diff --git a/src/plasma/private/effectwatcher.cpp b/src/plasma/private/effectwatcher.cpp
--- a/src/plasma/private/effectwatcher.cpp
+++ b/src/plasma/private/effectwatcher.cpp
@@ -62,7 +62,11 @@
 bool EffectWatcher::nativeEventFilter(const QByteArray &eventType, void *message, long *result)
 {
     Q_UNUSED(result);
-    if (eventType != "xcb_generic_event_t") {
+    // A faster comparison than eventType != "xcb_generic_event_t"
+    // given that eventType can only have the following values:
+    // "xcb_generic_event_t", "windows_generic_MSG" and "mac_generic_NSEvent"
+    // According to http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qabstractnativeeventfilter.html
+    if (eventType[0] != 'x') {
         return false;
     }
     xcb_generic_event_t *event = reinterpret_cast<xcb_generic_event_t *>(message);