Bridge 2024: VERY SLOW Output module on Mac M1 Max

I am generating contactsheets using Bridge Output module.

Issue: it takes over 30 minutes to generate a contactsheet from 200 JPG files.

My Setup:

• My computer is SUPER fast in general - e.g. using Camera Raw, RAW conversion of 200 NEF takes 2-3 minutes.
• M1 Max; 64 GB RAM; FAST NVME SSD
• MacOS: Sonoma 14.4.1 (23E224) - the latest version
• Bridge 2024 - the latest version.
• Input images: 36 Megapixel 10 MB each, with previews already rendered in Bridge
• Output: PDF contactsheet

Obsevations:

• I've experienced this issue for many prior generations of Bridge on MacOS
• When contactsheet is being generated, I obseve that .jpg files are getting created at this path:

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Bridge 2024/OutputModule/ImageCache

These jpg-s are appearing VERY SLOWLY, and they are just ~500 KB each.

• While contacheet generation is executing, the progress bar starts at 25% and stays there the entire time. There is a message in same dialog with duration estimation of 1 second. This takes over 30 minutes!

Steps taken - WITHOUT ANY IMPROVEMENT.

1. Provided Read/Write access to all accounts for
   • /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Adobe
   • /Users/Library/Application Support/Adobe
2. Deleted Bridge Cache
3. Reset Bridge Preferences
4. Disabled all startup scripts
5. Rebooted computer, started Bridge only. Executed contasheet generation

Please help. This is an unreasonable slowness that makes the Bridge Outout module basically unusable.

Thanks!