Terrible performance on iMac 5K

teejten

Participant

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

Badly Drawn Boy

Inspiring

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.

M

Marion49

Participating Frequently

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.

Participating Frequently

This is Apple's stance on the Retina iMac and Adobe application problems.

In this case, I would recommend considering postponing this purchase until more information about the issue and solution appear. I completely understand your satiation and am very sorry for this inconvenience, but I honestly cannot do much here when it comes to 3rd party program compatibility, as it depends on two parties rather than just the iMac

M

Marion49

Participating Frequently

This totally sucks! I guess I have to start at square one and return the machine - hope b&H will take it back!

Participating Frequently

Tell me about it. I was really looking forward to having a 5K display. I couldn't believe it when Apple's own support teams advised me to avoid the Retina iMac until the problems are resolved by Adobe. More amazing is that Apple’s newest desktop is marketed as being designed for photographers :-S

After lots of reading & researching over the Christmas period, I opted for a new NON-Retina iMac with all the trimmings. It's a big step up from what I had before so I am happy.

Fingers crossed that Adobe gets this fixed soon for the existing riMac owners.

Participating Frequently

I run the usual Adobe CC photography apps along with Indesign, Illustrator and Bridge. I would be gutted if I invested £2k to discover it isn't a massive step up from my current setup. I'd pretty much made up my mind to go with the 5K i5 model and up the RAM like you have but now I'm not so sure.

Totallynotjan작성자

Participant

Indesign is "okay" to use, but illustrator is horror on the retina iMac. I wouldn't get one if I were you..

Steveatesh

Participating Frequently

I don't know if this helps but I have the base retina iMac (ie i5 and R290 GPU) made up to 16 gig RAM.

I'm currently trialling Lightroom and love it. I've experienced the occasional jerkiness when say using the graduated filter but nothing horrendous. This on full screen using RAW files.

I also trialled Corels Aftershot Pro 2 which , unlike LR, makes full use of the GPU. Aftershot was instant in response with the same images - everything was smooth, no delays and no shuddering or jerks.

That suggested to me that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the riMac but the problem lies with LR. I much prefer LR as a program and am considering taking it via the CC, but I hope Adobe improve its use of GPU with version 6.

Participating Frequently

I was just about to order a 5K iMac but after reading this thread I think I'm going to go for a standard unit and upgrade the processor and RAM instead.

Earlier this year, I was doing all my editing on a Windows laptop and was considering upgrading to a Dell XPS laptop which boasts a display on par with the MBP retina. After lengthy research I decided against the XPS due to problems I read that owners were experiencing with Adobe applications displaying correctly on the ultra-high resolution display. To date, I am unaware that this issue has been resolved.

Shortly after this, I acquired a 2009 iMac 27" and have been a converted Mac user ever since. I'm so glad I've researched all that I have today because I could've wasted a lot of money and not had the gains in performance I am looking with upgrading to a new machine.

Suzanne Mathia

Community Expert

Try reducing preview size to 1024 pixels and medium just to see if that relives the issue…..it did for me

.....Suzanne Mathia

robgendreau

Inspiring

As a point of reference and in addition to my comments above, I tried other applications to see if I had similar stepping/stuttering issues in using for example the exposure slider.

I tried Capture One Express, Graphic Converter and Aperture. None exhibited the problems that LR has. Even LR's slideshows are choppy, and I assume it scales to fit, so it's not 1:1 in that instance. You might wanna try these other options if that stuttering bugs you.

I tried some plugins as well, specifically Tonality Pro from MacPhun since it runs as a stand alone application as well. Within LR, it was slow to respond to an exposure slider. But it did NOT have the same problem when I used it as a stand alone.

So, Adobe, what's up?

Totallynotjan작성자

Participant

I have similar performance Issues in Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat X. Not only Lightroom.

Badly Drawn Boy

Inspiring

See this thread and this one. Unfortunately, until Adobe figures out a fix, the only solution is to reduce the LR window size to about 1/4 full screen. (Yes, this entirely defeats the purpose of a 5k iMac, but there it is.)

robgendreau

Inspiring

I use the same setup (but 32GB RAM). I don't seem to have the same problems as you.

I get some stepping and even a bit of tiling in the Develop module if I whip say the "contrast" slider back and forth in some applications. If I just enter a value, or just one-click somewhere else in the slider, it seems to be perfectly snappy. If I move a photo to my second 2560x1440 monitor, it seems less pronounced. Some applications and plugins are worse than others; MacPhun's pro applications like Tonality Pro seemed to do the best in making smooth transitions.

All the copying, filtering, organizing stuff is very quick. I haven't had any issues with cropping images, although others have.

I am wondering if some of this is Yosemite. Or maybe there are caches or something that is slowing stuff down. I doubt it's the machine since some get really fast results, see http://www.tony-hart.com/blog/essays/2014/10/imac-with-retina-5k/ for an example.