Terrible performance on iMac 5K

Report · Nov 29, 2014

Hey Adobe Forum!

I got my high end iMac 5K from Apple (4GHZ, M295X, 24gb Ram).

I planned on primarily using the Adobe Creative Cloud and especially programs such as Lightroom, Photoshop, InDesign, Edge.

With an exception for Photoshop all of the above mentioned programs run horribly.

While browsing my catalogues in Lightroom it stutters and freezes. Edge runs as if it was running under 20fps, very laggy and stuttery.

InDesign is also pretty slow while switching pages and scrolling in general.

My questions: Is this normal for Hi-DPI screens? Is anyone else experiencing this?

Thanks!

Report · Jan 13, 2015

I just downloaded the trial for CC both LR and PS, so it says Photoshop CC 2014

Report · Jan 13, 2015

You shouldn't have a problem, they should open fine. Do you get any error messages? In LR if you look under Preference\External file Editing what do you see?

Report · Jan 13, 2015

I get no error; either nothing happens, when PS is already open or if not, it will open it, but the file will not show up. Here are my setttings:

Report · Jan 13, 2015

It will let me drag and drop the file from LR into PS, but I never had to do that before on my old machine. I simply selected the files, right clicked, and went to 'edit in' PS and they would load...

Report · Jan 13, 2015

I don't think it is going to make a difference, if it does I am going to get worried, but I would change the Color Space to ProPhotoRGB (in particular, if you shoot RAW) and the Bit Depth to 16. This would be my standard settings. Again that should not change anything. If PS is not open, does it become usable immediately after opening?

Since this is a new machine, I am assuming it runs Yosemite (10.1.1).

Report · Jan 13, 2015

yes, PS is usable right away, and the machine runs Yosemite (10.1.1)

about the color space... I just changed it to that since I ran into the issue of color being completely off from the new machine to my old one - meaning a file that I edited in PS on new machine looked horrible on my old one, all washed out and "dead" instead of vibrant. I have not calibrated the new machine yet, had too many other issues going on with it to spend time on it (especially because I have to look for my calibrator and the software). My old machine was calibrated, although it has been a while, but the pictures came pretty much back the way they looked on the screen, so I did not bother changing anything... I figured it had to do with the color space... although I am still not that happy and hope that will change after the calibration. Although PS was also really slow while editing and now that I reduced the size to 8-bit, it works faster again, but still frustrating because this is a new machine with new and fast components.

Report · Jan 13, 2015

The performance of LR on my retina is acceptable, it's only the transitions between adjustments that are ugly. I don't use it for slideshows, which also stink (I never used them on my other Macs so I can't compare). So I click the sliders instead of sliding them, and it works as fast as my previous iMac. I still have concerns over the speed of LR, but I had that before the riMac. And I'd trade that little niggle in a heartbeat for the superior screen; in terms of getting work done that has speeded things up considerably since I don't have to zoom all the time.

OTOH, if you have to use Illustrator, and it doesn't work, I guess you have no choice. Not as many alternatives for that. But there certainly are a lot of alternatives to LR. I'd dump LR long before I'd dump retina; it's the future. Maybe LR isn't the future.

Report · Jan 13, 2015

oh, I also changed the cache (preferences file handling) to 50GB. It was at 3GB...and someone suggested to even go up to 100GB, so I may try that if that will improve things even further. Hopefully, though, Adobe will end up fixing this problem with LR updates.

Report · Jan 13, 2015

I've increased ACR cache to 100 GB and LR is now usable. I definitely notice more of a delay than I had with my previous iMac, and that is notable because my 5K iMac setup should be considerably faster. I had a 3 TB Fusion Drive on my last machine; now I have a 512 GB SSD and mu photos stored on a LaCie Big external TB2 drive with 1,300 Mb/s speeds.

I'm definitely hoping for improvements with the next update of LR, but I'm not giving my 5K iMac up anytime soon. Would be very difficult to go back now that I'm used to the resolution.

