skin vs performance

[Pebbled]

I certainly think that some skins do affect page load times, the default vBulletin skin is definately one of the faster loading styles i've encountered.

If you're using the Firefox browser you can check out the page size and compare skins by right clicking and selecting 'View page Info' from the menu options.

One other option which will definately speed up the page loading speed is to click YES on the 'Store CSS Stylesheets as Files' option (as found in the vBulletin Admin control panel), this will move all the styling clutter into a separate CSS file.

Also... Are you using any stats software on the page, or affiliate banners, because sometimes they are the cause of the delay in the page loading.