P: High CPU usage makes it unusable during export

Report · Oct 31, 2017

After latest Lightroom Classic CC I almost can't work in Lightroom during export as it's using around 90% off mu CPU. Maybe exporting itself is a bit faster but when exporting 2000 pics I'm unable to work for about half an hour as there are huge lags. In the end I would rather prefer slower export working in a background and still have ability to work with pics without such noticable slow down. It was much better balanced before updating to Classic CC.
My CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K (4 cores, od 4.00 GHz do 4.20 GHz, 8 MB cache)

Report · Oct 31, 2017

I would rather Lightroom will use 100 percent all the time. At the moment it is using most of the time between 10 to 30 percent. And the most frustrating thing is the performance degradation over time. After restart lightroom will reach 90 percent but after 10 minutes of working it goes down to 10 to 30 percent. This is more noticeable the more cores you have. The best way to replicate it is export 100 images after restart. Time it and look at the cup graph. Then do it again immediately after you will see it takes much longer and the cpu will not reach 90% any more... W10 i7 5960X 8 cores

Report · Jan 21, 2019

Hi! Any news on that?

I noticed the same odd behaviour on my new PC and I am very disappointed that one can not find any solution online! Disabling GPU does not help, changing process priority before export does not help, even assigning dedicated CPU-Cores to Lightroom does not help... If I monitor the CPU load with just some cores assigned to Lightroom, I can clearly see that the unused cores have no load. But still the PC is more or less blocked. After starting the export the whole system is unusably slow. It is nearly impossible to just move the mouse cursor.

Here a rough overview on system specs:
Lightroom Classic 8.1 on fully updated WIN10 Professional 64bit,
Z390 chipset, 8 core i9-9900K, 32GB RAM,
RTX2080TI,
Samsung M2 SSD for catalog, Samsung SATA SSD for raw files.

Any update or further tip is much appreciated. Maybe some Adobe staff could comment.

Thanks
Thomas

Report · Jan 24, 2019

Even a brand new catalog with just 72 images shows the same issue on export.

Some more detailed system info. Maybe it helps...

