nVidia drivers cause crashes (tested multiple dr. versions). Microsoft supplied drivers work fine.

[Michael372953901auw]

Issue: Lightroom crashes when using original nVidia drivers (game ready or studio, multiple versions), but not with the drivers supplied by Microsoft Windows Update

Lightroom Classic version 13.5.1 Release, Camera RAW 16.5

OS: Windows 11 Pro 22631.3880

CPU: Ryzen 3600X

GPU: nVidia GTX 1080

Steps to reproduce:

1. use a PC with nVidia GTX 1080 (or a GTX 970, see "side note" below)

2. Use a fresh install of Windows 11 Pro (or Windows 10, see "side note" below)

3. install any nVidia driver (e.g. studio 560.70 or game ready 3.28.0.417, both the latest as of writing. But also some older drivers, see "side note" below)

4. Start lightroom and enable GPU accelleration

5. crop an image, adjust exposure or do any mildly hardware-intense task

Expected result: LR is quick and does not crash

Actual result: LR is slow, laggy and eventually crashes after 5 to 10 minutes, especially when exporting images

Workarounds:

A) no nVidia driver

1. uninstall every nvidia programm (driver, physix-engine, etc.) from the "add or remove programs" feature in windows

2. wait for Windows Update to install its GPU drivers

3. reboot PC

4. Result: LR works great. No crashes, decent performance. But other applications suffer a performance hit of up to 35% on my system.

B) disable GPU acceleration in Lightroom. Fixes the crashes, but ruins the performance.

Side note: I have observed the the stability and performance issue for years on two different computers:

#1: Windows 11 AMD Ryzen 3600X, nVidia GTX 1080 with game ready driver

#2: Windows 10 Intel XEON 123v3, nVidia GTX 970 with game ready driver

I could not test the workaround on the Intel-PC, but the problems where the same. All other applications (games, benchmarks, CAD Software) runs more than fine on both Computers. This leads me suspect the fault is in interaction of lightroom Classic with the nVidia drivers or software with nVidia GeForce 9 or 10 series GPUs

[Ged_Traynor]

@Michael372953901auw this is the Photoshop forum, try reporting the issue on the Lightroom Classic forum instead

[davescm]

Hi , I've moved your post from the Photoshop forum to the Lightroom Classic forum where you are more likely to get help with your issue.

Incidentally, I use Lightroom Classic every day here with NVidia GPU (RTX3090) and NVidia Studio drivers (which I always install using Advanced options and select clean install to remove remnants of old drivers) and do not experience those issues.

Dave

[Michael372953901auw]

Hi Dave! Thanks for moving the post!

[GoldingD]

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.

I am very curious with the Microsoft driver and not the NVIDIA drive,r just what your System Info shows for the Graphics card.

example:

________________________________________________________________________________________

Also, can you post a screen shot of your MS Windows Device Manager (with the Display Adapters expanded)

example:

____________________________________________

P.S. over at NVIDIA for the 1080, the following is shown:

for the 970, just the Game Rady, that card is very old in th tooth.

[Michael372953901auw]

Thank you all very much for you kind assistance!

Here is my system info as requested (microsoft provided drivers):

Lightroom Classic version: 13.5.1 [ 202408271704-d15d09cd ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 11 - Business Edition

Version: 11.0.22631

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 12

Processor speed: 3,8GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 0,0%

Power Source: Plugged In

Built-in memory: 16309,5 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 2730,1MB / 8079,0MB (33%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 16309,5 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 2663,3 MB (16,3%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 6133,0 MB

GDI objects count: 838

USER objects count: 2433

Process handles count: 2033

Memory cache size: 496,4MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 16.5 [ 1954 ]

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 1028MB / 8154MB (12%)

Camera Raw real memory: 1087MB / 16309MB (6%)

Cache1: 

Preview1- RAM:21,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202334_BG1A3249-2.CR3

Final2- RAM:260,0MB, VRAM:1655,0MB, 20240713_202059_PD1A4642.CR2

Final3- RAM:248,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202059_PD1A4643.CR2

