I've done some testing and if you install minimal Gnome on Arch and minimal Gnome on Debian Testing/Sid (Gnome version on Stable is few versions behind) you pre

I've done some testing and if you install minimal Gnome on Arch and minimal Gnome on Debian Testing/Sid (Gnome version on Stable is few versions behind) you pretty much get the same speed and memory usage. Much faster than Fedora and even Ubuntu. To install minimal Gnome on Debian, use the netinst.iso, untick everything on the last step where it asks you to choose a DE, log in after installation is complete, do apt install gnome-core and reboot into a very minimal Gnome. I write this from that setup.