Lightroom Classic version: 8.1 [ 1200465 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 10 - Business Edition
Version: 10.0.17134
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 16
Processor speed: 3,6 GHz
Built-in memory: 32686,1 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32686,1 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 4450,3 MB (13,6%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 5498,1 MB
GDI objects count: 728
USER objects count: 2296
Process handles count: 2168
Memory cache size: 593,8MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 11.1 [ 112 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 1216MB / 16343MB (7%)
Camera Raw real memory: 1218MB / 32686MB (3%)
System DPI setting: 144 DPI (high DPI mode)
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 3840x2160, 2) 3840x2160
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: Yes, Keyboard: No
Graphics Processor Info:
DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (25.21.14.1771)
Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic CC
Library Path: C:\Users\Thomas\Pictures\testCatalog\testCatalog\testCatalog.lrcat
Settings Folder: C:\Users\Thomas\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom
Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Canon Tether Plugin
3) Facebook
4) Flickr
5) LogiOptions
6) LRT Export 5
7) Nikon Tether Plugin
Config.lua flags: None
Adapter #1: Vendor : 10de
Device : 1e07
Subsystem : 37a91458
Revision : a1
Video Memory : 11048
Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414
Device : 8c
Subsystem : 0
Revision : 0
Video Memory : 0
AudioDeviceIOBlockSize: 1024
AudioDeviceName: Lautsprecher (2- High Definition Audio-Gerät)
AudioDeviceNumberOfChannels: 2
AudioDeviceSampleRate: 48000
Build: 12.1x4
Direct2DEnabled: false
GL_ACCUM_ALPHA_BITS: 16
GL_ACCUM_BLUE_BITS: 16
GL_ACCUM_GREEN_BITS: 16
GL_ACCUM_RED_BITS: 16
GL_ALPHA_BITS: 0
GL_BLUE_BITS: 8
GL_DEPTH_BITS: 24
GL_GREEN_BITS: 8
GL_MAX_3D_TEXTURE_SIZE: 16384
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE: 32768
GL_MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS: 4
GL_MAX_VIEWPORT_DIMS: 32768,32768
GL_RED_BITS: 8
GL_RENDERER: GeForce RTX 2080 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
GL_SHADING_LANGUAGE_VERSION: 4.60 NVIDIA
GL_STENCIL_BITS: 8
GL_VENDOR: NVIDIA Corporation
GL_VERSION: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 417.71
GPUDeviceEnabled: false
OGLEnabled: true
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GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample GL_EXTX_framebuffer_mixed_formats GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample_blit_scaled GL_EXT_framebuffer_object GL_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB GL_EXT_geometry_shader4 GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters GL_EXT_gpu_shader4 GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil GL_EXT_packed_float GL_EXT_packed_pixels GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object GL_EXT_point_parameters GL_EXT_polygon_offset_clamp GL_EXT_post_depth_coverage GL_EXT_provoking_vertex GL_EXT_raster_multisample GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_secondary_color GL_EXT_separate_shader_objects GL_EXT_separate_specular_color GL_EXT_shader_image_load_formatted GL_EXT_shader_image_load_store GL_EXT_shader_integer_mix GL_EXT_shadow_funcs GL_EXT_sparse_texture2 GL_EXT_stencil_two_side GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_EXT_texture3D GL_EXT_texture_array GL_EXT_texture_buffer_object GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1 GL_EXT_texture_compression_latc GL_EXT_texture_compression_rgtc GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_cube_map GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3 GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_filter_minmax GL_EXT_texture_integer GL_EXT_texture_lod GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp GL_EXT_texture_object GL_EXT_texture_shared_exponent GL_EXT_texture_sRGB GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_R8 GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode GL_EXT_texture_storage GL_EXT_texture_swizzle GL_EXT_timer_query GL_EXT_transform_feedback2 GL_EXT_vertex_array GL_EXT_vertex_array_bgra GL_EXT_vertex_attrib_64bit GL_EXT_window_rectangles GL_EXT_import_sync_object GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_KHR_context_flush_control GL_KHR_debug GL_EXT_memory_object GL_EXT_memory_object_win32 GL_EXT_win32_keyed_mutex GL_KHR_parallel_shader_compile GL_KHR_no_error GL_KHR_robust_buffer_access_behavior GL_KHR_robustness GL_EXT_semaphore GL_EXT_semaphore_win32 GL_KTX_buffer_region GL_NV_alpha_to_coverage_dither_control GL_NV_bindless_multi_draw_indirect 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Report · Jan 24, 2019

This behavior is expected. Changes were made in a previous version to more aggressively use CPU cores during the Export operation. Export takes priority over local operations to facilitate much faster exports.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

Report · Jan 24, 2019

Thanks Rikk for the reply!

In the meantime I did some more investigation. When I limit CPU affinity to e. g. 8 out of 16 logical CPUs, I managed to work in Windows (mail, explorer, browsing, youtube, etc.) more or less flawless. There is some lag sometimes when moving the mouse though.
Nevertheless, it is cumbersome to change affinity using Windows Task Manager all the time. You (Adobe) should add some kind of preference value to limit CPU usage inside Lightroom. Not everyone is looking at the progressbar during export. We rather want to do some additional work, even if it is only watching some tutorials on using Adobe products 🙂

OK, thanks again.
I will live with the workaround for now. I am curious about any further update on that issue.

Regards
Thomas

Report · May 30, 2019

This needs a setting or a fix. What I love about Lightroom is being able to work with it during exports to continue work on live events. Right now the workaround only allows you so somewhat use other stuff but using Lightroom during exports is not possible. The strange thing is my older desktop works fine during exports and my newer more powerful laptop is unusable.

Desktop:
i7-7700 CPU 4 cores @ 4.60Ghz
32GB Ram
GTX260 GPU
System and catalog on same ssd
Images on platter 4tb hard drive exporting to same

Laptop:
i7-8750H 6 cores @ 2.2Ghz
32GB Ram
Nvidia Quatro P600
System and catalog on main Nvme
Files on second Nvme drive
Exporting to anything gives the same results

Report · May 31, 2019

So new development here.

