P: Limited Panning Frame rate

UPDATE: For some reason Lightroom is able to pan at proper 120 fps only when there is a Chrome based application running in the background and is not minimized. As soon as a Chrome based application is closed or minimized, Lightroom returns to a choppy 60 fps panning. This is weird behavior. Hopefully it helps.

Hello,

I'd like to add an update to this post as I've tried the latest version after a while on a Windows machine again. I'm happy to report these findings:

1. There is no more need to use the Nvidia Profile Inspector. It is now possible to use the Nvidia Control Panel or the Nvidia App alone to disable G-Sync specifically for Lightroom. Not sure if this was fixed by Adobe or Nvidia, but this is a very welcome improvement.
2. Panning around a zoomed in 48mp image now works as intended on a 120hz OLED panel. No stutters, jitters or any other issues.
3. There is a bug, where the panning framerate is limited when a new instance of the Lightroom application is launched and the previously worked on photo is loaded. However, once another photo is selected, the framerate limit is gone and it is back to smooth 120 fps again. This indicates that there is a clear coding issue and is very easy to reproduce: Open Lightroom, select another photo -> high framerate; Close Lightroom; Open Lightroom again, pan around the photo that loads up automatically -> limited framerate.

Hi, I have given it another try today. On a 120hz OLED screen, simply dragging the Lightroom window with a photo open results in fluid motion, while dragging (panning) the actual photo in the Lightroom window is noticeably choppy. I have checked further with an FPS monitor and it seems that it is trying to hit 120 frames most of the time, but it is unstable, therefore resulting in a choppy experience. Well, I guess this now leaves the question whether this is an acceptable level of software development quality for Adobe.

Oh and Lightroom is not usable with G-Sync on. The only way to make it usable is to set GSYNC Application State to Force Off in the Nvidia Profile Inspector. This should be handled on the application level. Users shouldn't need to hack their video driver to use the software 🙂

We haven't been able to reproduce this. Can you check to make sure that you have enabled "Use GPU for display" in Lightroom > Preferences > Performance panel? You might have to set it to Custom to check. Also, under Graphics Performance, you might want to set it to High Performance rather than Auto.

Well, seems like I will still need to use Windows from time to time 🙂

I'll add some more information regarding the visual smoothness issues on Windows. Compared to the macOS version, all panel and UI animations seem stuttery in Windows, while everything is butter smooth on macOS.

I really wish the Windows version of Lightroom Cc would reach the same quality level that the macOS version is. Including a proper dark mode File menu.

Can you be more specific about where you notice this? You mention panning... is it specifically a problem when you zoom into a photo and drag the image to focus on another area? Or is it broader than that? We're not hardcoding to a framerate, but something might be getting in the way.