NFS version 3

NFS version 3 is highly recommended over NFS version 2 due to inherent protocol features that can enhance performance.

Write throughput
Applications running on client systems may periodically write data to a file, changing the file's contents.
Reduced requests for file attributes
Because read data can sometimes reside in the cache for extended periods of time in anticipation of demand, clients must check to ensure their cached data remains valid if a change is made to the file by another application. Therefore, the NFS client periodically acquires the file's attributes, which includes the time the file was last modified. Using the modification time, a client can determine whether its cached data is still valid.
Efficient use of high bandwidth network technology
Relaxing the RPC size limitation has allowed NFS to more efficiently use high bandwidth network technologies such as FDDI, 100baseT (100 Mbps) and 1000baseT (Gigabit) Ethernet, and the SP Switch, and contributes substantially to NFS performance gains in sequential read and write performance.
Reduced directory lookup requests
A full directory listing, with the ls -l command for example, requires that name and attribute information be acquired from the server for all entries in the directory listing.

Parent topic: The various versions of NFS