LR Classic 13.4 crashes Mac Pro using Denoise AI

[jonholcombe]

Vacuumed all air intakes, running Sonoma 14.6 on 2019 Mac Pro, LR Classic 13.4. 

Running Denoise AI has crashed Mac from the start, but crashing (hardware shut down) has become 50% to 100% in the past couple of weeks. 

Apple Support asked me to open Activity Monitor and we watched LR use 2% to over 215% of % CPU while running Denoise (it crashed again). He surmised that I need to Unistall and Reinstall Lightroom, theorizing a fresh install would remove any possible corruption. He wanted to rule out software corruption before assuming it was a hardware issue (I.e. Intel vs  M2 chip.

The question is: can I SAFELY uninstall and reinstall Lightroom Classic without jepordizing my 200,00 plus catalog of processed photos, and my entire catalog?

In other words, if I uninstall Lightroom and then reinstall, will it find all of my correctly processed photos, data, etc. When I reopen Lightroom, will everything look they way it is supposed to?

I do not want surprises. All of my data is backed up to 3 hardrives using CCC.

[jonholcombe]

An Apple tech suggested I try this since I am unable to use Denoise without crashing my 2019 Mac Pro/

Will I lose my catalog of 200,000 photos or lose my processing data to my RAW files?

Using LR Classic 13.4.

[Bill Sprague]

You can uninstall and reinstall LR Classic without losing the catalog.  The catalog file is a separate data file.  LR Classic is a program file.   That said, please have a backup system in place.  You should be creating catalog backup files from Lightroom Classic and then copies of those catalog files should be backed up along with all of your other important files.   With backups in place, the worst that can happen is that you will have to retrieve a recent one one and open it.  All your image files are kepts separately and should also be backed up.

[John R Ellis]

@jonholcombe: "Sonoma 14.6 on 2019 Mac Pro, LR Classic 13.4."

Your Mac likely has an AMD Radeon 5000-series GPU. Please confirm by doing the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/pasting the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running and important LR options that are set.

If you do have one of those GPUs, you're out of luck: Apple released a buggy graphics driver in LR 14.4.1 and AMD and Apple haven't released a fixed driver yet.

[jonholcombe]

You are correct, my MAC has two AMD Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB PCI cards. Can you recommend a better, more current, upgraded, PCI card(s)? I appreciate the help.

Lightroom Classic version: 13.4 [ 202406181129-60d181b7 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-US
Operating system: Mac OS 14
Version: 14.6.0 [23G80]
Application architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 16
Processor speed: 3.5GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 196,608.0 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 10,476.0MB / 8,192.0MB (127%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 196,608.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 16,342.7 MB (8.3%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 70,790.1 MB
Memory cache size: 4,906.0MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 16.4 [ 1897 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 3490MB / 98303MB (3%)
Camera Raw real memory: 3572MB / 196608MB (1%)

Cache1:
Final1- RAM:352.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, _DSC1961.NEF
Final2- RAM:37.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, D3967A6E-DB1E-494F-BB9F-303DD45349A8.dng
Final3- RAM:867.0MB, VRAM:2,537.0MB, _DSC1960.NEF
Final4- RAM:37.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, B22DA462-B76D-41C0-94B0-7691B9112B15.dng
Final5- RAM:37.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, CA1C1AF2-F93B-496F-9B47-EE445C8B1E7B.dng
Final6- RAM:352.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, _DSC1959.NEF
Final7- RAM:37.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, 6DA7795D-C936-476A-B243-53117581AC84.dng
Final8- RAM:37.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, 71791530-DF6A-4E8E-AE96-B6162B8CA46A.dng
Final9- RAM:37.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, C590C6E1-A87C-48A6-927D-B659C2929EF3.dng
Final10- RAM:37.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, 0027018C-4B86-47A5-AC8C-A3136C9E4120.dng
Final11- RAM:37.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, 3C57C81F-4B2F-4DF9-BDB8-8F7D894C1533.dng
NT- RAM:1,867.0MB, VRAM:2,537.0MB, Combined:4,404.0MB

Cache2:
m:4,906.0MB, n:1,352.5MB

U-main: 151.0MB

Standard Preview Size: 2880 pixels
Displays: 1) 6720x3780, 2) 6720x3780

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

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Volumes/Lightroom 22 TB WD/Photo Library Lightroom2/Lightroom 5 Catalog/Lightroom Catalog-2-2-v13-3.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/jonholcombe/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Epson Print Layout
4) Flickr
5) Luminar 2018
6) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags:

[Lumigraphics]

You probably need to disable one of the Radeon cards. Having two active is a recipe for disaster.

[John R Ellis]

Building on Lumigraphics' suggestion, Adobe recommends enabling just one GPU:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/troubleshoot-gpu.html#solution-4

"Multiple graphics cards with conflicting drivers can cause problems with GPU-accelerated or enabled features in Lightroom Classic. For best results, connect two (or more) monitors into one graphics card."

Most of the reports here of multiple GPUs causing problems involve an integrated Intel or AMD GPU and an external GPU.  But in your case, you've got identical cards with the same graphics driver, so there wouldn't be "conflicting drivers". But it's definitely worth trying.

[John R Ellis]

"Metal: AMD Radeon Pro 580X

Operating system: Mac OS 14

Version: 14.6.0 [23G80]"

I don't see any reports in the last many months about the 580x with similar symptoms.  The reports about the buggy graphics driver are all for 5000-series GPUs.  It might be that it affects the 580x too, but I don't see any such reports.

[jonholcombe]

I have tried essentially everything I can think of and all advice offered by multiple calls Apple tech support and this forum, booted in safe mode, deleted all caches system wide and changed every setting in Lightroom.  My 2019 Mac Pro now crashes every time I use Denoise AI. I just ordered a Radeon Pro W5500X MPX Module: and will order another replacement Radeon Pro 580X MPX Module (which is currently installed) in a desperate attempt to find a solution. In 32 years using a Mac and Adobe software this is the first time I have been unable to find a solution. When AI Denoise was first rolled out it seemed to be working, although with the occasional hard shut down of my Mac Pro. If a replacement card does not work, I may be forced to buy a new computer which seems nuts.

[Lumigraphics]

Consider adding another drive and installing Ventura or an older release of Sonoma (before 14.4) to see if that fixes it for now. Apple should be shipping the next version of macOS in a couple of months which may have a fix for this.

[John R Ellis]

"I just ordered a Radeon Pro W5500X MPX Module: and will order another replacement Radeon Pro 580X MPX Module (which is currently installed)"

Beware that Mac OS 14.4.1 released a buggy graphics driver for the AMD Radeon 5000-series GPUs that's been creating serious problems for many people:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-bugs/p-denoise-large-artifacts-with-amd-graphics-card/idi-... 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-gpu-develop-edit-view-amp-export-artifacts-a... 

Adobe contacted Apple many months ago, but Apple and AMD haven't released a fixed driver. 

The only workarounds are to restart your computer (temporary relief for some), set Preferences > Performance > Use Graphics Processor to Off (helps some symptoms but not Denoise), or roll back to a prior version of Mac OS (painful).

[jonholcombe]

I removed the original Radeon Pro 580X Module and installed a new Radeon Pro W5500X MPX module in my 2019 MacPro running Sonoma 14.6.1 I ran Denoise Enhance on two different files. Not only did not my MacPro not crash, but it run at least twice at fast, without the roaring fan noise, and the Mac did not crash. No hard shut down, the Enhanced files appear perfect, no weird boxes or artifacts. I am thinking my original Radeon Pro 580X Module had developed a hardware issue, and that the problem was not the Mac OSX or Lightroom. In any case, so far, everything works.