Do you have Full VRAM Primitives enabled or Frame Buffer Textures enabled? This may cause the slow down. I suggest turning off Full VRAM and set Frame Buffer Textures to black. But, you'll lose the fancy 'swirl' just before going into battle.
There is a swirl effect in FF8 (that's EIGHT)? I don't think soBut, you'll lose the fancy 'swirl' just before going into battle