Preview4- RAM:28,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202058_PD1A4640.CR2

Preview5- RAM:28,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202058_PD1A4638.CR2

Preview6- RAM:21,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202129_BG1A3245-2.CR3

Preview7- RAM:28,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202044_PD1A4637.CR2

Final8- RAM:248,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202058_PD1A4641.CR2

Preview9- RAM:28,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202058_PD1A4639.CR2

Preview10- RAM:21,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202133_BG1A3247-2.CR3

Preview11- RAM:21,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, 20240713_202134_BG1A3248-2.CR3

NT- RAM:952,0MB, VRAM:1655,0MB, Combined:2607,0MB

Cache2: 

m:496,4MB, n:941,3MB

U-main: 140,0MB

System DPI setting: 144 DPI (high DPI mode)

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Standard Preview Size: 3840 pixels

Displays: 1) 3840x2160

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 1080 (27.21.14.5671)

Init State: GPU for Export supported by default

User Preference: Auto

Enable HDR in Library: OFF

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

Library Path: C:\Lightroom\catalogue\Lightroom Catalogue-v13-3.lrcat

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

Installed Plugins: 

Config.lua flags: 

Adapter #1: Vendor : 10de

Device : 1b80

Subsystem : 1b8010de

Revision : a1

Video Memory : 8079

Adapter #2: Vendor : 1414

Device : 8c

Subsystem : 0

Revision : 0

Video Memory : 0

[Michael372953901auw]

And here is a screenshot of the device manager 

[GoldingD]

Ok, nothing looks wrong with that device manager view.

[GoldingD]

Graphics Processor Info: 
DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (27.21.14.5671)
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto
Enable HDR in Library: OFF

Ok, so that GPU driver via Microsoft, with Windows Store version 27.22.14.5671 would be NVIDIA driver v456.71 released back in 2020. Odd that such an old one would give you fewer issues than a new one.

[Michael372953901auw]

Agreed. But maybe it is not the driver itself, but one of the other nVidia
programs that get installed alongside it. I will try to exchange just the
driver and report back. But first I am going to make a full backup. Just in
case Microsoft pushes a new driver via windows update and I have no chance
of ever getting it back.
Thank you again for your assistance.

[davescm]

Hi

Try the NVidia Studio driver. When installing choose 'Advanced Options'. Then check 'Clean install'. Uncheck the Geforce Experience software (it is not needed).

Dave

[Michael372953901auw]

Success! with the Studio Driver Version 560.81 the system performs well in both Lightroom and Benchmarks. Studio Driver 560.70 still causes crashes. I don't know why I had 560.70 downloaded and installed a few days ago, as 560.81 ist about a month old at this point. Maybe the German nVidia Website hasn't caught up yet or I must have made a wrong click somewhere.
I will keep my fingers crossed and a backup of this driver. I just hope the issue does not creep up again. As previously stated, it plagued many of my computers for years.

Thank you all very much for your kind and timely help!

[Michael372953901auw]

Well, the Problems are back. After an hour of work the performance dropped again. Reboots did not help. I am back on the driver provided by Microsoft. 😕

[marcoa88350822]

First of all, until a few days ago, I used them without the slightest problem/lag, since yesterday I literally have the same defect, it's impossible to zooming, resize (picture goes grey, and shows up after 15-20sec), menus and the cursor flash making LR literally unusable, obviously by disabling the gpu acceleration it is stable but again unusable due to incredible slowness.
I am a professional and I have hundreds of photographs to process and it is absolutely inconceivable that after so many years there are still problems like this with Adobe software.
After many hours spent rolling back drivers, installing and uninstalling applications, the only stable-usable way is to keep the drivers that Microsoft provides me installed without any nvidia software installed, or version 31.0. 15.3623 08/06/2023 in my case.
As always, even on mid PCs (4970k + 1080Ti 11Gb + 32Gb ram + ssd m2) it shows that the software is not optimized at all on Windows systems, I seriously consider switching to capture one after this incredible problem that wasted me several hours of reading forum and trying cleaning/rollback driver/etc