I contacted Adobe support again and the agent cleared the caches, reset preferences, set a couple more permissions on the Lightroom folders, set Lightroom to run as admin. No luck.

I tried a bluetooth mouse instead of the touchpad, it was slightly better, tried a wired mouse and it was perfect.

So we turned to the touchpad, I had the latest drivers but there was a firmware upgrade. Applied it, rebooted but still no luck.

I called Lenovo support and by the time they answered the phone everything started working perfectly. Go figure, maybe it was the firmware but it took some time to set in??? Well my problem is resolved.

Report · Jun 04, 2019

Export is maxing out my CPU, making it impossible to do anything else in LR or PS while the export is running. Everything else on my PC runs super slowly while the export is running. I don't mind if exports take longer, but I need to be able to kick off an export then go do something else with my PC. It's also preferable to me to be able to do other tasks within LR while the export is running, over having a slightly faster export time.

Report · Jul 17, 2019

Exporting images makes pc almost unusable, in the past the exports were much slower but I could perform other tasks on my PC, sometimes something as simple as watching YouTube on my secondary monitor. The new version is much faster but renders my i7 8700k, gtx 1080 and 32gb if ram useless as far as multitasking. Watching a YouTube tutorial while exporting raw files to JPEGs constantly causes YouTube, mouse and windows to freeze as well as an occasional black screen flash.

Report · Jul 17, 2019

Would it be possible to speed up Lightroom Classic Export operations with GPU acceleration?
It's great to have some GPU support in the develop module, but exporting takes nearly all my CPU resources. Why has this not been done already?

Image is not available

Report · Jul 17, 2019

In Lightroom 8, when exporting virtually nothing can be done due to excessive CPU usage. Even the mouse cursor is frequently frozen for seconds.
I suggest limiting the CPU usage for the Export thread (as it was in earlier versions).

Report · Jul 17, 2019

Ever since I updated Lightroom to the current version (Lightroom Classic version: 8.3.1), I haven't been successful in exporting pictures after edits. Within seconds of the the export kicking off, the machine freezes up and the screen goes blank. I started monitoring the CPU during these windows and found that the CPU was pegged at a 100 % and Lightroom was the heaviest user. I understand that this was a feature add for faster processing and better utilization of the system resources but in cases like mine, I am unable to finish the job because the system wouldn't recover after this freeze. Only a hard reboot brings in back up. After playing around a lot with the settings (performance tuning etc), I finally found a workaround - Just before the export, I went to the system Task Manager > Details > Lightroom.exe and set the affinity so that it doesn't use all the CPU cores. That way, during the export, the system wasn't hitting the 100 % CPU mark and the export finished. It has become very frustrating as I had to hard reboot my machine about 15 times before I got here. Many of us don't have the luxury of dedicating one machine for Lightroom use only. I can't have one software take up all the juice and crash the entire system.

My machine specs -

Lightroom Classic version: 8.3.1 [ 201905241238-dcd7e2de ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 10 - Business Edition
Version: 10.0.17763
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 2.8 GHz
Built-in memory: 32586.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32586.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1014.9 MB (3.1%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 1207.6 MB
GDI objects count: 619
USER objects count: 1902
Process handles count: 1784
Memory cache size: 167.4MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 11.3 [ 197 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 262MB / 16293MB (1%)
Camera Raw real memory: 263MB / 32586MB (0%)
System DPI setting: 120 DPI
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 2560x1440
Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:
DirectX: NVIDIA Quadro M1000M (25.21.14.2545)

Report · Jul 17, 2019

I'm a sports photographer and can end an event with several thousands of photos. I'd like the ability to be exporting one batch while editing the next set in Lightroom Classic. However, the export step hogs up so many resources that I can't effectively edit any more photos until it is done. My computer is reasonably capable and has lots of RAM. It would be nice to have the export feature be something that could run with lower priority so I could still perform edits.

