Currently the images for the impact module are loaded via File->transform() with the File::RENDER_NOW flag; this results in in ~200 milliseconds spent in $this-file->repoExists() as curl requests are completed.
If we drop the File::RENDER_NOW flag, we can use the thumbnail generation script for the images. So instead of:
background-image: url(/mediawiki/images/docker/default/thumb/c/c0/Palmasdelmarplaya.JPG/59px-Palmasdelmarplaya.JPG);
we would have:
background-image: url(/mediawiki/thumb.php?f=Palmasdelmarplaya.JPG&width=59.751037344398);
and could save ~200 milliseconds per page request.