I just built a new computer. Haswell 4770k, 16 gigs of ram, geforce 760. Google maps desktop performs so bad that I actually use bing maps instead now. I can't believe how slow it is.
I've found that Linux machines which run OS's with older kernel versions (CentOS 6.4) seem to have unbearably bad performance - just speculating but I think it's probably due to a lack of hardware acceleration support in the video card drivers. The new Maps uses vector-based instead of tile-based rendering which requires quite a bit more computational power to achieve a nicer look.
I've found that Linux machines which run OS's with older kernel versions (CentOS 6.4) seem to have unbearably bad performance - just speculating but I think it's probably due to a lack of hardware acceleration support in the video card drivers. The new Maps uses vector-based instead of tile-based rendering which requires quite a bit more computational power to achieve a nicer look.