Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

  New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site
  New Feature: SMS Notification alert
  New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist
  

FM Forums | Post-processing & Printing | Join Upload & Sell

  

Archive 2017 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance

  
 
IrishDino
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


Thinking about buying an RX480 or 1060/1070 video card. They're dropping in price pretty good here in Canada.

I'm using a Kaby Lake i5 workstation with integrated graphics.

How much performance gain am I looking at in Lightroom specifically?

I'm also using a 4k 32" monitor. Getting a lot of lag in LR even on 5D3 files.



Feb 25, 2017 at 10:21 AM
Ian.Dobinson
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


Ant say specifically , but remember the GPU is only used on a limited number of things in the develop mode .


Feb 25, 2017 at 11:03 AM
15Bit
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


ZachOly wrote:
How much performance gain am I looking at in Lightroom specifically?

Probably not a lot. I have a GTX970 and whilst turning on and off GPU acceleration in LR does make a difference, it definitely isn't a "oh my god!" level of difference.



Feb 26, 2017 at 04:35 AM
arbitrage
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


I've found the GPU thing makes little to no difference but I'm just on a 5KiMac so not sure how that GPU stacks up (it is the highest one you can put in the newest 5K). I've read that it only benefits people with 4K/5K monitors anyways so because you do have a 4K you may get some benefit. Not sure it will be worth the cost. As Ian mentions it only functions in Develop on some things.


Feb 26, 2017 at 09:26 AM
Paul Mo
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


I could also upgrade my GTX660Ti, but see no point until Adobe give us an LR update with provable performance gains due to GPU utilisation - which may never happen.

So I am holding off for now.




Feb 26, 2017 at 09:47 AM
schlotz
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


Right now the best opportunities to improve LR's performance come from SSD's and fast processors. Using Smart Previews, does improve handling as well but these aren't for everyone.


Feb 26, 2017 at 10:05 AM
Travis Pavek
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


I have an RX480 8GB on an older 2500k overclocked to 4.2Ghz with a 2560x1600 monitor. I do notice a fairly decent speed boost. Your CPU is much faster but you will also be pushing a good deal more pixels as well so I am not sure how that would all shake out. Unfortunately I have noticed some things are actually slower with GPU enabled. I for sure think the 1070 would be overkill even if doing video rendering tests have shown it to not really make much difference between the 480/1060 and even older cards. I am not sure how Amazon works in Canada but my advice would be to buy the RX80 test it out and if you don't find it worth while just wend it back.


Feb 27, 2017 at 11:37 AM
BSPhotog
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


I am in the same boat using Intel integrated graphics in an otherwise stout desktop. I have read the same as what I am seeing here that mid to high end graphics cards don't do much, but all of these accounts are from people testing gaming oriented cards. Not sure if a workstation graphics card would fare any better. :-/


Feb 27, 2017 at 11:59 AM
CanadaMark
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


Lightroom is processor heavy, but it does use the GPU depending on what you're doing (specifically the Develop tab). Some HDR plug-ins like Nik HDR EFEX can be GPU heavy depending on the program. I think a decent card with 4-6GB of VRAM is plenty for Lightroom and you probably won't notice a big difference anyway unless you have specific applications that are GPU heavy. An RX480 or GTX 1060 would be plenty IMO. You can keep all your bases covered for a very small cost these days so why not.

In Photoshop CC I noticed a significant difference when I got an Nvidia Titan X with 12GB VRAM but I am using some specific processes that like GPUs.



Feb 27, 2017 at 12:52 PM
Travis Pavek
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


BSPhotog wrote:
Not sure if a workstation graphics card would fare any better. :-/


If you are referring to tesla and/or quadro cards then the answer is you will see little to no difference unless you are running an extremely specific workload that was requiring high precision float operations (super computers) or need more vram than current gaming cards can provide (major studios).



Feb 27, 2017 at 01:06 PM
BSPhotog
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance



The lack of voices out there telling me to buy a super expensive workstation graphics card led me to assume that any differences might be neglible, but didn't really know for sure.

Like most people, it is just frustrating to see a modern i7 processor, 32GB of fast ram, and fast SSDs not handle files quicker in LR
Travis Pavek wrote:
If you are referring to tesla and/or quadro cards then the answer is you will see little to no difference unless you are running an extremely specific workload that was requiring high precision float operations (super computers) or need more vram than current gaming cards can provide (major studios).




Feb 27, 2017 at 01:51 PM
IrishDino
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


BSPhotog wrote:
Like most people, it is just frustrating to see a modern i7 processor, 32GB of fast ram, and fast SSDs not handle files quicker in LR


I really is hard to believe.

