Experiencing performance related issues in Lightroom 4.x

[bcormier]

Anyone else notice that lightroom 4 is slow? Ligtroom 3 always ran fast on my system but Lightroom 4 seemlingly lags quite a bit.

My system is:

2.10 ghz Intel Core i3 Sandy Bridge

8 GB Ram

640 GB Hard Drive

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Message title was edited by: Brett N

[KKuja]

I have been very sceptic about LR 4. I tried 4.0 and it was sluggish. I partially blamed my old machine (1) and thought, oh well, no more new LRs for me. Today I tried LR 4.2 (because I was too lazy to get RC 4.3) just to see how slow it is. To my surprise it was usable. Very close to 3.6, which I have mainly been using.

I tried LR 4.2 with only fairly small amount of pictures, so I have to continue testing it. Also, I did very basic editing, without any localized adjustments. But I think I will try to use it with the next patch of images I process. Anyway, this was psotivie surprise to me.

(1) Macbook4,1. Core 2 duo 2,4 GHz, 4GB RAM. OS X 1.6.8. Images were from Nikon D700.

[JP Hess]

Here is what I don't understand about this whole performance issue.  I have used Lightroom on four different computers, two of them were 32 bit and two of them are 64 bit.  I will admit that performance was a little sluggish on the 32 bit computers, but it wasn't really intolerable.  All of the computers have been pretty much what you would call "plain vanilla" computers; no high-end graphics cards, no SSD drives, all just basically off the shelf computers.  My new Windows 7 64 bit computer is just using integrated video, 8 GB Ram, but other than that there is really nothing out of the ordinary (if you can call that out of the ordinary).  This new computer has no problems whatsoever with Lightroom.  New images are downloaded and previews are built so quickly that I hardly even see the progress bar.  I keep expecting to encounter the problems a lot of others seem to be having, but I just haven't seen it.

[andreas603]

Jim, *most* performance issues are not related to speed of import or preview build time during that import.  They occur during subsequent editing..in Lib or Dev tabs with Exp, Lum, spot healing, image redraw when scrolling, etc.  They also occur during image re-draws after scrolling or zooming.  I think its an over simplification that you can draw any conclusions from simply comparing 32 vs 64bit systems.... This can easily get lost on anyone joining this monsterous thread...Its been noted many times.

[JP Hess]

You might be right, but I'm not experiencing any of the other problems that people complain about either.  Sorry to barge on this conversation.  I will step out now.

[areohbee]

andreas603 wrote:

*most* performance issues are not related to speed of import or preview build time during that import.

That may be true, for you anyway, but some people also (or only) have problems with preview build time, exporting, rendering... there are a multitude of potential problems, some of which result in same symptoms, some different, maybe similar... e.g. lengthy rendering times may be due to cpu allocation issues, whereas delays during little lib/dev tweaks may be due to something else entirely (see below).

andreas603 wrote:

They occur during subsequent editing..in Lib or Dev tabs with Exp, Lum, spot healing, etc.

One thing I learned from my last debacle (mentioned in post above) is:

Anti-virus and other forms of file scanning can cause dev (or lib) module slowdown. Reminder: the large catalog file is constantly being written with little tidbits every time you make a dev edit or lib metadata change. If each time it is written, your system scanner, or auto-backup, or indexer, or journaler, or... is doing something (especially when it's to the whole file) because a changed (and big) file is detected, you are going to have problems.

I know this has been mentioned before, and previous posts about it are why I solved my problem so quickly - thanks to whoever(s) originally posted about it.

Note: a failing disk may result in identical symptoms, despite totally different root cause.

andreas603 wrote:

They also occur during image re-draws after scrolling...

Reminder: if scrolling/re-draw is slow, consider graphics adapter (e.g. driver) may be an obstacle.

My usual reminder/disclaimer for this thread:

================================

The reason I am trying to identify system causes, or perhaps I should say system-change based solutions, instead of Lightroom code causes (or should I say Lr code based solutions) has to do *only* with the fact that users can't change the software - my posts are aimed at the thing you can change. If I were trying to help Adobe identify solutions via code changing, my input would be *very* different.

Even the problem I had (referenced above), which I fixed with a system change, might well have been fixed by Adobe (via code and/or installer change...), had I waited long enough.

Rob

[Guest]

JimHess wrote:

Here is what I don't understand about this whole performance issue.  I have used Lightroom on four different computers, two of them were 32 bit and two of them are 64 bit.  I will admit that performance was a little sluggish on the 32 bit computers, but it wasn't really intolerable.  All of the computers have been pretty much what you would call "plain vanilla" computers; no high-end graphics cards, no SSD drives, all just basically off the shelf computers.  My new Windows 7 64 bit computer is just using integrated video, 8 GB Ram, but other than that there is really nothing out of the ordinary (if you can call that out of the ordinary).  This new computer has no problems whatsoever with Lightroom.  New images are downloaded and previews are built so quickly that I hardly even see the progress bar.  I keep expecting to encounter the problems a lot of others seem to be having, but I just haven't seen it.

