement in network speed among the switches and hubs, etc. - one of the most important client optimization settings are the NFS data transfer buffer sizes, specified by the mount command options rsize and wsize.