mysql order by limit too slow, faster when making select a sub query

[Mathew V]

SELECT up.`id`,
up.`email`,
up.`username`,
up.`name`,
up.`gender`,
DATE_FORMAT(up.`createdOn`, '%d-%m-%Y') AS `createdDate`,
up.`accountStatus`,
ucd.`landphone`
FROM `profiles` up
JOIN `contact_details` ucd ON (up.`id` = ucd.`userId`)
WHERE up.`accountStatus` = 'active'
ORDER BY `name` DESC LIMIT 1000000, 20

takes around 15 seconds while

SELECT *
FROM (
SELECT up.`id`,
up.`email`,
up.`username`,
up.`name`,
up.`gender`,
DATE_FORMAT(up.`createdOn`, '%d-%m-%Y') AS `createdDate`,
up.accountStatus`, ucd.`landphone`
FROM `profiles` up JOIN `contact_details` ucd ON (up.`id` = ucd.`userId`)
WHERE up.`accountStatus` = 'active' )a
ORDER BY `name` DESC LIMIT 1000000, 20
takes around 2.5 seconds for a total of 350000 records.

name field is indexed and accountStatus is an enum field. Why the increase in speed when breaking the select into a sub query and is there any other way to optimize the above order by limit query?