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Author Topic: Performance during rendering of previews  (Read 5123 times)

dhlewis

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Performance during rendering of previews
« on: December 16, 2007, 08:28:48 pm »

New to Lightroom trying to better understand a performance issue.

Configuration, Windows Dell D620 laptop XP Pro fpII, 2GH dual core, 4gb memory (3.3 avail), LR 1.3.1 installed on C drive, 2nd HD in laptop is D drive where the catalog file is located, images are located on various USB HD's. Windows page file is split between the two laptop HD's. All drives are defragged and have plenty of free space.

What I don't understand is the following. During normal image adjustments performance is acceptable. (don't understand if I make full size previews why it still has to render them when I ramp the image size up to full size?) When importing photos into LR first phase is very quick. During the second phase when LR is creating the previews it slows to a crawl. For a couple of hundred images this operation takes a good while to complete the problem is during this phase of import use of the PC in Lightroom or other applications will stall the operation and delay completion.  Looking at the task manager LR is only using 300mb to 500 mb of ram. I was under the impression that it would use up to 2gb but have never seen anything close to that? It appears that LR is creating the previews in a separate thread, why does it take control of all resources? Is this a LR issue or a Windows issue.

OBTW, if any of you want to advise me to move to the Mac I would love to, in fact both my kids have MBP's and are in college, that's why I'm stuck with this Dell and will be for a while.


Thanks in advance for any thoughts and ideas.

Dale
« Last Edit: December 16, 2007, 08:57:48 pm by dhlewis »
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kaelaria

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2007, 10:07:24 pm »

Your page file is not split.  If you have both C and D with files, you have two pagefiles, not one split.  It will only use the 2nd if the first runs out of space (not likely).

You are probably just not prerendering your previews.  Go under library and select everything, then render your previews and 1:1's - it'll take a while.  If you don't have your import settings to do that automatically, you will have these delays every 1st time you work with a file.

1.3.1 has the ability to auto generate both previews after import now - I would suggest using it.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2007, 10:07:46 pm by kaelaria »
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dhlewis

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2007, 01:19:32 am »

Quote
Your page file is not split.  If you have both C and D with files, you have two pagefiles, not one split.  It will only use the 2nd if the first runs out of space (not likely).

You are probably just not prerendering your previews.  Go under library and select everything, then render your previews and 1:1's - it'll take a while.  If you don't have your import settings to do that automatically, you will have these delays every 1st time you work with a file.

1.3.1 has the ability to auto generate both previews after import now - I would suggest using it.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


In case anyone else is seeing performance problems under windows this may be of help if you are using nVIDIA display technology. most of the problem I was seeing with Lightroom performance is explained in this Adobe TechNote

 Issue: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom freezes when you start, crashes when you switch between modules, displays blank screens in Slideshows, stalls frequently or runs extremely slowly.

Solution: The nVIDIA nView Multi-Display Technology software (also known as nView Desktop Manager) is known to cause these symptoms. If you have this software installed, please see following Technote for resolution of problem.

[a href=\"http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb401057&sliceId=2]http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewConten...01057&sliceId=2[/url]
« Last Edit: December 23, 2007, 01:21:09 am by dhlewis »
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DarkPenguin

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2007, 10:40:04 am »

Quote
In case anyone else is seeing performance problems under windows this may be of help if you are using nVIDIA display technology. most of the problem I was seeing with Lightroom performance is explained in this Adobe TechNote

 Issue: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom freezes when you start, crashes when you switch between modules, displays blank screens in Slideshows, stalls frequently or runs extremely slowly.

Solution: The nVIDIA nView Multi-Display Technology software (also known as nView Desktop Manager) is known to cause these symptoms. If you have this software installed, please see following Technote for resolution of problem.

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewConten...01057&sliceId=2
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162639\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Neato.  This explains why all my LR issues went away when I replaced my old nvidia 6800 with an ati 3850.
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TMcCulley

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #4 on: December 23, 2007, 12:42:19 pm »

Quote
New to Lightroom trying to better understand a performance issue.