Jim,

Just so you get an idea of what some of us have faced prior to LR 4.3 RC (4.3 solved it for me... so far):

My system is:

- Win7/64bit

- Dedicated system/programs HD

- Dedicated RAID for photos

- Dedicated Scratch/Cache HD

- Dedicated Catalogue HD

- 24 GB RAM

- 1 GB VRAM

- i7 at 3 GHz

People experiencing the problem have seen it with both old and new computers.

[bob frost]

From: "uphotography

My system is:

- Win7/64bit

- Dedicated system/programs HD

- Dedicated RAID for photos

- Dedicated Scratch/Cache HD

- Dedicated Catalogue HD

- 24 GB RAM

- 1 GB VRAM

- i7 at 3 GHz

Now you just need to fit an SSD for your catalog/previews. That does speed

things up.

Bob frost

[Guest]

bob frost wrote:

From: "uphotography

My system is:

- Win7/64bit

- Dedicated system/programs HD

- Dedicated RAID for photos

- Dedicated Scratch/Cache HD

- Dedicated Catalogue HD

- 24 GB RAM

- 1 GB VRAM

- i7 at 3 GHz

Now you just need to fit an SSD for your catalog/previews. That does speed

things up.

Bob frost

Bob, I have thought about the SSD for C (system and software) but I am hesitant to use it for catalogues, previews and/or photos. As far as I understand if an Solid state disk fails all the information is completely lost (no possibility of recovery like with "old-fashion" disks), That scares the bejesus out of me. I would need to do several backups to external HDs (maybe twice a day) and I am not good at that. (I just trust it to my RAID so I don't really have to think about it. -Don't know if that makes any sense to you)

I do know that it is my HDs the one setting the speed limit on my PC. I just don't think that it is because of them that I had the problems I had. Well, I still have 21 MPx files and with LR 4.3 RC everything goes much faster now (so far).

[Guest]

Adobe:

LR 4.3 < LR 4.3 RC

I updated several days ago to LR 4.3 RC and my problems literally disappear. Today I "downgraded"  to LR 4.3 (and the last ACR) and LR is starting to be sluggish again even with simple tasks. I am back to long loading times, black rectangles showing up while trying to refresh an image and navigator not properly updating to the preset (when scanning my presets with the pointer of my mouse)

For some reason I think this is more a ACR thing than LR 4.3 but reality is I am several steps back again.

I will try again LR 4.3 RC with the last ACR and if that doesn't improve things, then I will unistall the last ACR and try it with 4.3

Happy holidays everyone.

[quenton8]

So ... if the new one helped that much, why did you downgrade? (other than a test)  Why not go to the new one and stay there -- I have been using it for a few weeks now.  I also installed the matchinc ACR for CS6, its available.

[Guest]

Dennis Smith wrote:

So ... if the new one helped that much, why did you downgrade? (other than a test)  Why not go to the new one and stay there -- I have been using it for a few weeks now.  I also installed the matchinc ACR for CS6, its available.

Because I am dumb. That's why! Even when I said: "4.3 RC is working, I won't touch it, I won't even go to the official 4.3 release once it is out just in case". I still did it. I installed 4.3 and the last ACR and now this is back to nightmare time. It's like: Everything works and in the last minute somebody at Adobe adds " the code". Maybe they want this thread to be the longest one of all the forums in internet! I don't know!

Given I cannot find LR 4.3 RC and previous ACR in adobe labs anymore, I would appreciate it if anybody points me to an alternative download location.

Thanks!

[quenton8]

I missed that you moved to 4.3!  my mind told me you had moved back from 4.3RC to 4.2 -- sorry!

So now "I" am afraid to move to 4.3!  but 4.3RC is likely to stop working soon anyway if 4.3 is out.

Interesting to see what others find!

[jessicat500]

I'm still on 4.3RC, and it's slowed down horrendously in the past week so I'll end up seeing if 4.3 helps tonight.

One thing I've found is that on installation of a new release of Lightroom, the performance starts out really well then gradually goes downhill. I've tried clearing caches etc., the directories are all excluded from Time Machine, and still the sluggish sliders.

This is on an i7 Macbook Pro with Lion, 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD, dual monitors. Images are RAW from a Canon 5D Mark III, so I can't really go down to Lightroom 3 (and really it shouldn't be necessary). I do notice that the CPU usage goes sky-high while I'm navigating around the library. Rendering 1:1 previews makes little or no difference to the speed in the Develop module using the 2012 version.

I'll try 4.3-release tonight and see what the difference is (hopefully it'll be faster for a short while as I've got a lot to sort through).

Has anyone successfully ported a catalogue back to Aperture? It's the catalogue that's keeping me from moving elsewhere...

