When variable editor is open matlab runs very very slowly despite increasing Heap Space

I am using matlab 2012b. Whenever the variable editor open matlab screeches to a halt and it become incredibly laggy. I wrongly attributed this to the plots tab, thinking that when you had that tab open matlab was constantly try to update a figure or predict the best plot type to use for your data.

Also, I noticed that the plot capabilities when you right click in the variable editor are gone. It would be useful if those were restored in a later version.

My question is:

Is there some hidden setting to fix the lag problem when the variable editor is open? I frequently use it while I am programming.