I currently own a 27" iMac I bought in Oct 2010 (2.93 GHz i7 with 16GB DDR3 RAM and 256Go Flash SSD drive). When I upgraded to the Nikon D800, some tasks were a tad slower (such as loading previews or using the healing brush in Lightroom), but for the most part I was OK handling 16bit TIFF files in Photoshop (I allocated 10GB of the RAM to Photoshop for file handling which helped quite a bit).
That was until I started working with panoramic shots that run 250-350Mo !!! For example, converting to B&W with Silver Efex can take minutes once I hit 'Save'.
I can't add any more RAM to my current system and I'm wondering if upgrading to the latest 3.4 GHz iMac with 32Go of RAM would make a huge difference. I am torn as I would like to upgrade to the latest iMac in part for its better LCD, but I wouldn't want to do so unless I would be getting a major step up in performance.
If you want really good performance, don't go with an Imac, it's WAY to limiting. You should go with a workstation-grade computer, either Mac Pro (but this is highly overpriced, even in therms of apple-standards) or with a Hackingtosh if you want to stay with OSX. Get a Dell Ultrasharp 27inch and you'll have an even better screen than the one of the latest Imac. I would look in the 2000$ range for a hackingtosh, either build it yourself or just order it. Wait for the new processors to come out in June.
Since a few weeks I'm on an iMac 3.4Ghz with 16Gb memory (still need to upgrade to 32Gb) and while everything is very fast (from a MBA 2012) I find LR still slowish. I'm afraid LR is the problem with these large files. From what I've heard/read LR5 should be better and will come next month. I don't have much experience yet with PS6 but on my MBA it was very very slow with large panorama shots.
BTW the screen is great.
Perhaps you should wait for the new "Haswell" platform which should give a performance boost of about 20%
I know nothing about Mac's, I have a PC overclocked to 4.3GHz and 16Gb worth of ram. But my OS and all my applications are on a SSD, this is why LR runs so fast for me. If you can add a SSD to your Mac I think you'll see a huge improvement.
leighton w wrote:
So you're saying it's NOT that LR is so slow, it's just opening huge tiff files in Nik? Are your edit adjustments slow to respond as well?
Lightroom is a bit slow, mainly on tasks such as cleaning up dust spots one after another very quickly as well as loading previews (comes with a bit of lag).
Edit ajustments aren't so slow, mainly comes with plugins that create large layers (such as Silver Efex, Color Efex...)
Sorry, I haven't had a full cup of coffee yet this morning. You answered all my questions in the OP. I should of read it twice.
I'm not sure what to tell you. I'll have to create a big file and give it a try on my system. It could be normal, I just don't know. Someone on here with more experience than I will pop up soon to help I'm sure. Good luck.
Mark - I have the latest iMac with the 3.4g processor, 1g graphics card and 1tb fusion drive. At the mo only 8g RAM as I haven't yet splashed out for the 32g upgrade from Crucial. I believe that will make a big difference. But, to give you an idea, just stitched 5 D800e frames in PS - took c.90secs. 510mb file then converted in SEfex - took best part of 2 mins. I would think/hope that will improve considerably when I upgrade the RAM. I know people who have done it say it's really quick - both have D800s too. Lizzie
LizzieShepherd wrote:
Mark - I have the latest iMac with the 3.4g processor, 1g graphics card and 1tb fusion drive. At the mo only 8g RAM as I haven't yet splashed out for the 32g upgrade from Crucial. I believe that will make a big difference. But, to give you an idea, just stitched 5 D800e frames in PS - took c.90secs. 510mb file then converted in SEfex - took best part of 2 mins. I would think/hope that will improve considerably when I upgrade the RAM. I know people who have done it say it's really quick - both have D800s too. Lizzie...Show more →
Thanks a lot Lizzie
Indeed would be interesting to see what times others are getting with similar system and 16Go or 32 Go RAM
Chris Dees wrote:
Since a few weeks I'm on an iMac 3.4Ghz with 16Gb memory (still need to upgrade to 32Gb) and while everything is very fast (from a MBA 2012) I find LR still slowish. I'm afraid LR is the problem with these large files. From what I've heard/read LR5 should be better and will come next month. I don't have much experience yet with PS6 but on my MBA it was very very slow with large panorama shots.
BTW the screen is great.
Perhaps you should wait for the new "Haswell" platform which should give a performance boost of about 20%
Thanks Chris. Good point. Will then have to see what Apple might say about integrating these new processors into their system - but we may see this go into the Pro models first as promised by Tim Cook to replace for instance the Mac Pro that is no longer sold in France.