[t-w-g]

Well, from the short time I've been using it on my old Core2 Q6600 quad and 8 GB RAM, v4.3 is faster at rendering previews from my 5DII files (~5s for 100%), and also faster at zooms and adjustments, compared to 4.3RC, and certainly better than 4.2. The exposure slider is very nearly real-time.

I have however noticed a new bug on mine: the boundary circles to a spot correction (source and destination circles) are invisible! I can't see any way to get them visible again. Does anyone else see this?

[Cornelia-I]

What does toggling H do?

Maybe this default is just different pre-set in 4.3

H should toggle back and forth between (in-)visibility, H like "hide".

Cornelia

[t-w-g]

Ah, thanks for that Cornelia, that was it! I'd never used H in lightroom before, so it never occured to me.

[Guest]

t-w-g wrote:

Well, from the short time I've been using it on my old Core2 Q6600 quad and 8 GB RAM, v4.3 is faster at rendering previews from my 5DII files (~5s for 100%), and also faster at zooms and adjustments, compared to 4.3RC, and certainly better than 4.2. The exposure slider is very nearly real-time.

I have however noticed a new bug on mine: the boundary circles to a spot correction (source and destination circles) are invisible! I can't see any way to get them visible again. Does anyone else see this?

Did you set the "Show Pins" (bottom left under the image) to "Hide"?

I just upgraded to the release version of 4.3 and my brushes work just as before.

[t-w-g]

J.Chin Photography wrote:

t-w-g wrote:

Well, from the short time I've been using it on my old Core2 Q6600 quad and 8 GB RAM, v4.3 is faster at rendering previews from my 5DII files (~5s for 100%), and also faster at zooms and adjustments, compared to 4.3RC, and certainly better than 4.2. The exposure slider is very nearly real-time.

I have however noticed a new bug on mine: the boundary circles to a spot correction (source and destination circles) are invisible! I can't see any way to get them visible again. Does anyone else see this?

Did you set the "Show Pins" (bottom left under the image) to "Hide"?

I just upgraded to the release version of 4.3 and my brushes work just as before.

Thanks, sorted now! I just pressed H as Cornlelia suggested, and now I see the Tool Overlay options you mention too.

[cfransw]

What's the size of your brush ? Set it to at least 50 to see it.

Frans

[Cornelia-I]

uphotography wrote:

Given I cannot find LR 4.3 RC and previous ACR in adobe labs anymore, I would appreciate it if anybody points me to an alternative download location.

Thanks!

Usually you get all the older version of LR on this page http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/photoshop/

But they do not keep Release Candidate Versions, and I did not spot 4.3RC either.

[Guest]

Lightroom 4.3 has been released; goto www.adobe.com/downloads and you should see it on the right-side column

[Guest]

J.Chin Photography wrote:

Lightroom 4.3 has been released; goto www.adobe.com/downloads and you should see it on the right-side column

That's my problem. 4.3 RC worked like a charm, 4.3 doesn't. I am back at having 1 minute loading on images, 30 seconds to see if after pressing V something happens and frozen screens, black rectangles, and absolutely everything I had seen before in all LR 4.x except for LR 4.3 RC.

[t-w-g]

uphotography wrote:

Adobe:

LR 4.3 < LR 4.3 RC

I updated several days ago to LR 4.3 RC and my problems literally disappear. Today I "downgraded"  to LR 4.3 (and the last ACR) and LR is starting to be sluggish again even with simple tasks. I am back to long loading times, black rectangles showing up while trying to refresh an image and navigator not properly updating to the preset (when scanning my presets with the pointer of my mouse)

For some reason I think this is more a ACR thing than LR 4.3 but reality is I am several steps back again.

I will try again LR 4.3 RC with the last ACR and if that doesn't improve things, then I will unistall the last ACR and try it with 4.3

Happy holidays everyone.

I've just gone from 4.3RC to 4.3 final and didn't notice what version of ACR the RC1 had (except it was a 7.something), except that it always queried when I went to open file in Photoshop CS5. Final version has ACR 7.3, which gives the same query when opening PS CS5. What version were you expecting in the LR4.3, and how do you mean it 'downgraded'?

[Guest]

t-w-g

I mean downgraded because 4.3 RC worked perfectly on my computer and 4.3 official release is showing the same poor performance that all the previous releases did (except for 4.3 RC). I also updated ACR to 7.3 so I don't know if it is just LR or 7.3 or both... and I guess I will never know.

Yesterday I finished several sessions in no time, today it took me half a day to go over a  very basic portrait session with less than 200 photos and only 4 locations. I lost all hopes. I guess I'll keep LR for the catalogue I have and start 2013 from scratch with something new. I am tired of this already.

[getho]

using lightroom makes me want to eat my own head. It takes me back to 486 days. I know this isnt a constructive comment, but you know, venting might help with my blood pressure.