@efiring -- I believe this was in response to a mailing list thread you commented on. Does this address your issue? Any thoughts?

Mike, it doesn't seem to help at all with the OP's problem. Try this in interactive mode:

fig, axs = subplots(10,10) # or use (5,5) if your machine is slower, like mine

Then try using pan/zoom on one of the subplots. It seems as sluggish with your changeset as without.

Very odd. It makes a huge difference for me. Which backend?

I've tried gtkagg, tkagg, qt4agg, wxagg. I just don't see a difference. Strange, indeed.

Should we pull this one in, or did we want to investigate further?

I think no -- it doesn't seem to solve the original issue for everyone and adds complexity that would be nice not to have unless there is some benefit. I'll open a new issue with a reference to the original mailing list request, though.