Report · Jan 13, 2015

I'm guessing that all the 5k mac user's are trying to adjust the Performance settings in the Preferences panel.

Report · Feb 08, 2015

I think the memory leaks and general bad optimization for mac os is telling here. Just more noticeable. My Lightroom memory (RAM) utilization is quickly getting to over 6 GB (after about 5 minutes work, and no heavy-lifting at that, just browsing, occasional cropping and keywording of images). OVER 6 Gb, and with use it is getting more and more until I have to restart Lightroom because it is impossible to work any longer (too sluggish). Adobe, do something, start paying attention to Mac, the platform is growing!

Report · May 13, 2015

Now that LR CC (aka LR6) has been released, are people with the 5K still experiencing performance issues? I just ordered a 5K, but if there continues to be issues, I might cancel the order and order the older model.

Report · May 16, 2015

The Develop module has got GPU acceleration, but for limited functions. E.g. cropping is now very smooth and fast, but retouching is still choppy. The rest of the interface, like Loop, grid, etc, is still slow and laggy. Very partial improvement to say the best. I have attached a second Cinema HD 30" display and do my LR work on it.

Report · Jun 16, 2015

Has this issue been addressed yet? Very close to purchasing a 5K iMac, but not if Lightroom is still buggy. Thanks!

Report · Jul 01, 2015

Hi I recently purchased a Imac 5k basic spec:

3.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
8GB (two 4GB) memory
1TB hard drive¹
AMD Radeon R9 M290 with 2GB video memory

...and for a 1600 pound computer it was incredibly lagging on photoshop...for example dragging images around the clipboard... Indesign was slow scrolling between each page using a magic mouse... zooming in and out was near enough impossibly as it will zoom in too far (probably because it is delayed). My 2009 macbook, spec: 2.26 ghz intel core 2 duo 8gb ram with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB graphics is actually quicker than the imac. I would like to ideally have a desktop as I am a graphic designer, but there is no point in upgrading if it is slower than a 6 year old macbook! Any help will be appreciated

Also I was thinking of buying this, but I need to know if it will be worth it

Refurbished 27-inch iMac 4.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 with Retina display - Apple Store (UK)

Marie

Report · Jan 01, 2016

I haven't seen any updates on this thread in a number of months -- meanwhile, both OS X and LR CC have seen updates. Could any retina iMac LR users respond with news of whether or not the updates have fixed this issue? Many thanks...

Eric

Report · Jan 01, 2016

Purchased the 27 in. iMac 5k in October

4GHZ Core i7
32 GB Ram
AMD Radeon M395 2048
2 TB Fusion drive
Graphics Pressor is checked (on)

LR CC and PSCC used mostly for editing CR2 files From a Canon 5DsR (50 MP).

I love it!! I have seen no problems or lag, plus the photos are absolutely gorgeous when viewed full screen.

Highly recommended

Report · Jan 01, 2016

Good to hear -- I'm currently using a 6-year-old 27" iMac, and am looking forward to an updated configuration much like yours. Is your iMac running OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), or an earlier release?

Report · Jan 01, 2016

Yes, El Capitan 10.11.2

I also use On1 Perfect Photo 10 and the new Aurora HDR for external editing, with no problem combining 3 50 MP files to a HDR image.

Report · Jan 13, 2016

Poor performance with Adobe CC (Ps, Ai & Id) on the Retina iMac, there have been numerous updates from Adobe but nothing really works.

I wish I could go back to a non retina iMac with Adobe CS5.

Report · Jan 13, 2016

fraude wrote:

Poor performance with Adobe CC (Ps, Ai & Id) on the Retina iMac, there have been numerous updates from Adobe but nothing really works.

I wish I could go back to a non retina iMac with Adobe CS5.

Something must be wrong with your installation or use case, since those combos are working OK for others.

