Is Lightroom Getting Slower

[Ronald30553178lwuv]

There are a number of threads where community members have complained that Lightroom 13 is a lot slower than version 12. The complaints usually involve severe slowdowns. I have not experienced these severe slowdowns. However, runs of the Puget Systems benchmark suggest to me that Lightroom is indeed getting slower.

With Version 12 typically the benchmark ran around 820. On version 13.0x this dropped to around 740. After moving to version 13.1 scores run around 660. There are possible causes other than the program being slower. My computer is an LG Gram with an I7-1260P CPU, 16 gigs of memory and Intel Iris graphics. The LG Gram is said to have a minimal cooling system. It's possible newer versions of LRC utilize more CPU cores thereby overwhelming the computer's cooling to the point of thermal shutdown. Maybe there is something about the design of the benchmark program which invalidates comparisons across different versions of LRC. There is the slight possibility that my computer is suffering a cumulative problem in hardware or software. However, I suspect the benchmark results are indicative of a problem. Note that I have tried to no avail the fixes suggested around here like resetting preferences or making a clean reinstall.

Does anyone have thoughts about this?

[Ronald30553178lwuv]

The Mac is an M3 Pro with the most minimal M3 Pro guts. The Puget benchmark for Lightoom Classic does not run on Macs, but a denoise which took about 6 minutes on the Windows notebook with an Iris IGPU now runs in about 40 seconds. Settings in LrC says full acceleration is available.

Migrating to the Mac has a learning curve. It will be a pita to reformat the external drive I keep my photos on, or should I install something which allows writing to NTFS?

[D Fosse]

In reality all laptops throttle down all component speeds to avoid meltdown. There's no way you can get adequate cooling into a tightly crammed laptop. You're not getting nominal speeds.

There's also the matter of storage. You're forced to work off external drives.

[Ronald30553178lwuv]

Cooling is definitely a limitation. External drives are not that much of a problem as there is usually room for a good sized batch of photos on even a smallish SSD. Alternatively, smart previews may be used. 

[jtp77]

I share your concern and have also anecdotaly experienced that Lightroom over the years have slowed down. I like to use the word sluggish. As its hard to pinpoint excately what is happening when and where. I made my own post on this earlier this year. And I also purchased a new system to combat this. And it still has not fixed it. I currently have a i9 13900K CPU with 64 GB DDR5 RAM, SSD and m.2 drives. My weak link is my GPU, an RTX 2070 with 8GB ram. But the irony is that LrC ran better before (5-6 years ago) they started using GPUs. Something is going on. A post in a Facebook Lightroom group made me revisit this topic. So more and more are noticing. My post: https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/do-you-feel-the-general-us-of-lrc-is-sl...

[Ronald30553178lwuv]

I'm not sure it's the RTX 2070 that's the culprit. Puget systems did some tests which showed very little difference among different Nvidia graphics cards when benchmarking Photoshop. Maybe it's having a huge catalog. I wish that I could help you more. I have noticed a huge speed increase switching from an Intel Evo I-7 1260P to the most basic M3 Pro (11 CPU, 14 GPU cores). Photoshop benchmarks show M3 Pro Mac's performing like fast windows desktops and 50% faster than fast Windows notebooks (I9-13900h/RTX 4070). Puget says they are working on a Lightroom benchmark which will run on a Mac. I'm surprised they did this because their business is building custom Windows PC's from premium components.

Have you tried Nvidia studio drivers? You could also try running sfc.exe /scannow and the DISM command.

[jtp77]

Thanks for replying. My point about the GPU is that its now the "weakest link" in my hardware lineup. Not that its causing the sluggishness. I did some tests of different tasks in LrC before and after upgrading my PC but keeping the GPU. Most taks where faster except for the AI based functions. They took EXCATELY the same amount of time. I assume its based on the amount of RAM on the GPU. The 2070 has only 8. Looking at upgradding to 12GB GPU card soon maybe. (Here I will say I think Adobe is seriously under communicating the increasing importance of powerfull GPUs to get the best out of new tools in Photoshop and Lightroom. If you need to buy a top tier gamer GPU to edit photos, some priorties at Adobe is seriously wrong.) And as you see, somethings did go faster (Individual task) as I said when testing on my new system. Its more the general use of LrC that sluggish and tedious to use. Its like walking in a strong headwind kind of frustration. It lacks the snappyness when pulling sliders. Turning masks on and off. Navigating fast back and forth between photos. Compared to the fast respons of previous versions. As I stated, its hard to pinpoint more than a general feeling of use.

[Ronald30553178lwuv]

There is a post in this forum from a Lightroom user who fixed his slowdowns by recreating his catalog. I don't recall exactly what steps he took.