Guest Jon P Smith shows how he built a demo e-commerce book selling site that uses EF Core. He started with 700 books then scaled through 100,000 books to ½ million books. At each stage he compares the performance of each improvement, and the extra work to get that performance. 

Five levels of performance tuning for an EF Core query 

Entity Framework Core 5 – Pitfalls To Avoid and Ideas to Try 

optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(
   @"Server=(localdb)\mssqllocaldb;Database=Demo.Batching;Trusted_Connection=True;",
   options => options.MaxBatchSize(1)
);

public class SqlServerModificationCommandBatch : AffectedCountModificationCommandBatch
    {
        private const int DefaultNetworkPacketSizeBytes = 4096;
        private const int MaxScriptLength = 65536 * DefaultNetworkPacketSizeBytes / 2;
        private const int MaxParameterCount = 2100;
        private const int MaxRowCount = 1000;

    public class Blog
    {
        public int BlogId { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Url { get; set; }
    }

    public class BloggingContext : DbContext
    {
        public DbSet<Blog> Blogs { get; set; }

        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
        {
            optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(
                @"Server=(localdb)\mssqllocaldb;Database=Demo.Batching;Trusted_Connection=True;"/*,
                options => options.MaxBatchSize(2)*/
                );
            optionsBuilder.EnableSensitiveDataLogging();
        }
    }

            using (var db = new BloggingContext())
            {
                db.GetService<ILoggerFactory>().AddProvider(new MyLoggerProvider());

                // Modify some existing blogs
                var existing = db.Blogs.ToArray();
                existing[0].Url = "http://sample.com/blogs/dogs";
                existing[1].Url = "http://sample.com/blogs/cats";

                // Insert some new blogs
                db.Blogs.Add(new Blog { Name = "The Horse Blog", Url = "http://sample.com/blogs/horses" });
                db.Blogs.Add(new Blog { Name = "The Snake Blog", Url = "http://sample.com/blogs/snakes" });
                db.Blogs.Add(new Blog { Name = "The Fish Blog", Url = "http://sample.com/blogs/fish" });
                db.Blogs.Add(new Blog { Name = "The Koala Blog", Url = "http://sample.com/blogs/koalas" });
                db.Blogs.Add(new Blog { Name = "The Parrot Blog", Url = "http://sample.com/blogs/parrots" });
                db.Blogs.Add(new Blog { Name = "The Kangaroo Blog", Url = "http://sample.com/blogs/kangaroos" });

                db.SaveChanges();
            }

Executed DbCommand (41ms) [Parameters=[@p1='57', @p0='http://sample.com/blogs/dogs' (Size = 4000), @p3='58', @p2='http://sample.com/blogs/cats' (Size = 4000), @p4='The Horse Blog' (Size = 4000), @p5='http://sample.com/blogs/horses' (Size = 4000), @p6='The Snake Blog' (Size = 4000), @p7='http://sample.com/blogs/snakes' (Size = 4000), @p8='The Fish Blog' (Size = 4000), @p9='http://sample.com/blogs/fish' (Size = 4000), @p10='The Koala Blog' (Size = 4000), @p11='http://sample.com/blogs/koalas' (Size = 4000), @p12='The Parrot Blog' (Size = 4000), @p13='http://sample.com/blogs/parrots' (Size = 4000), @p14='The Kangaroo Blog' (Size = 4000), @p15='http://sample.com/blogs/kangaroos' (Size = 4000)], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SET NOCOUNT ON;
UPDATE [Blogs] SET [Url] = @p0
WHERE [BlogId] = @p1;
SELECT @@ROWCOUNT;

UPDATE [Blogs] SET [Url] = @p2
WHERE [BlogId] = @p3;
SELECT @@ROWCOUNT;

DECLARE @inserted2 TABLE ([BlogId] int, [_Position] [int]);
MERGE [Blogs] USING (
VALUES (@p4, @p5, 0),
(@p6, @p7, 1),
(@p8, @p9, 2),
(@p10, @p11, 3),
(@p12, @p13, 4),
(@p14, @p15, 5)) AS i ([Name], [Url], _Position) ON 1=0
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT ([Name], [Url])
VALUES (i.[Name], i.[Url])
OUTPUT INSERTED.[BlogId], i._Position
INTO @inserted2;