LizzieShepherd wrote:
PS Lizzie : some nice images on your site - loved the ones of Namibia which brought back memories, in particular some of the Namibrand (BTW did you happen to stay at Wolwedans )
OP I have the same imac (Quad 2.93 16Gb RAM) as you minus the SSD unfortunately, have been thinking about that upgrade. I get rainbow wheels in LR all the time with D800 files and when zooming in the full res usually takes a few seconds to snap in. Not a huge deal for me, I usually have a lot of stuff running as it's my personal computer.
I still think these can be a bargain (for an apple product) considering the sweet 27" screen included, got mine for $1600 refurb a couple of years ago and added a 24" side monitor and calibrate them both.
workerdrone wrote:
OP I have the same imac (Quad 2.93 16Gb RAM) as you minus the SSD unfortunately, have been thinking about that upgrade. I get rainbow wheels in LR all the time with D800 files and when zooming in the full res usually takes a few seconds to snap in. Not a huge deal for me, I usually have a lot of stuff running as it's my personal computer.
I still think these can be a bargain (for an apple product) considering the sweet 27" screen included, got mine for $1600 refurb a couple of years ago and added a 24" side monitor and calibrate them both....Show more →
Thanks. What I'm wondering is a) what can I get for my current iMac and b) what would a new iMac cost me
From the used sites I've seen, I'm guessing I can get about 1300€ for my current iMac, and a new machine would cost about 3250€ (3.4GHz, 32Go RAM, 1 To fusion drive, 1 Go graphic card...). I might be able to get the new one at a discount through a buddy, so we're looking at about 1500€ differential to upgrade to the new machine. I have the money but the question I'm asking myself, is it really worth it ?
You CAN upgrade to 32GB. At the time if the 2010 iMacs, the system either wasn't certified or chips weren't out to test 32gb setups but it works. Trust me this was a surprise to me too
Head over to OWC (otherworld computing) and look up their upgrade program. They offer SSD installs and RAM upgrades and have a FAQ I think our this version of iMac
(Not affiliate with OWC) and I own this iMac also. Will be moving soon to 32gb.
You CAN upgrade to 32GB. At the time if the 2010 iMacs, the system either wasn't certified or chips weren't out to test 32gb setups but it works. Trust me this was a surprise to me too
Head over to OWC (otherworld computing) and look up their upgrade program. They offer SSD installs and RAM upgrades and have a FAQ I think our this version of iMac
(Not affiliate with OWC) and I own this iMac also. Will be moving soon to 32gb.
Are you sure it's the RAM ? I just had a look at Crucial and 32Gb would cost about $300 which is minimal compared to a new machine, but I wonder what moving from 16Gb to 32Gb will do in terms of performance
Ram will only help if you are running out of it. More RAM won't do a thing if you're not using what you already have.
To check your RAM usage, go to your Applications Folder, Utilities, and run the Activity Monitor - click the button for System Memory and it will show you how much you're using. Check it as you're working to see if you're getting close to maxing out. If you are, more memory will help, if not, it won't.
I have a mid 2011 iMac with 12 GB RAM, 3.4GHz i7, and a 2TB hard drive (not SSD). I find I get pretty decent speed with my D800 RAWs in LR. I don't do a lot of editing in PS CS5.5 but it is usually acceptable although panos can be slow.
Some thoughts:
* Is your OSX version 32-bit or 64-bit?
* 50 GB free space is not very much on your HD. I would be concerned with that and another consideration is upgrading the HD.
* Do you have your LR catalog and images on the hard drive? I think this is very important. I've seen people get terrible performance if they have these to external USB drives.
* I generally have LR set to create full size previews on import, so the import process is slow but once complete, I can move quickly on individual files.
* cputeq I thought 16 GB was a limit for my 2011 iMac, but now you have me intrigued.
* I shoot lossless compressed RAWs and hopefully you are doing that too. I see no need in shooting uncompressed - it just makes the files needlessly huge.
mholdef wrote:
Are you sure it's the RAM ? I just had a look at Crucial and 32Gb would cost about $300 which is minimal compared to a new machine, but I wonder what moving from 16Gb to 32Gb will do in terms of performance
No I am not sure but as mentioned, monitor your ram usage. Could very well be you are waiting on processing times, but PS is a ram hog and I could see it eating 10gb pretty quick, I know I can get it to eat 8gb (I have 12) easily.
You answered all my questions in the OP. I should of read it twice. 
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