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Archive 2017 · Factors affecting Lightroom performance

  
 
bvphotos
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Factors affecting Lightroom performance


I have a Windows 7 set up with a 4 core AMD CPU, 32GB of memory and an SSD for the OS, but not for my photo files. Photos are on disk drives that have 7500 RPM spindles. I mostly process RAW file from 24MP or 16MP cameras. But LR is slow for a number of operations: rendering the RAW file, exporting, applying brush strokes, etc. Clearly it's not for lack of memory or CPU power. Now the question is, will moving the files to an SSD make a big difference? In other words, are these LR operations I/O intensive?


Jan 08, 2017 at 03:39 PM
15Bit
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Factors affecting Lightroom performance


Use the forum search function - this has been discussed pretty much every week for the last 5 years.


Jan 08, 2017 at 04:27 PM
rick2906
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Factors affecting Lightroom performance


http://www.computer-darkroom.com/blog/will-an-ssd-improve-adobe-lightroom-performance/


Jan 08, 2017 at 06:15 PM
bvphotos
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Factors affecting Lightroom performance


15Bit, you're right. My apologies. That was a bit of lazy work by me.

rick2906, thanks for the link. Very informative.



Jan 08, 2017 at 06:51 PM
Alan321
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Factors affecting Lightroom performance


There are so many threads about the benefits of SSDs and not all of them have all of the relevant info.

Even reliable SSD info is hard to come by. Some, for example, are better at random 4kB reads than others but such info is not necessarily available when you are shopping. It seems that the Samsung 850 PRO is much better in this regard than the Samsung 850 EVO, but both have similar maximum transfer speeds. Samsung do a poor job of distinguishing between the two models.

Some SSDs to a much better job with compressed data (such as most RAW and JPG image files) than do others. It depends on the controller they use.

If you do opt for an SSD then it is far more important to use it for the suitably large ACR cache, Lr previews and Lr catalog than for the RAW image files.

Also, the benefits of some hardware is most obvious when selecting files or previews from all over a drive rather than from one contiguous group (all stored next to each other). This affects head movements on HDDs but the ability to better use cached data benefits SSDs as well as HDDs.



As well as the amount of RAM you have, the speed and width of the RAM-CPU data bus may be significant. I don't know how significant because it is hard to come by such data as how many RAM slots were being used out of how many available, and what MHz rating was being used, etc.

One thing for sure is that for most activities Lr is mainly single-threaded and the more GHz your CPU has the faster Lr will work. Extra CPU cores are less beneficial except perhaps for exporting JPG files in which case 6 cores can be way better than 4, but 8 or 10 cores is little better than 6. Go figure.

I wanted to get a 6-core CPU for various reasons but the latest 4-core i7 has an extra 0.5 GHz (4.5 vs 4.0) without resorting to overclocking. It's cheaper too. On the other hand, it is possible that a m/b for the 6-core CPU will handle RAM data transfers significantly faster if all RAM slots are used, because that CPU and m/b have more PCIe lanes available for that purpose.

It would seem that using 8 x 4GB RAM modules can be faster than using 4 x 8GB, but how many people would fill all 8 slots to get that performance and risk have to scrap some when they want more than 32GB ? Lr won't utilise 32GB or more but Ps can.



Jan 15, 2017 at 05:33 AM
Eyvind Ness
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Factors affecting Lightroom performance


In the Develop module, the type of GPU is a dominant factor in the general processing speed. Make sure it is a powerful one, supported by LR, and that you have the latest drivers installed.


Jan 16, 2017 at 01:54 PM
CanadaMark
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Factors affecting Lightroom performance


Exactly what AMD CPU do you have? LR is quite CPU reliant. An older AMD CPU could be one of the bottlenecks as they haven't produced anything overly competitive with Intel's high end CPUs for ages.

GPU acceleration in LR works in the Develop screen, and most (but not all) controls benefit from it. Also depending on the plug-in, HDR creation can very much benefit from the GPU as well.



Jan 16, 2017 at 02:11 PM





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