Need help optimizing lightroom/my PC for a faster workflow

Report · Sep 19, 2023

Hello,

I am trying to figure out what to change and/or upgrade in my current setup.

While I am editing large file-sets, the longer the session goes on, the laggier and slower lightroom gets for no apparent reasons.

With apparent reasons I mean I would expect my RAM to run out and that would be the reason for the lag. I have 15.6 gb available RAM. But under full workflow, and system being very slow, I never went above 14.5 GB usage. And that was only temporarily for a few seconds. Mostly hoovered around 12-13 GB usage. But once I export the photos I have been working on, RAM usage drops top 8 GB despite software still being open and this still loading all changes from the catalogue.

I have tried to find a RAM limiter option but I cant find it.

Currently have Lightroom on one SATA SSD, and the catalogue on a separate SATA SSD, and all my photos are on an external HDD (200 MB/s).

My plan has been the following:

- Get a new NVMe SSD 3500 mbps and install windows, lightroom akd have the lightroom catalogue on that one

- Upgrade to 32 GB RAM

- as far as I have read online, there is no downside working off and external HDD, as lightroom doesnt really work off the originals. Or?

That is the plan. However, will this help fix my issue? As long as I remember, since working with Lightroom 3 back in the day, I have never experienced really good and fast, lag-free workflow in lightoom, Is there something else I need to consider? Something in my hardware/software that I misunderstand?

So before I burn off a bunch of money on hardware upgrades, I want to know if it will actually be useful or just a waste of money?

CPU: 8700K

GPU: 1080Ti, harware acceleration turned on in lightroom

OS: Win10, but will update to 11 when I do the re-install.

Report · Sep 19, 2023

Are you using Lightroom (Lr icon) or Lightroom Classic (LrC icon)? What version NUMBER?

Assuming LrC and version 12.5:

You haven't told us exactly editing what steps in Lightroom Classic are slow and need improvement. We need to know this, in detail and with great specificity, in order for us to provide relevant advice. What editing steps are you using? What is lagging?

Your own observations indicate that RAM is not the problem or bottleneck; and so increasing RAM most likely will have no impact. Speed of the disk where the photos are stored also will have a trivial impact on LrC operations. Speed of the disk where the catalog is located can improve Library Module performance if that is the problem, but it sounds like it is not the problem.

That is the plan. However, will this help fix my issue?

I am highly skeptical. Usually, the big bang for the buck in terms of Lightroom Classic speed comes from faster CPUs and faster GPUs. Everything else produces trivial improvement at non-trivial expense.

We can't even rule out the probability that your performance issues are due to a bad driver, or some mis-configuration on your computer.

Also, more background ifnormation is needed on your hardware setup. What size (in pixels, width and height) is your monitor(s)? What size, in pixels or megapixels, are your original images? What is the version NUMBER of your GPU driver?

Report · Sep 19, 2023

Hello and thanks for the reply.

I thought I was in the Lightroom Classic subforum, am I not? But yes, it is Lightroom Classic we are talking about, and latest update via cloud. But the version is not the issue, as this has been an issue always (I feel).

What steps? There is no particular step. Just a moment ago, I edited a few images again; the library loaded was 146 images, but I only worked on perhaps 15 of them at most (perhaps less). The first few images (say ca first 30 minutes or so) was super fast and snappy. Then after that it starts to hog and slow down. This is the issue I'm dealing with. The only solution for me is to shut down lightroom, and restart it. Then it is snappy again for 15 - 30 minutes (depending) and then it starts to slow down again until I restart.

This all feels like a memory-leak (that has been the case with other software and games I've run in the past), but in those cases I also then see 100 % RAM utilization, which is not the case here, but it stops around 90 %.

