Gtk+ applications in kde are very slow with stable x11-libs/cairo-1.12.14-r4 and x11-themes/gtk-engines-qtcurve and x11-themes/oxygen-gtk in x86 (it takes 2-3 seconds until a gtk+ 2 applications appears on open, gtk+-2.XX applications for 2-3 seconds without "widgets"). I have a nvidia-card and also use the x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-325.15 driver. I have update cairo to 1.12.16 and now it works perfect. I use kde 4.10.5, x86 stable.
Which version of x11-themes/gtk-engines-qtcurve do you have?
I have the latest version x11-themes/gtk-engines-qtcurve-1.8.16. I run a multihead setup with xinerama support by xorg with the nvidia driver. Then i have no opengl (options RandR, Composite and Render disable by xorg) but it work if i use twinview the nvidia build in xinerama support. It is only slow with disable composite in xorg but with composite enable (twinview) it works also with x11-libs/cairo-1.12.14-r4. If i use x11-libs/cairo-1.12.16 it works always.
Try to install ~x11-themes/qtcurve-1.8.17 - gtk-engines-qtcurve was merged into it(installed via gtk USE flag) and changelog says that some fixes for performance was made for it.
Thanks, in now have x11-themes/qtcurve-1.8.17-r1 and x11-libs/cairo-1.12.14-r4 (and also kde testing 4.11.3). The performance is ok with/by this versions.