diff --git a/src/buffer/out/TextAttribute.hpp b/src/buffer/out/TextAttribute.hpp
index 36fcc6c1d80..38f8aefde4a 100644
--- a/src/buffer/out/TextAttribute.hpp
+++ b/src/buffer/out/TextAttribute.hpp
@@ -163,6 +163,14 @@ class TextAttribute final
         return _foreground.IsRgb() || _background.IsRgb();
     }
 
+    // In certain scenarios, we don't care about specifically the foreground color.
+    constexpr bool EqualsExceptForeground(const TextAttribute& other) const noexcept
+    {
+        return (_wAttrLegacy & META_ATTRS) == (other._wAttrLegacy & META_ATTRS) &&
+               _background == other._background &&
+               _extendedAttrs == other._extendedAttrs;
+    }
+
 private:
     COLORREF _GetRgbForeground(std::basic_string_view<COLORREF> colorTable,
                                COLORREF defaultColor) const noexcept;
diff --git a/src/renderer/base/renderer.cpp b/src/renderer/base/renderer.cpp
index ae6a25ab364..e9fe6784e57 100644
--- a/src/renderer/base/renderer.cpp
+++ b/src/renderer/base/renderer.cpp
@@ -610,6 +610,12 @@ void Renderer::_PaintBufferOutput(_In_ IRenderEngine* const pEngine)
     }
 }
 
+static bool _IsAllSpaces(const std::wstring_view v)
+{
+    // first non-space char is not found (is npos)
+    return v.find_first_not_of(L" ") == decltype(v)::npos;
+}
+
 void Renderer::_PaintBufferOutputHelper(_In_ IRenderEngine* const pEngine,
                                         TextBufferCellIterator it,
                                         const COORD target,
@@ -661,8 +667,14 @@ void Renderer::_PaintBufferOutputHelper(_In_ IRenderEngine* const pEngine,
             {
                 if (color != it->TextAttr())
                 {
-                    color = it->TextAttr();
-                    break;
+                    auto newAttr{ it->TextAttr() };
+                    // foreground doesn't matter for runs of spaces (!)
+                    // if we trick it . . . we call Paint far fewer times for cmatrix
+                    if (!_IsAllSpaces(it->Chars()) || !newAttr.EqualsExceptForeground(color))
+                    {
+                        color = newAttr;
+                        break; // vend this run
+                    }
                 }
 
                 // Walk through the text data and turn it into rendering clusters.