Hi Martijn,
I have indeed been playing around with this. It seems that out of the box PostgreSQL is setup with a very basic configuration tuned for wide compatibility rather than performance. There are many tuning variables (for example memory settings) that have effect on the performance:
https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Tuning_Your_PostgreSQL_Server
Furthermore, I am interested in testing out the use of GPU for PostgreSQL queries:
https://community.hortonworks.com/articles/60416/pg-storm-let-postgresql-run-faster-on-the-gpu.html
and
http://strom.kaigai.gr.jp/manual.html
Furthermore, there are a lot of hints in the net to improve queries (for example select * is much slower un postgresql but often not needed).
See also: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Slow_Query_Questions
An interesting thing to look at is the EXPLAIN function that can help you figure out where you lose time:
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.2/static/using-explain.html
Now we have our new powerful server with 700+ Gb Ram and many core we will be playing around a bit more with these settings to see their effect on performance, I will let you know the results.
Peter