d3 is primarily a javascript tool to turn data into structure - kind of like React. You may want to render to SVG (like the link this submission is about) or ca

d3 is primarily a javascript tool to turn data into structure - kind of like React. You may want to render to SVG (like the link this submission is about) or canvas, and then just update a few attributes/transforms on user-input, like panning, scrolling, etc. That way, the browser does the hard work of rendering the nodes, and the updates are pretty light on the javascript-side.