GPU crashing in Lightroom Classic -- possible workaround

[roc97007]

This has been happening for me through multiple versions of Lightroom, multiple Nvidia graphics cards, and multiple versions (always doing a complete uninstall/install) of the nvidia driver.  I have two monitors connected to the graphics card, one for Lightroom and one for email, interacting with my zenfolio account and so forth.

Usually both screens will go black and the system will not respond, requiring a hard reset.

This appears to be a known problem, with many people experiencing it.

My purpose is not to bring up the problem, but to add information I've recently discovered, in the hope it'll help other people.

Turning off graphics acceleration in lightroom preferences does solve the problem, but I work with thousands of photos and the performance hit is too great.  I NEED graphics acceleration.

Somewhere along the line in Lightroom development, the "use gpu" was subdivided into "use gpu for display, use gpu for image processing, and use gpu for export".  With all of them turned on, I get regular GPU crashes requiring restart.

Why do I know it's a GPU crash?  Because sometimes, occasionally, the video will revert to 800x600 on the primary screen.  When this happens, the GPU section disappears from the task manager performance tab.  Sometimes (less often), the main monitor will freeze but the secondary monitor will still be active.  Again, the GPU section disappears from task manager, but I still have some control over the machine.  When these things happen, I can usually do an orderly shutdown and I'm back in business.  But often, a hard reboot is required to bring the display back.

Having to do the hard reboot to get the display back has the worrying side-effect of occasionally corrupting the library database, necessitating that I recover from a backup.  For this reason, I back up the library much more often than recommended.

I keep the performance tab (Windows 10) up while working, and I've noticed that the amount of local GPU memory (6 GB on my card) gets very close to maximum while exporting, and that I'm usually exporting when the blackness occurs.

So, I went into preferences, and turned off "Use GPU for Export", keeping checked "Use GPU for image processing".

Exports now take longer, but since I can continue working while exporting, this isn't a big deal.  I've also noticed that CPU usage is much higher, with all six cores stuck at 100% if I have four to six images exporting and working on the next image in the Develop tab.

I noticed at one point that I was reaching the end of my 32 GB of main memory, and since I have swap turned off (for performance reasons) the system has crashed when running out of main memory.  Fortunately, ECC memory (I work on an enterprise server class machine) is cheap now days, and I was able to bump up system memory to 64 GB at an affordable price.  That particular crash has not happened since.

The interesting thing is that since I turned off use gpu for export, I've done post-processing on about 1500 photos in the last 2-3 days, without a single crash.  I used to get 3-4 crashes a day.

So, I'd recommend turning off "use GPU for export", if you're having this problem.  It may help.

When I get the money, I want to try a video card with 12 GB local memory, then turn all options on and see if I get a crash.  This would tell me if it's GPU memory that's the issue.

Lightroom Classic is a great tool, but it's been a real adventure keeping it running correctly.  In fairness, I'm very hard on the software, usually working on 3000 - 5000 photos at a time, and frequently doing mass adjustments.  I am definitely a power user, and someone who only works on a few photos at a time probably won't see these issues.

Hope this helps.

[dj_paige]

Just curious, were you getting these crashes during Export? Or during use of the Develop Module? Or random? Or somewhere else?

[roc97007]

It's definitely not random, but it's difficult to characterize.  I'd say that I've always been in the Develop module, and it has crashed usually when I'm doing something to the photo that requires GPU.  I'm often doing crop-rotation adjustments when the crash occurs.  Hit "r", crop to 8X10, rotate a few degrees, blackness.  A few seconds later, both monitors will go into standby.  I can see disk activity on the front panel, but the system won't respond.

I seem to recall that I will get black screen when I'm doing something like "paste settings from previous photo" and I'm pretty sure I got a crash once while applying noise reduction.  But I was exporting at the time, so it's difficult to say whether the noise reduction code was at fault, or the export rendering code.

Gauging whether export specifically causes it has been problematic because when I'm working on photos, I'm ALWAYS exporting while I continue to work on the next photo.  The only data point I have, which isn't very old (only maybe 3 days without a crash) is that turning off "use gpu while exporting" seems to help.

Back in the old days, when you only had the option to turn GPU on or off, it was more problematic because there was no way to tell exactly what operation was causing the crash.  Moreover, I think seeing GPU stats in the Performance tab is relatively new.  We have better granularity now, and better instrumentation, so it's easier to characterize the problem.

I'm assuming you're seeing this issue also?

[TheDigitalDog]

If turning OFF GPU works, it's a GPU bug and you need to contact the manufacturer or find out if there's an updated driver for it. This is why disabling GPU is an option as more and more functionality moves to the GPU in newer versions of many Adobe products.
Also see: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/acr-gpu-faq.html

[roc97007]

Yeah, sorry, that's a standard answer. The first article is the standard GPU faq, and really you should be ashamed of yourself for thinking I haven't read that yet.  And yes, I've gone through all the graphics driver troubleshooting steps. The second article has to do with camera raw, which is not the problem I'm describing here.  It's not an import problem.  So, look, if that's all you have, this isn't the thread for you.

I've been characterizing this issue for years, through four, progressively more expensive video cards and uncounted driver updates.  I check for new driver updates frequently, in the so far vain hope that there's something that would fix the problem.  I've even considered switching to ATI, but in other forums, I find that the same problem is occurring with ATI cards as well.

There's a bunch of... I'm starting to call them "fake solutions" being passed around, like specialized DVI cables, and I even tried some of those.  No effect, of course.

Response from Adobe usually falls into two classes:  (1) copy/pasting URLs to the standard GPU troubleshooting articles, or (2) instructions, sometimes in meticulous detail, on how to turn off GPU acceleration.  And admittedly, the latter does stop the crashing.  The problem is, Lightroom is then too slow to reasonably get work done, if your workload is in the thousands of photos.

[TheDigitalDog]

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@roc97007 wrote:

Yeah, sorry, that's a standard answer. The first article is the standard GPU faq, and really you should be ashamed of yourself for thinking I haven't read that yet. 

---

One recommended so often by Adobe Engineers and experts here*. 

As to being ashamed of what you have or haven't read here or elsewhere, I would never make such an absurd assumption. 

"*Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes." -Jawaharlal Nehru

What you should read:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/how-do-i-write-a-bug-report/idi-p/12386373

[roc97007]

Dog, I know how to write a bug report.  This is NOT a bug report.  It is additional information and a possible workaround on an issue that's been around for many years.  Just pasting in unrelated URLs isn't helping.

[TheDigitalDog]

Certainly no bug report. 

Yes, as reported for years: disabling GPU fixes bugs from the GPU's, it's why the opportunity exist.

[roc97007]

Update 11/19/2022:

Upgraded from nvidia GTX 1660 6 GB to an RTX 2060 XC 12GB card.  I wasn't looking for more performance, just more onboard memory.  Although Lightroom does seem snappier.

Currently pushing it hard, running lightroom with all performance features on and a video playing in the other window at the same time.  No crashes yet.  Performance shows GPU memory sitting at between 5.5 and 6.5 GB, which adds credulity to this being a video card memory usage problem rather than a GPU problem.  Will continue to beat on this and try to get it to crash.

[roc97007]

Made adjustments on almost 200 photos, video card memory usage topped out at 7.7 Gb, still no crashes.  I think this is a fix.

[eren_2867]

Did ypu find the solution? Cause i found. İf you need write an answer so i will explain

[hully_8254]

Qual seria a sulução? Agradeceria se pudesse dizer, porque a dias esse mesmo problema.