AI Noise Reduction in Lightroom Classic is very slow

[georgeb73469922]

I wonder if there's a simple fix for this.

The new Noise Removal AI in Adobe Lightroom is unusually slow on the NUC 12 Pro i5. De-noising a single Canon RAW CR3 photo takes 6-8 minutes.

The Topaz noise reduction AI software takes just 9-10 seconds to denoise and export the same photo on the NUC. (I greatly prefer the results from Lightroom Classic Noise reduction AI - so would love to get this resolved.)

Don't know if it's relevant, but I'm running OpenCL because Davinci Resolve 18.5 won't run without it. The NUC has 64GB RAM and photos are on a fast Samsung 980 SSD.

I'm using the NUC internal Iris Xe graphics.

Would be grateful for your thoughts.

George

[Ian Lyons]

> I'm using the NUC internal Iris Xe graphics

Your figure of 6-8 minutes is not unusual for a computer using an internal GPU of above type.

The Iris Xe is has slightly better performance than an NVIDIA GT 1030. Therefore, I've provided a link below to a thread (closed) where GT1030 users describe timing similar to your Iris Xe.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/denoise-takes-several-minutes-to-comple...

[georgeb73469922]

Thank you, Ian. I reckon I'll keep using manual NR applied to batches. It's mystifying to me (non-tech-enabled) why Topaz can correct noise and convert and save a 100+MB file 60 times faster. Go figure. Perhaps different app design delivering varied results.

[Conrad_C]

One possible explanation is that AI Denoise is only a few months old, while Topaz has had a long head start to optimize the performance of their code. We’re all hoping there are further performance optimizations to come for AI Denoise. The blog article Adobe posted at release said they are exploring a lot of ideas for improving AI Denoise.

[Ian Lyons]

It's not just Adobe Denoise that's slow on systems with older or low end GPUs. Folk who use DxO PureRaw also complain about the length of time it takes to process each image on similarily spec'd systems, and they've been at AI based denoising for a few years. Therefore, I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for Adobe to reduce the processing time anytime soon.

[Keith Reeder]

This is very true.

My machine (which isn't exactly state of the art, but has a "good enough" Radeon RX580 8gb GPU) will AI Denoise an R5 CR3 in around a minute.

The same file in DxO Photolab or PureRaw (they use the same NR engine) takes interminably longer: I usually give in, defeated, and abandon the processing after around five minutes.

Which is why I don't own any DxO products...

Now interestingly, the same file denoised with ON1 Photo Raw's (really rather excellent) NoNoise AI takes about 5 seconds - but it's slower elsewhere, and does a lot of things which I consider essential for my workflow, a lot less well than LrC; so LrC is still the winner on balance.

[georgeb73469922]

Considering my options, I'll post these thoughts in case they may help others:

1. Upgrade from the NUC 12 Pro WSHi5 to a NUC Elite edition, which would be fun but pricey.  I love the form factor of the NUC 12, so clean and cool after my old full tower PC. I'll have to test Premiere and Resolve on the NUC for editing simple video files.
2. Buy DxO PureRAW which does a wonderful job on noisy Canon R6 CR3 RAW files and costs $129. It processes the CR3s in 28-30 seconds on the NUC.

I find that PureRAW does a much better job than Topaz Noise Reduction, which produces slightly artificial-looking skin, and poorer skin smoothness and gradation when viewed at 100%.

I may opt for DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite which is a one-time $219, and cancel my Adobe subscription. But I'll have to do the due-diligence testing of video on the NUC with Premiere and Resolve before I decide.

Again, thanks for all the suggestions - very helpful!

George

[Keith Reeder]

Just be aware that of the current batch of AI Noise plugins out there, PureRaw has by far the fewest user-controlled adjustment options, and many people have reported that it grossly oversharpens some files, and you can't do anything about it.

If you're happy with this, great - but can I suggest that you also look at the ON1 NoNoise AI plugin?

It's very good in my estimation, is really fast, and has a lot of functionality (up to and including AI masking) that you might not expect in an NR plugin.

FWIW, I much prefer its output to the Topaz alternative. It plays nicely with Lr, too.

And if you get in quickly - it's half price.