CPU-utilization goes up to about 40 - 50 % at most, even during export. GPU most of the time is around 8 - 15 %, during export it can spike up to 100 %, and then go down (I don't know why it it is not using GPU 100 % all the time during export; which it should based on the settings I've set in preferences). A 8700K and 1080Ti should be more than enough for Lightroom, even at these resolutions. And again, I have never seen anywhere near 100 % CPU utilization and only occasional maxing out of the GPU.

Not that I believe the screen resolution has any effect on any of this, but it is a 1440p monitor (G-sync enabled at 165 hz)

Original images are 42.5 mpxl images from Sony A7Rii

GPU-driver 536.26 (June 2023) is not the latest, but shouldn't be an issue as most newer drivers are meant for much newer GPUs

Again; the issue is the slow-down over time, which temporarily is fixed when restarting lightroom or after exporting images.

Report · Sep 19, 2023

People come in here all the time talking about Lightroom, not Lightroom Classic. So we ask to be sure. We need the version NUMBER and not words like "latest". Thanks.

Check the web site for newer drivers for your GPU. Make sure you are using the Studio driver and not the Game driver.

Your explanation is quite clear, and yes you are correct it sounds like a memory leak. There are occasional reports of memory leaks, but I do not know whether or not a solution is available. I would search this forum.

Also this: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/67199045

I don't have additional suggestions at this time.

Report · Sep 19, 2023

Thanks for the reply,

While I understand that there are people coming in here writing the wrong stuff in the wrong sub-forum, you cant automatically assume then that everyone does that. And really no need to be rude about it. As for the LrC version, I have never looked it up, so I didnt know. All I know is that I have it updated to the latest version Adobe can give me, which I assume too is 12.5 (I am not running any beta version).

The link you provided was great; it essentially described the exact issue I am having. So good to see not only I have this issue.

As for Nvidia studio drivers - thanks! I never knew they had studio drivers for their GTX/RTX cards (didnt even know about studio drivers, and when you mentioned it I assumed it would only be for their titan and other non-gaming cards).

After some little googling and reading, the consensus , however, seem to be that if I do both gaming and content creation, I should stick with the game ready drivers, as they affect editing work negatively far less than how studio drivers seem to negatively affect games. So I will stick with game drivers for now.

My gut-feeling is that it may also be a clogged system; I have not clean installed my PC in 4 years now... But then again, that other post (link) had the same issue. 🤔

Report · Sep 19, 2023

After some little googling and reading, the consensus , however, seem to be that if I do both gaming and content creation, I should stick with the game ready drivers, as they affect editing work negatively far less than how studio drivers seem to negatively affect games. So I will stick with game drivers for now.

It is worth experimenting to see if the Studio driver resolves your problem.

Report · Sep 19, 2023

despite software still being open and this still loading all changes from the catalogue.

By that do you mean LrC is still creating Library Previews, or do you mean Face Recognition, or perhaps Address Lookup?

Report · Sep 19, 2023

Hello, and thanks for your reply.

I apologize for the poorly written explanation there. I meant that I find it odd that before export, Lightroom pulls a lot of resources, and RAM goes to like 12-13 GB usage (and becomes laggy), but after export it is emptying the RAM, even if technically all my changes, edits and so on are still there. Shouldnt RAM empty upon closing the software?

Or is LrC infact keeping all edits in RAM until you either close the software or export the image, and just then saves the edits to the catalogue. Not before? Because if that is the case, then I understand the fill-up of RAM if all catalogue changes are in RAM before either of these two actions.

If that is the case, how do you guys then work with large sets of images? Cant be meant to have to export every second image you work on in order to keep the RAM usage in check, can it?

Report · Sep 19, 2023

I think it is unlikely that edits are kept in RAM once you are done with editing a photo and move to another photo. As soon as you move on to the next photo, there's no reason to keep edits from the first photo in RAM. Unless of course there is some bug like a memory leak or similar.

Report · Sep 19, 2023

Exactly. This is how I also expect it to work. So can it be that LrC 12.4 and 12.5 is having some serious memory issues? Have you experienced anything like this?