P: Better multiprocessor workflow performance

[Paul Takeuchi]

I recently purchased a Mac Studio M1 Ultra with 64GB RAM, 2TB internal drive, and plenty of very flast external TB4 drives. I'm using the latest version of LRC and Ventura. While I definitely appreciate the AI features, the performance in my day to day tasks is quite underwhelming: importing, exporting, and pasting develop settings across ranges of images.

I am working on 45 and 100MP RAW files so I know they are big, but I rarely see much multicore usage so it doesn't seem LRC is really using the processors and cores of my machine efficiently. While I'd love the speed of these tasks to be much faster, if that is especially hard to optimize for, perhaps there can be some way to partition LRC's usage of my CPUs so I can work more responsively in parallel. Right now, if I perform a batch export on a range of files, I can't even resume editing on other images while the export is taking place. The same for importing to a pre-existing catalog: I have to wait unil the import is finished and it has moved on to building the previews before I can resume editing any images. It's absurd that I have to wait so long to do more editing. Sometimes I can select an image and open the Develop module, but the responsiveness is almost useless. I want to always be able to Develop images with little lag. Just so frustrating to have to wait for minutes because there is no reliable feedback from the UI. Makes me wish I could open two instances of LRC on the same catalog: one for developing, the other for batching imports and exports.

Adobe, is there some way you can make LRC more multitask responsive so Pros like me can always be working, rather than waiting?

[D Fosse]

I really don't think multicore utilization is the problem. You should probably dig into performance monitors and system diagnostics to get further. Do you see any change if you disble the GPU in Preferences?

This is just LrC open, nothing else; first going crazy with the sliders, then an Export:

[johnrellis]

"Right now, if I perform a batch export on a range of files, I can't even resume editing on other images while the export is taking place. The same for importing to a pre-existing catalog: I have to wait unil the import is finished and it has moved on to building the previews before I can resume editing any images."

This doesn't happen to most LR users. For example, I have a 2023 Macbook Pro M2 Max, and LR is very responsive during export. In general, LR appears to target using about 90% of the CPU during export and import to ensure it remains interactively responsive.

But over the years there's been a low-volume but steady stream of reports of symptoms like yours, mostly on Windows but some on Mac:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-high-cpu-usage-makes-it-unusable-during-expo...

LR 11 appeared to have made some improvements but there have been some reports since.  There's a partial workaround on Windows, reducing the number of processors allocated to LR so you can do other non-LR work during an export, but I don't think Mac has the same capability.

Unless there's a simple and reliable way for Adobe to reproduce this on their computers, or many more people report the problem, based on past experience I think it's unlikely Adobe will pay much attention.

[D Fosse]

OK, so here's an Export and going crazy with the sliders at the same time.

About a quarter in, slider operations start. You can clearly see Export throttling down at that point, to give room for the other activity. Then picking up again at the end when slider operations stop.

Throughout, everything is instant and responsive.

[Paul Takeuchi]

I'm sorry I didn't reply to your comment. I have a feeling Windows multi-tasking support is much, much better than on Mac. I wish there was some way for me to work with Adobe directly to troubleshoot the performance issues I'm having. It is so frustrating how long it takes to import RAW NEFs and how LRC won't let me  do anything else when that's happening.

I shoot a fair amount of interiors and have presets for daylight windowlight views, cool daylight LED lit views, etc., I wish there was a way to queue up the import with all the presets and then have it start importing in series. If I have a shoot with a few hundred images, I find it is just easier to import them all with a general preset even if lens presets and WB are totally wrong, then apply the proper presets after they've been imported. I find that importing one image or ten images, takes about the same amount of time--crazy--like 2 minutes to import just one Z7 RAW with 1:1 preview!