Lightroom Classic 12.3 vs 12.2.1 performance

[ScottW75]

Whilst the new features in 12.3 are very useful is anyone else noticing a huge reduction in performance in the develop module going back and forward between images?

I've rolled back to 12.2.1 and flicking between images is instant. On 12.3 it can be 2-3 seconds sometimes. No settings have been changed so it's definately the update. Whilst this may seem trivial, whilst editing a wedding with 100's of images the delay certainly adds up. 

This is on a Mac Studio with the M1 Max and 32GB or Ram. 

Thanks

[alexskunz]

I have noticed the same on my 2019 Intel i9 iMac (40gb RAM; 8gb Radeon 580X), but after two weeks or so of thoroughly working with 12.3 I find that this isn't the only performance difference between this version and 12.2.1.

A whole lot of things are more sluggish in 12.3, compared to 12.2.1 — whether it's applying metadata changes to a group of 200 photos after importing, or "playing with the sliders" in the Develop module when a photo already has some edits. It's really hard to measure but as soon as I rolled back to 12.2.1 the performance difference was very noticeable. 12.2.1 is a joy to work with; 12.3 is testing my patience.

The fan of my system is coming very audibly to life much more often in version 12.3 compared to 12.2.1 too.

[alexskunz]

I have never provided the system info so here it is. What's noteworthy is that LRC reports a "Display size" of 5760 x 3240 (same for the "Standard Previews") while the actual hardware resolution of my display is only 5120 x 2880 (27" iMac 5k) — I'm running it at a slightly higher than default resolution to have more screen real estate (in LRC, in particular). I have already reported this discrepancy.

LRC 12.3's performance degrades over time for me. When working with the program for a while on random photos, it's as if "the pipes clog up" and then it all gets sluggish. I have reverted to 12.2.1, which does not slow down after working for an hour or so.

I know this is hard to reproduce or diagnose with this information; if I can provide more I'll be happy to.

Lightroom Classic version: 12.3
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-US
Operating system: Mac OS 13
Version: 13.3.1 [22E261]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 16
Processor speed: 3.6GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 40,960.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 40,960.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1,802.1 MB (4.3%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 46,624.0 MB
Memory cache size: 0.0MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 15.3
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 0MB / 20479MB (0%)
Camera Raw real memory: 1MB / 40960MB (0%)
Standard Preview Size: 5760 pixels
Displays: 1) 5760x3240

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: AMD Radeon Pro 580X
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic (Prerelease)
Library Path: /Users/alexskunz/Lightroom/Lightroom-Alex/Alexander-v12.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/alexskunz/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) Helicon Focus Export
2) jf Flickr
3) jf Geocoding Support
4) jf Metadata Wrangler
5) JPEGmini
6) LR/Enfuse
7) Nikon Tether Plugin
8) PhotoShelter V2
9) Topaz Photo AI
10) USCO Registration Info
11) WP/LR Sync

Config.lua flags: None

[Ian Lyons]

It would be helpful if you would provide a copy of your 'System Info'. This can be obtained from the LrC Help > System Info menu item as shown in attached screenshot.

It would also be helpful if you could expand upon "On 12.3 it can be 2-3 seconds sometimes.".  For example, are the images standard-size or 100%? What are the edits that have been applied to the images. I appreciate that these are common to both setups, but knowing what they are can help narrow down areas to be checked.

Note that I'm using a Mac Studio Ultra with 64GB or memory and MacBook Book M1 Pro with 32GB of memory and both render images near instantly when flicking back and forth between images. 

[SK29820690xo5q]

Having the same issue. LR 12.3 slow down performance. switching between images wasn't instantanous anymore and layer mask taking few second to update.

[Ian Lyons]

Please provide your 'System Info' as I described in the post directly above yours.

[dj_paige]

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/slow-to-launch-and-walk-between-photos/...

[Tinkerbell92]

I have noticed the same thing on my MacBook M2 Pro, with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD.

Version 12.3 is very slow to walk through images and do any edits like spot healing for example.

• I used to be able to walk through images extremely quickly, now it takes a few seconds.
• Edits at 100% zoom with a 45MP image from a Canon R5 would be instantaneous, now a tiny non-complex spot heal would take 8 to 10 seconds!!

It doesn't sound like much but it's extremely frustrating when trying to edit galleries and it reduces my creative flow pretty quickly.

Things I have tried:

• Enabling full GPU processing
• Optimising the catalog
• Increasing cache to 10 GB
• Purging the cache
• Ensuring plenty of free space on the SSD (there is 750 GB free)
• Checking that no other apps are consuming resources using the Activity Monitor
• Creating a fresh catalog with only a few images
• Downgrading to Lightroom 12.2.1

After all those things, it still performed very slow. Is there an official channel I can request for support that isn't a community forum? I'm trying to run a business and paying a premium for this tool, where a cheaper or open source alternative is starting to look more appealing.

Hardware specs:

  Model Name: MacBook Pro

  Model Identifier: Mac14,9

  Chip: Apple M2 Pro

  Total Number of Cores: 10 (6 performance and 4 efficiency)

  Memory: 32 GB

  System Firmware Version: 8422.100.650

  OS Loader Version: 8422.100.650

  Activation Lock Status: Enabled

System info from Lightroom (12.2.1):

Lightroom Classic version: 12.2.1 [ 202303011008-5bfbce17 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-AU
Operating system: Mac OS 13
Version: 13.3.1 [22E261]
Application architecture: arm64
Logical processor count: 10
Processor speed: NA
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 4,217.2 MB (12.8%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 420,431.2 MB
Memory cache size: 172.5MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 15.2 [ 1381 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 1755MB / 16383MB (10%)
Camera Raw real memory: 1966MB / 32768MB (5%)
Standard Preview Size: 6016 pixels
Displays: 1) 6016x3384, 2) 3024x1964

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: Apple M2 Pro
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Users/<redacted>/Pictures/New workflow/New workflow.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/<redacted>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr
4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None

[dj_paige]

Try the suggestion at the link I gave above.

[Ester K]

Has anyone figure out the solution for this? Has it been looked at by Adobe? Honestly this is the slowest my Lightroom haws worked in a long time. It is PAINFUL to use. There's such a huge delay between going from one image to another even, my macbook pro fans are running like crazy nonstop, preview won't generate (that's probably the slowest part). 

I'm on the latest version of 12.3 release. As for my macbook pro ios - I am not upgrading that - I'm on Big Sur 11.7.1. 

Everything else works fine, everything was working perfect in Lightroom until this LR release - the healing AI works great for the most part, spot healing is slow, but what is the absolute slowest is preview rendering when you move from one image to another, zooming in and out, and all keyboard shortcuts (like Z for zooming, R for cropping - works so dang slow!). I've tried everything I can think of besides rolling back to the prior version of Lightroom - I've emptied my drive, closed all other applications including Chrome, restarted my computer 4 times today. Everything works except for LR and it's clearly this version that is lagging (just like every single time Adobe releaeses a new LR desktop - the speed takes a huge hit until a new release comes out fixing the speed / performance issue) 

Anyone, any other ideas? 

Dear Adobe, is there a fix coming for this? 

Thanks, Ester