And you could probably find someone to take that retina iMac off your hands in trade for an older one, and maybe even sell you a license for CS5, if you don't already have one. Seriously; no need to struggle with something that isn't working if the old stuff worked for you.

Report · Jan 13, 2016

I am a photographer. I bought the 5K iMac last August specifically for the monitor mainly, and the correct color that Apple is praised for. I loaded up the iMac with i7 processor, but only a 2GB video card. I am thinking now, maybe it should come with a 4GB video card out of the box with no low end options. I installed 32GB or Crucial RAM on the 5K iMac. The SSD is 256GB, but I use all external drives. The scratch disc is a SanDisk 256GB with top read/write speeds, and it is connected via thunderbolt.

My problem is, Apple boasts about this being a photographers computer, and yes it is in many ways, but in many ways it is just a pain in the ass. When drilling down into an image at the pixel level, the iMac starts to do some heavy breathing with the fan cycling up inside, then the little spinning beach ball starts doing its thing, and if I am lucky, it will catch its breath, and I can continue on. If I am unlucky, as I have been MANY times since spending 2500 on this machine, Photoshop will stop working, I will lose work, and have to re-track my steps. This is not the Apple experience I was anticipating when purchasing the 5K iMac. The other thing I want to mention is this, this is a 5K monitor, and should have hardware out of the box that supports all these pixels. I also am using large RAW files from a Canon 5DSR, they are 50MB, when saved as a TIFF they are 230MB, it does not take long before they hit a gig in the layer stack. I have to work in large document format due to this. The funny thing is the 5K iMac will choke up even with smaller image files as well. It is the 5K resolution that is the issue. I have read on forum’s that if you switch to 2560x1440 resolution it takes care of the issue, but what is the point of having the 5K iMac then? Why not spend less money and actually buy an iMac that works with the resolution it has? Any other comments from people experiencing this same issue would be greatly appreciated. I am going to video the issue, post on YouTube, then head into the Apple store with some forum’s so they cannot dodge the obvious issue here. Again, I want to point out that my issues seem to escalate very fast when I zoom into the pixel level to do fine edits with clone tool or other, it just chokes completely up!

Report · Jan 13, 2016

I wouldn't be surprised if you are overtaxing the display with 1:1 viewing with all those pixels.

Frankly, I don't think Apple touts it so much as a photographer's computer as an iPhone/Photos computer. That resolution is great, but maybe you'd be better off with a honking fast custom built PC and a 4k monitor. Maybe a built like the video folks use.

That being said, take a thumbdrive with the troublesome files on it down to the Apple Store, and see if a machine with the other video option has the same difficulty.

Report · Jan 13, 2016

Apple actually advertised it as a computer for photographers, can't find that add off hand. Here is a link talking about reprocessing RAW files with the 5k iMac on their site, but NOT processing RAW files from modern PRO DSLR's. I bought this due to keeping up with technology, but one newer technology cannot support the other it appears. At $2500, I expect a brand new iMac to outperform my custom built Windows computer with i5 quad core processor, only 16GB or DDR3 RAM, SAN Disk SSD's, 1GB video card, but it doesn't, Photoshop crashes 90% more on the iMac, and that is NO exaggeration. Also, it is not just random files, it is any file, once the layer stack gets around a gig, and I drill into the pixel level to do editing, that's when it chokes. Even video (YouTube) on this 5K iMac will scale out at times. I have run hardware diagnostics, and no issues are reported. Apple store performs better hardware diagnostics (different tool),and may have different results. But again, I bought a new iMac to avoid the very issues I ended up with, and a hassle of packing it up and taking it down to the store I did not see. I am not happy with it. I used to support Macintosh machines on an active directory network, so am familiar with the platform, and hardware. I expected much more from my investment to say the least.

http://www.apple.com/imac/design/

Report · Jan 28, 2016

I was having the same problem with LR. I lowered the resolution of the display and it seems to be working faster now.