I'm on an overclocked Kaby Lake i5 with an M.2 SSD. There shouldn't be an ounce of lag, especially not when just moving to the next photo.



Mar 01, 2017 at 08:46 AM
Ian.Dobinson
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


ZachOly wrote:
I really is hard to believe.

I'm on an overclocked Kaby Lake i5 with an M.2 SSD. There shouldn't be an ounce of lag, especially not when just moving to the next photo.


which takes us onto the crux of the matter . if your wanting no lag while moving to the next image then no GPU is going to help . but your workflow will .

I know this has been done to death but some helpers are:

create the biggest previews your can . preferable 1:1 and keep then for as long as can . at least as long as your using the images a lot .

if you can the build those previews well in advance . better to have LR do suff like that while your away doing other stuff

Only browse thru images in library . using the develop module like its the library and jumping from image to image to image in quick succession will bog you down while LR rebuilds its preview for each image .

if youve got CC and its upto date then make use of smart previews as well . where they were once only used when the RAW wasn't present LR can now utilise them to help speed things along .

you have to remember that LR isn't primarily designed to be a speedy culling tool . especially the Develop mode . if your processing an image then a tiny time to generate a new preview isn't a huge deal when your going to be looking at the same image for a few mins .
that said having your workflow sorted you can cull very effiently . Ive culled thru a few thousand images on my old base model MacBook air (1.3ghz 4g ram) without any lag going between each image and zooming to 1:1 on many of the images .

where your overclocked fast CPU machine will help is in the background stuff like preview generation and exporting . its here where my lowly MBA is noticeably that bit slower than my i7 iMac



Mar 01, 2017 at 09:33 AM
Jim McCann
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


Pardon me for going off topic for a brief moment, but all I want for Chrismas is a day or two with Ian to get me organized in Lightroom.


Mar 01, 2017 at 12:24 PM
Ian.Dobinson
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


^^^^^

Lol you really don't Jim . I'm probably one of the most disorganised people round here

But I will admit I've just played around with different LR workflows till I found one that seemed to work best

I've stopped using a couple (mostly to do with laptop use and smart previews) now that large memory sticks are cheap and available



Mar 01, 2017 at 02:30 PM
BSPhotog
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: On
p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


ZachOly wrote:
I really is hard to believe.

I'm on an overclocked Kaby Lake i5 with an M.2 SSD. There shouldn't be an ounce of lag, especially not when just moving to the next photo.


Yeah, i7 4790, 32 GB RAM, 3 separate SSDs for OS & installed programs, one drive just for the LR catalog, and one for current projects. Surprisingly, my 2014 13" MBPr has similar screen resolution and is not that much slower in LR. That is a little sad actually.



Mar 02, 2017 at 10:42 AM
IrishDino
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


BSPhotog wrote:
Yeah, i7 4790, 32 GB RAM, 3 separate SSDs for OS & installed programs, one drive just for the LR catalog, and one for current projects. Surprisingly, my 2014 13" MBPr has similar screen resolution and is not that much slower in LR. That is a little sad actually.


Ha!

I'm also running a 2015 13" rMBP. Edited weddings with it for 2 seasons.

When I built the Kaby Lake workstation, I was shocked that it wasn't much faster than the MacBook. Exporting, sure. But responsiveness? Not really.




Mar 02, 2017 at 11:12 AM
mogud
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Real Talk: Video Card with Lightroom Performance


I use Lr only(no Ps yet) with GPU enabled. GPU acceleration has nothing to do with disk operations, importing and expirting or sorting through images in Develop. Lr likes lots of memory and 32gb is the minimum. I don't cull in Lr. GPU acceleration only affects editing tools in Develop so that editing results are seen quicker.

I use Breezebrowser Pro to cull from the cameras memory card insered into a card reader. This inespensive software generates previews very quickly. BB also does a pretty good of file management which lets you move your selected images to your Lr folder for importing and editing.

Just as an aside, Lr, YMMV, was not designed to import thousands of images at once with many Lr presets performing many different operations on import. Once culled, my import time into Lr for a few hundred images is very quick. I keep presets to a minimum.

Which video card to buy will not make a huge difference. I would only make sure that the video card has a good amount of memory onboard. Also, make sure video card drivers are always up to date. Other than the above, read Ian's response.



Mar 02, 2017 at 11:48 AM





FM Forums | Post-processing & Printing | Join Upload & Sell

    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.