Lightroom classic’s CPU usage

[Flagg37]

I have an intel i-13900k processor and have noticed that when I run computationally intensive functions (batch ai processes, large exports...) in Lightroom classic that it only utilizes around 15-20% of the CPU. Is there something that I need to change for it to use the full processing power? I'm using windows 11 and keep it and LR up to date if that makes any difference. 

Let me know if you need any other information about my system to better answer my question. 

[GoldingD]

AI features, and if you let it Exports are handled over to the GPU. 

Well, as long as your GPU meets requirements.

[DClark064]

If you generate 1:1 previews for a large number of files, does it use all your cores at ~100%.

[Flagg37]

Yes, that did use 100%. 

Are there certain functions that utilize 100% and others that don't?

[Conrad_C]

Yes, that did use 100%. Are there certain functions that utilize 100% and others that don't?

By @Flagg37

Yes, but unfortunately the list of GPU-accelerated features on the Lightroom Classic GPU FAQ is not very specific. We kind of have to follow Lightroom release notes to know which is which at any given point in time. For example:

Lightroom 6 had little or no GPU acceleration.

Lightroom Classic 7 (I think) added more GPU acceleration to some Develop features, but most of the rest of the application was CPU-bound.

Lightroom Classic 11.4 added GPU acceleration to Export.

GPU acceleration has been added to other bits and pieces of Lightroom Classic, but it’s hard to know which ones exactly.

So GPU acceleration is currently available unevenly. You get it for export, but not for preview building, so preview building can still unfortunately still drive all available CPU cores to 100%, and does not currently make use of a powerful GPU.

It’s natural to think that CPUs should be maxed out, but when better hardware options are available, 100% CPU usage is a bug, not a feature. For example, GPU-accelerating Lightroom export not only cut export times by a significant percentage when I measured it, but by taking it off the CPU, the CPU can drop power consumption and generate less waste heat. This means it is no longer in danger of thermal throttling due to high temperature, and the cooling fans can stay at a lower, quieter speed. These power and heat considerations are especially important when working on a laptop.

Any time a more efficient hardware coprocessor is available, whether that’s a GPU or other hardware acceleration (e.g. H.264/265 for video, or the hardware AI processing accelerators found in Nvidia or Apple Silicon), it’s going to process compatible formats faster, with less power consumption and heat, than maxing out CPU cores. The notion that hardware acceleration can process faster/cooler than brute force 100% CPU is relatively well known to video editors and 3D artists, who have long had to deal with extended rendering of hundreds or thousands of frames/objects. But many photographers are just starting to understand this, because only recently have photography data loads gotten big enough for hardware acceleration to make a difference, for example a frame with 50+ megapixels, bulk import/export of hundreds of images, and now AI processing.

[F. McLion]

The exact type of your GeForce GPU and its dedicated memory?

What is the setting for the GPU in the preferences?

[Flagg37]

It is a GeForce GTX 1660 super with 6GB. 

It doesn't seem to be utilized much. This is a batch of  40 images doing the adaptive enhanced portrait preset. 

[GoldingD]

First up, that GPU driver is extremely out of date. A good three years out of date. You have v456.71, at NVIDIA v546.01 is shown as current Studio Driver. (NVIDIA recommends Studio as opposed to GameReady drivers for creative users as opposed to Gamers)

You should have an NVIDIA application on your computer called GeForce Experience. Use it to check for and upgrade that driver. Select Studio Drivers as default, and select Custom for install type as to force a clean install.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQpA88NAGmY

In the Adobe support pages, Out of date GPU drivers is always mentioned as important to fix.

Second up, your CAmera RAW CACHE is pathetically low, set to the default of 5 Gb, Consider increasing to at least 20 GB

[John3266658772wv]

Thank you, that definitely helped.  I just put this new build together and took the GPU from my previous computer and the drivers were whatever windows 11 found for it. 

I can watch the GPU bouncing between about 33% and 0%, where as before it only hovered around 5%.  The CPU still stays at its typical 20% or so.

[GoldingD]

Followup

A better way to show LrC System Information, And can you post as follows:

Please post your System Information as Lightroom Classic (LrC) reports it. In LrC click on Help, then System Info, then Copy. Paste that information into a reply. Please present all information from first line down to and including Plug-in Info. Info after Plug-in info can be cut out as that is just so much dead space to us non-Techs and it takes up vast amounts of scroll space making the reply less readable and less likely that others will bother with your post.

[John3266658772wv]

Lightroom Classic version: 13.0.1 [ 202310121438-d2af310c ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 11 - Home Premium Edition

Version: 11.0.22631

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 32

Processor speed: 2.9GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 0.0%

Built-in memory: 65304.2 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 619.3MB / 5981.0MB (10%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 65304.2 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 3900.3 MB (5.9%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 5056.7 MB

GDI objects count: 817

USER objects count: 2787

Process handles count: 3348

Memory cache size: 533.4MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 16.0 [ 1677 ]

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 1007MB / 32652MB (3%)

Camera Raw real memory: 948MB / 65304MB (1%)

System DPI setting: 96 DPI

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Standard Preview Size: 1440 pixels

Displays: 1) 3440x1440

Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info: 

DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (31.0.15.4601)

Init State: GPU for Image Processing supported by default

User Preference: Auto

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic

Library Path: C:\Lightroom\lightroom-v13.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\Flagg\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 

1) AdobeStock

2) Flickr

3) Nikon Tether Plugin

After seeing this I was curious why I have the Nikon Tether plugin since I shoot Sony and don't recoginze this plugin as being one I've installed.

[GoldingD]

After seeing this I was curious why I have the Nikon Tether plugin since I shoot Sony and don't recoginze this plugin as being one I've installed.

By @John3266658772wv

So, why re you placing your posting in as a reply in this particular discussion? Your issue is not at all related.

Please post your own discussion.

The answer is very very simple, in favct obvious,  but, why support such lousy behavoir.

[KR Seals]

What size are the exported file in pixel dimensions? Whaat type are they? Jpg? Tiff?

What type of drive are you exporting to?

If you are exporting gigantic files to a relatively slow drive, I can see where the CPU might be waiting for the images to be written to disk.

[John3266658772wv]

I can see where that might be the case in some circumstances, but I don't think this is the case for me.  The exports are 24MP JPG, but they are being saved to my SSD.  It's pretty fast.  When I export I barely see a blip on the graph showing its processing read/write.