Tuning Apache is no easy deed. The first step is to understand what is going on and what all those options in the config files are all about. This article explains a few in the right way. Good stuff.
An interesting comment suggested to use thttpd to serve the static content and leave Apache do the dynamic.
And, the latest post in Virtual Threads describes the memory usage on a typical Linux system and why ps usually gets it “wrong”.
Of course, tuning Apache is only part of the problem. One of the bigger time eaters is the database and cdb looks like a nice alternative for the static part. Hopefully, I’ll have some time to evaluate it.