SDL on FreeBSD slower than a scout getting Natascha'd?

[Divide by NaN]

Have any of you used SDL in your OpenGL programs? I just found some old source code and got it to compile but it was super duper slow. All I'm rendering are about 12,000 vertices and one texture so I'm not sure what the deal is. Have any of you experienced performance issues with SDL on unix platforms (i'm using the nv driver with a gf 8800 btw)? Are there any good alternatives to SDL (besides glut)?