What is the best “recent comments” plugin?

I’m currently using a rather antiquated plugin for recent comments from Krischan Jones.. Get recent comments 2.0.2

I display it as follows:

post title and URL (number of comments)
Commenter name+link to comment + comment excerpt

My question is: Is there a more efficient plugin that manages database joins better? I believe this is the last bottleneck I need to tackle. MySQL tanks at high usage (1MM to 2MM pageviews per month.. 100k comments per year)

If there is any way to improve this functionality, whether it be via a new plugin, or something I can do to the SQL database, I’d certainly appreciate it.

Keep in mind I’m using a 2.0.1x version of WordPress because another important plugin requires it.

Please advise what your suggestions are!

Much appreciated.