300-600 req/sec with a default setup? That seems a bit low, unless it's a very slow framework or machine. Most frameworks are slow, but not that slow. I think ~2K+ rps was what I got when I did a comparison last year.
But, PHP IO is slow? What do you mean by that? A lot of things in PHP is basically just a wrapper for C, and it's really fast.
I'm really interested in why you think IO is slow.
The way PHP is built (start and die) on each execution. Compared to anything else, thats "running" PHP needs to do more work on each startup. This is also why its impossible to build a websocket server in PHP (without hacks like reachphp).
this is one of the main reasons PHP IO (read req/res) is slow. You can search for benchmarks if you so choose, and a basic setup for PHP is usually in the 300-600 req/sec range.
But, PHP IO is slow? What do you mean by that? A lot of things in PHP is basically just a wrapper for C, and it's really fast.
I'm really interested in why you think IO is slow.