We performed Bind 9.4.2 benchmarking using our Gigabit network and Linux server nodes. The following performance was easily recorded using one zone and doing IN A requests using queryperf tool.

DNS Query Performance Testing Tool
Version: $Id: queryperf.c,v 1.8.192.4 2007/09/05 07:44:57 marka Exp $

[Status] Processing input data
[Status] Sending queries (beginning with 192.168.3.20)
[Status] Testing complete

Statistics:

Parse input file:     once
Ended due to:         reaching end of file

Queries sent:         514229 queries
Queries completed:    514229 queries
Queries lost:         0 queries
Queries delayed(?):   0 queries

RTT max:              0.000861 sec
RTT min:              0.000172 sec
RTT average:          0.000678 sec
RTT std deviation:    0.000028 sec
RTT out of range:     0 queries

Percentage completed: 100.00%
Percentage lost:        0.00%

Started at:           Tue Feb  5 06:32:42 2008
Finished at:          Tue Feb  5 06:33:00 2008
Ran for:              17.732512 seconds

Queries per second:   28999.219062 qps

When configured with forwarded option - this is when master forwards to a back-end BIND server and then replies back to the client. The following performance was recorded:
DNS Query Performance Testing Tool
Version: $Id: queryperf.c,v 1.8.192.4 2007/09/05 07:44:57 marka Exp $

[Status] Processing input data
[Status] Sending queries (beginning with 192.168.3.10)
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 1
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 2
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 3
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 4
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 5
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 6
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 7
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 8
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 9
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 10
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 11
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 12
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 13
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 14
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 15
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 16
[Timeout] Query timed out: msg id 17
[Status] Testing complete

Statistics:

Parse input file:     once
Ended due to:         reaching end of file

Queries sent:         500000 queries
Queries completed:    499983 queries
Queries lost:         17 queries
Queries delayed(?):   0 queries

RTT max:              0.009379 sec
RTT min:              0.000369 sec
RTT average:          0.003022 sec
RTT std deviation:    0.000701 sec
RTT out of range:     0 queries

Percentage completed: 100.00%
Percentage lost:        0.00%

Started at:           Tue Feb  5 06:26:58 2008
Finished at:          Tue Feb  5 06:28:19 2008
Ran for:              80.786053 seconds

Queries per second:   6188.976704 qps

The performance as a standard Bind master server was almost 5 times faster than using 3 node forwarder set-up where one server node was a benchmark traffic generator.