Right, but thats not exactly what i'm looking for
I want to know how many <tr> elements are in the tab. If it's more than 102 for each page 1 6 and 8, then the grid view's paging system is simply hiding rows rather than removing/detaching them, which could definitely cause the slowdown you are getting.
If the numbers above ARE the number of tr's that exist within each tab, then that's why it's running slow. the browser has to go through 18666+ elements (plus td's, etc) and determine which ones need to be rendered.
I think the gridview IS paginating correctly, and 100 is just too many to page on. To test this, drop the rows per page down to 20 and see if it is any better.
-- Kevin