Report · Aug 20, 2019

Set your Lightroom process priority to Low (instead of Normal) and you'll have a working responsive machine again. I'm only on an i5-6600k and I can watch full-screen 1080p youtube while exporting (at the cost of prolonging my export of course...)

Report · Oct 10, 2019

I would also like an option to limit cpu usage by the export process, I am a working professional photographer and I don't care how long exports take. More important is the ability to use lightroom during an export, which is currently impossible.

For those who have suggested changing the process priority, it does help a little but is far too cumbersome a procedure to do regularly.

Please add this feature Adobe!

Report · Oct 10, 2019

Not good at all. A much less aggressive CPU usage would be much better. Even the mouse stops moving... Imagine, users want to work on another tasks during a lengthily export!
The IT team needs to reconsider things from the user's point of view, not regarding the export thread's performance!

Report · Oct 11, 2019

I love the fact that LR now uses all my cpu during export - gets it over much faster! I have a cup of coffee, read a book (remember those things made of paper?), or go to bed while its doing its stuff!

Bob Frost

Report · Oct 11, 2019

If you go to Puget Systems website (pugetsystems.com) you will find that they have an article about turning off half the cpu threads for LR, and have produced a utility that launches LR with half the threads. It is not permanent; you just launch LR from this utility (put it on your desktop) when you want to do exports, and in most cases it slows down exports and leaves half your threads free for other purposes. Its not what they designed the utility for (as you will see when you read the article), but I realised it might just be what you posters want. I've tried it and it only allows LR to use half the threads, slowing down export a little, but the other threads are free for other programs.

Bob Frost

Report · Oct 11, 2019

Turning off half the threads is kinda ridiculous - if you're on a 16-thread machine, you're cutting all that fantastic performance in half. Setting Low priority for the process is less negative impact.

Report · Oct 11, 2019

Surprisingly it doesn't cut performance in half! Exporting 65 nefs using 12 threads took 4 min 20 secs, while using 6 threads it took 3 mins 45 secs. Intel is now selling cpus with hyperthreading permanently disabled. It can cause more problems than it solves. And Intel has recently been advocating turning hyperthreading off to reduce vulnerability to security problems, and is moving away from hyperthreading in some of its latest processors.

But I love having all my 12 threads at 100% while exporting or rendering previews. No doubt adobe could have a checkbox for exports as they do for previews.That would make both of us happy.

Bob Frost

Report · Oct 11, 2019

If you want to set low priority for the export process, make your own shortcut to turn LR on with export at low priority as in the following

https://www.eightforums.com/threads/cpu-priority-shortcut-for-a-program-create-in-windows.40287/

Bob Frost

Report · Oct 11, 2019

You may find you're running into bottlenecks elsewhere of course. For example, storage and available memory. Holding 12 consecutive images in memory and applying all the changes soon adds up. Thus, your CPUs aren't being fed as they should.

Report · Oct 11, 2019

I want to keep working on other images or in other programs during export. Please give me the choice.

And CPU usage seems to change over time somehow. Its always over 90% but after a while the other programs run smoother again??? on PC.

Report · Oct 11, 2019

Rober Frost,
In terms of computing, the export thread should not use that much CPU. LR will use all of your CPU either.
On the other hand, there are countless LR users who simply want to start working on the next set of photos (so they can enjoy their book and coffee sooner).

Report · Dec 10, 2019

I have to export 1500 images - it doesn't matter whether they are exported a bit later. I could start that in the morning and meanwhile work on other jobs inside and outside of LR. BUT I can't do anything useful for a few hours, because LR is even slowing down my browser and email-client. So I have to postpone the export for during the night.

After all I have the final images later (next morning), than I would have had them if the export ran in the background during the day (afternoon). So anyone who came up with that CPU-Usage Idea obviously didn't give much thought to real live. Does Adobe ever test anything in real life environments? Seems to me, they just rely on users wasting their time in forums instead of being productive.

I'd say make Export a lower CPU-priority by default with an option to switch up and block the rest of your machine, if the user so chooses.