MySQL version 8.0.32-0ubuntu0.20.04.2

I'm trying to improve SELECT performance, rather than circumvent executing the SELECT.

CREATE TABLE big_table (
pk INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
field1 VARCHAR(255),
field2 VARCHAR(255),
field3 mediumtext,
field4 BIGINT,
KEY idx_field4 (field4)
) ENGINE=MyISAM CHARSET=utf8mb3;

Insert 15 million rows.

SELECT COUNT(pk) FROM big_table;
+---------------+
| count(pk)     |
+---------------+
|      15911974 |
+---------------+
1 row in set (0.57 sec)

Change table big_table ENGINE=INNODB;

SELECT COUNT(pk) FROM big_table;
+---------------+
| count(pk)     |
+---------------+
|      15911974 |
+---------------+
1 row in set (10.23 sec)

**Set innodb_buffer_pool_size=8G (originally 128Mb) (restart MySQL)**

SELECT COUNT(pk) FROM big_table;
+---------------+
| count(pk)     |
+---------------+
|      15911974 |
+---------------+
1 row in set (1 min 18.67 sec)