Slowness - especially in masking

[jamesn21002716]

Greetings all - would appreciate tips on this. I run Lightroom Classic on a Mac with 32 GB RAM, 3 Ghz processor, Radeon Pro 555 2 GB graphics card, 2 TB SATA drive of which 1.3 TB are free. I edit Nikon Z9 and D850 raw files. I love the new LrC masking functions but lately have found them extremely slow - sometimes I spend 1-2 minutes staring at the beach ball. Some of my LrC specs:

--Graphics processor is set to AUTO

--Camera raw cache maximum is set to 20 GB

--Import previews are set to MINIMAL

--Automatically write changes to XMP is set to ON

Any thoughts on how I should jiggle these or other settings? Many thanks! 

[Lumigraphics]

I'm guessing that adding an external SSD via Thunderbolt connection would make a big difference. Is this a 21" iMac?

[TheDigitalDog]

Review your system's specs and compare them to the minimum requirements document*: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/system-requirements.html 

*last revised at the Max 2022 release.

[SeanMcCormack]

Your graphics card memory is on the low side which won't help, 2GB is the minium, while 4-8 is recommended.  @Lumigraphics suggestion of using an SSD will help with file throughput if the catalog is on the SSD, but the weak card is the bottleneck.

[jamesn21002716]

Thanks - this is good to know. I have a 5-year-old Mac that's already had a faster hard drive and more memory installed. Do you know if I can have a new graphics card put in, or do I have to get a new Mac? 

And if I toggle the "Automatically write changes to XMP" to OFF, will that speed things up? And would I still be able to take raw files that were edited in Lightroom and import them to Photoshop for final tweaks?

--Jim

[SeanMcCormack]

Toggling it off can help, but ultimately with the newer features making use of the GPU more and more, it's a losing battle. There's no way to ugrade most Macs-though there are external boxes for graphics cards. I've no experience with them. I've just gone from a 2015 iMac 27 to a Mac Studio and the difference is exponential. 

[TheDigitalDog]

AFAIK, no you cannot upgrade the GPU.

You can try disabling Auto write XMP, but I don't think it will have any effect on your Masking issues, and it's kind of a useful feature. The issue, if it's with masking, is the GPU being underpowered. More and more functionality with each release is moving to the GPU, including the newer masking features. 

[jamesn21002716]

Thanks guys - this is supremely helpful. Just called the people who boosted the RAM and put in new hard drive on the iMac a couple years ago, and they confirm that they can't install a new graphics card. Very much appreciate your advice - looks like a Mac Studio is in my future.

--Jim

[Lumigraphics]

Writing changes to XMP is negligible in terms of performance. You are simply bumping into the limits of your system. I was using a 2015 iMac and upgraded to an M1 Mac mini with a big increase in perfo4rmance with 50MP Canon 5Dsr files.