You used the performance flag. In performance mode the compiler will try as hard as it can to find a solution with the highest performance. This will require significant longer time to complete. See Hailo Dataflow Compiler User Guide and Model Zoo User Guide.
The recommended number of images depend on the optimization level used. You can read more about it in the Hailo Dataflow Compiler User Guide.
In addition, when I’m using the trying to use my new hef file I’m getting the following warning:
[HailoRT] [warning] Desc page size value (2048) is not optimal for performance.
Are you using the batch-size parameter? This message is sometimes displayed when the batch-size is set high when running a model with large input size.