SELECT [t].[BlogId] FROM [Blogs] t
INNER JOIN @inserted2 i ON ([t].[BlogId] = [i].[BlogId])
ORDER BY [i].[_Position];

protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
{
   optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(
     @"Server=(localdb)\mssqllocaldb;Database=Demo.Batching;Trusted_Connection=True;",
     options => options.MaxBatchSize(2)
    );
    optionsBuilder.EnableSensitiveDataLogging();
}

Executed DbCommand (17ms) [Parameters=[@p1='65', @p0='http://sample.com/blogs/dogs' (Size = 4000), @p3='66', @p2='http://sample.com/blogs/cats' (Size = 4000)], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SET NOCOUNT ON;
UPDATE [Blogs] SET [Url] = @p0
WHERE [BlogId] = @p1;
SELECT @@ROWCOUNT;

UPDATE [Blogs] SET [Url] = @p2
WHERE [BlogId] = @p3;
SELECT @@ROWCOUNT;

Executed DbCommand (18ms) [Parameters=[@p0='The Horse Blog' (Size = 4000), @p1='http://sample.com/blogs/horses' (Size = 4000), @p2='The Snake Blog' (Size = 4000), @p3='http://sample.com/blogs/snakes' (Size = 4000)], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SET NOCOUNT ON;
DECLARE @inserted0 TABLE ([BlogId] int, [_Position] [int]);
MERGE [Blogs] USING (
VALUES (@p0, @p1, 0),
(@p2, @p3, 1)) AS i ([Name], [Url], _Position) ON 1=0
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT ([Name], [Url])
VALUES (i.[Name], i.[Url])
OUTPUT INSERTED.[BlogId], i._Position
INTO @inserted0;

SELECT [t].[BlogId] FROM [Blogs] t
INNER JOIN @inserted0 i ON ([t].[BlogId] = [i].[BlogId])
ORDER BY [i].[_Position];

Executed DbCommand (34ms) [Parameters=[@p0='The Fish Blog' (Size = 4000), @p1='http://sample.com/blogs/fish' (Size = 4000), @p2='The Koala Blog' (Size = 4000), @p3='http://sample.com/blogs/koalas' (Size = 4000)], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SET NOCOUNT ON;
DECLARE @inserted0 TABLE ([BlogId] int, [_Position] [int]);
MERGE [Blogs] USING (
VALUES (@p0, @p1, 0),
(@p2, @p3, 1)) AS i ([Name], [Url], _Position) ON 1=0
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT ([Name], [Url])
VALUES (i.[Name], i.[Url])
OUTPUT INSERTED.[BlogId], i._Position
INTO @inserted0;

SELECT [t].[BlogId] FROM [Blogs] t
INNER JOIN @inserted0 i ON ([t].[BlogId] = [i].[BlogId])
ORDER BY [i].[_Position];

Executed DbCommand (15ms) [Parameters=[@p0='The Parrot Blog' (Size = 4000), @p1='http://sample.com/blogs/parrots' (Size = 4000), @p2='The Kangaroo Blog' (Size = 4000), @p3='http://sample.com/blogs/kangaroos' (Size = 4000)], CommandType='Text', CommandTimeout='30']
SET NOCOUNT ON;
DECLARE @inserted0 TABLE ([BlogId] int, [_Position] [int]);
MERGE [Blogs] USING (
VALUES (@p0, @p1, 0),
(@p2, @p3, 1)) AS i ([Name], [Url], _Position) ON 1=0
WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
INSERT ([Name], [Url])
VALUES (i.[Name], i.[Url])
OUTPUT INSERTED.[BlogId], i._Position
INTO @inserted0;

SELECT [t].[BlogId] FROM [Blogs] t
INNER JOIN @inserted0 i ON ([t].[BlogId] = [i].[BlogId])
ORDER BY [i].[_Position];

ASP.NET Core Performance Best Practices