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Speed issue...

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Didier

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Aug 23, 2016
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Hello everybody,

I think this is a topic for specialists, and I thought I will find some on this forum!

First, I'm a photographer, not a computer addict ;) I use LR for several years and I was really happy with it till... LR6 (CC) as it gets really slow.

Some more informations : I try to import only best pictures to keep a light library (something like 5000 pics), I use 1:1 previews, use correct cache memory etc...

I wasted a LOT of time with Adobe, Apple and my computer scientist to try to solve that it is still too slow to be used.

After many tries to solve it on my computer, Adobe finally established that it is a computer problem, mainly because of the weakness of the GPU (64 MB).

OK, let it be! after trying many other solutions, I finally decided to invest in a new computer... I called Adobe to know what to put "inside" and follow their advices :

I bought a brand new IMAC, core i5, 3,3 ghz (boost 4,00 ghz), 8 GB RAM, 4 GB GPU AMD Radeon R9, fusion drive (SSD + HDD), screen 5k. $$$$ but wonderful! working very well with other programs and I was sure it will run MUCH faster with LR!

My previous computer was a 4 years old PC laptop, core i5, 2,6 ghz, 8 GB RAM, 64 Mb GPU, no SSD, external HDD, external HD screen.
Both are running in 64 bits.

LR launch very quickly (5,5 sec vs 14 sec on the PC), great! I imported some pictures and.... it is slowwww, so slowww, exactly 3 times slower than on the PC...:eek:

Which means that it is completely unusable (eg : 45 sec to change the T° from 7400 to 7300 K (on a picture which have only 5 local brushes, 2 radial filters, 2 graduated filters, no local corrections, no lens corrections).

I can't believe that the program is such limited, no professional photographer has any chance to work on it! Anyway, it is nothing logical (to me... ) that the new iMac is slower.

Some tests on the same photo:

Changing the T° from 7400 K to 50000 K :

- with the lowest resolution (1600x900):1'05"
- with the highest one (3200x1600) :15" :alien:
- hightest resolution with GPU enabled : colors changed quickly, but the pictures get clear only after 25'

The result is exactly the opposite on "virgin" pictures (no post-treatment) : changes are clearly more fluid with the lowest resolution.:confused:

I did these tests several times to be sure and result are always the same.

So here are my questions :

- How can it be that a new Mac with good devices inside (with runs very well with other programs) is slower than an old PC laptop with weaker devices??

- The process is still slower with the GPU enabled, so why Adobe advised to invest in a good GPU which is supposed to improve speed?

Something must be wrong, but WHAT??

Hope everybody understood my poor english and thanks in advance for your help!!

Didier
 
Hi Didier

You're going to love my blog series that started yesterday, on this very topic: Lightroom Performance – The Complete Series on Optimizing Lightroom’s Speed

Comparing with your old computer, there's one thing you have to bear in mind: a standard HD screen (1920x1080) is 2 megapixels and a 5K display is a whopping 15 megapixels. Every time you make a change, Lightroom is having to do almost 8 times as much work as it was on your old machine. The screen is a beauty, but performance is a LOT better if you plug a 'normal' screen into your fancy new iMac to use Lightroom.

At 8GB, you might also be a bit low on RAM. You can check Activity Monitor to see if you're maxing it out, but I bet you are. The good news is additional RAM is quite inexpensive from third parties like Crucial or OWC, and very simple to install.

It's also worth noting that only some Develop features are currently GPU accelerated. Adjustment brush and spot removal aren't. That said, I wouldn't expect the extremely long times you're seeing.

I would also double check which LR update you're running, as there were some issues in 2015.6 that could explain the horribly long times you're seeing. Go to Help menu > System Info to check that you're on 2015.6.1.
 
Hello Victoria,

Thank you for your answer.
I traveled already the way you suggest :

- 5K : wonderful but heavy to run : I already tried to change the resolution to check if some impact on the speed... And it did, as said in my first post (with exact times), but on the contrary that expected!! :confused:
These "heavy" pics are faster with high resolution.... where "virgin" pics are slower... I really don't understand but there is maybe a part of the answer behind these strange results.

- 8 GB Ram is maybe a little bit short, I agree, and I will maybe had some, but the "activity monitor" seems to show that the CPU is more saturated than the memory. And do you think that 8 GB Ram could give a 45sec to change some basic features?...

- LR update : of course is one of the first point you check in such a situation... So, yes, it's the 2015.6.1.

So still looking for a solution to this issue...
 
Changing the resolution settings of the iMac sceen won't help, because you can't change the number of hardware pixels of the screen. What Victoria means is that you connect a 'normal' second screen, and use that as main screen.
 
You could also try making the LR window smaller, or zooming out to 1:4 or similar to see if you see a speed difference there.

I do agree that 45 seconds is crazy slow though. There has to be something else going on. Have you tried the standard troubleshooting steps? Standard Lightroom Troubleshooting Steps | The Lightroom Queen
 
I wasn't certain from reading your post, but in your 45 second example ("(eg : 45 sec to change the T° from 7400 to 7300 K (on a picture which have only 5 local brushes, 2 radial filters, 2 graduated filters, no local corrections, no lens corrections).", does it work faster or slower when you uncheck the GPU option in Preferences>Performance?
 
Hello, some more informations :

- all the process is slowing down when I had corrections. To give you a precise example, the photo I was talking about has exactly :

- some standard corrections (exposure, contrastes...)
- 4 local brushes with various corrections
- 2 "oval filter"
- 1 graduated filter
- lens corrections

I tried your experiment regarding resolution, on this same pics :

Results are surprising!

Changing the T° from 7400 K to 50000 K :

- with the lowest resolution (1600x900):
1'05"
- with the highest one (3200x1600) :
15"!!
- hightest resolution with GPU enabled :
colors changed quickly, but the pictures get clear only after 25'

The result is exactly the opposite on "virgin" pictures (no post-treatment) : changes are clearly more fluid with the lowest resolution.

I did these tests several times to be sure and result are always the same.

- The GPU is a AMD radeon R9 M395 X, 4 GB.
 
I had the same problem when i upgraded to 6.6.1. I came across this post to see if 6.7 was any better. Apparently not. 6.4 works great for me. I haven't tried 6.5. I suggest reverting back to 6.4 for now and start looking into other software alternatives like I have been. The new On1 photo Raw looks like it might be an option. Of course there is also Capture one.
 
6.8's out now. Worth a try!
 
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