What I don't understand is the following. During normal image adjustments performance is acceptable. (don't understand if I make full size previews why it still has to render them when I ramp the image size up to full size?) When importing photos into LR first phase is very quick. During the second phase when LR is creating the previews it slows to a crawl. For a couple of hundred images this operation takes a good while to complete the problem is during this phase of import use of the PC in Lightroom or other applications will stall the operation and delay completion.  Looking at the task manager LR is only using 300mb to 500 mb of ram. I was under the impression that it would use up to 2gb but have never seen anything close to that? It appears that LR is creating the previews in a separate thread, why does it take control of all resources? Is this a LR issue or a Windows issue.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=161107\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Dale,

My curiosity was aroused by your post so I timed my laptop importing and rendering 1-1 previews.  It took 239 seconds to import 37 Nikon NEF(raw) files with an average size of 15MB which is about 6.4 seconds per image.  Task Manager was maxed on both cores but a little less so on the second core.  Memory usage topped out at 890 MB

My computer has 2.0Ghz dual core Intel running XP sp2 with 2 gig ram and 2 100MB drives raid 0 and it uses an ATI video card with 256 MB.  Unless I was having to wait on the process to finish I do not think  20 minutes is to long to wait for the import of several hundred files.  Before I ran this test I have started several imports then went on to work on something else and everything  slowed down but was still workable.  This seems to be very CPU intensive so I think CPU speed, number of cores, then memory are the resources that would make a difference.

Good Luck
Tom
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kaelaria

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2007, 02:34:48 pm »

It must be limited to older driver versions or specific ones, because I have used Nvida cards for he past few years, including right now and through all the versions of Lightroom.  With no issues using the latest drivers, ever.
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dhlewis

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2007, 03:23:41 pm »

I updated my driver to the latest available today and it does not appear to have resolved anything. If I am using a single display performance appears to be reasonable for rendering of larger sizes and adjustments. If I turn on the second display (laptop) then performance suffers.
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dhlewis

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2007, 03:25:06 pm »

Hi Tom,

On my next import I will time and will report the time per image and total time so we can compare.

Dale
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kaelaria

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #8 on: December 23, 2007, 03:29:01 pm »

Ah - so more accuratly, if you are using multiple displays - NOT 'if you have the software installed' - it's a problem.  That may very well be - I only use one display.
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DarkPenguin

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2007, 03:50:18 pm »

Quote
Ah - so more accuratly, if you are using multiple displays - NOT 'if you have the software installed' - it's a problem.  That may very well be - I only use one display.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162742\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I'm running multiple monitors.  So it would apply for my setup.
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dhlewis

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #10 on: December 23, 2007, 03:53:33 pm »

Quote
Ah - so more accuratly, if you are using multiple displays - NOT 'if you have the software installed' - it's a problem.  That may very well be - I only use one display.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162742\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Adobe reported having the nVidia desktop software installed was the problem but do not specify a version that is based on. I updated the driver today to the latest I could find for my laptop and as previously stated performance is significantly better if I am only running a single display. At this point I'm not really motivated to try running native window drivers to see if that further improves performance. I really like having two monitors but that is not a deal breaker for me

After I made my initial post last week about the import problem what I really didn't like was the editing process and re rendering of different sized previews being so slow (1:1 were generated at import time). Editing also seemed to get slower as the session went on and sometimes I would close and reopen lightroom just to be able to continue. I am new to Lightroom but not to editing images or this Laptop and no other application that I have used or currently use behave so poorly.
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dhlewis

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #11 on: December 23, 2007, 04:31:02 pm »

Quote
Adobe reported having the nVidia desktop software installed was the problem but do not specify a version that is based on. I updated the driver today to the latest I could find for my laptop and as previously stated performance is significantly better if I am only running a single display. At this point I'm not really motivated to try running native window drivers to see if that further improves performance. I really like having two monitors but that is not a deal breaker for me

After I made my initial post last week about the import problem what I really didn't like was the editing process and re rendering of different sized previews being so slow (1:1 were generated at import time). Editing also seemed to get slower as the session went on and sometimes I would close and reopen lightroom just to be able to continue. I am new to Lightroom but not to editing images or this Laptop and no other application that I have used or currently use behave so poorly.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


here's a couple of additional posts I found that may benefit others experiencing this or a variation of this problem with nVIDEA

[a href=\"http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb400808&sliceId=2]http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewConten...00808&sliceId=2[/url]

this is how to turn off just the desktop portion
http://www.denovosoftware.com/site/nView.shtml

BTW, thanks everyone for your comments & Happy Holidays
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TMcCulley

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #12 on: December 24, 2007, 01:00:39 am »

Quote
After I made my initial post last week about the import problem what I really didn't like was the editing process and re rendering of different sized previews being so slow (1:1 were generated at import time). Editing also seemed to get slower as the session went on and sometimes I would close and reopen lightroom just to be able to continue. I am new to Lightroom but not to editing images or this Laptop and no other application that I have used or currently use behave so poorly.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162747\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Dale,
I did not mention it but I am using both the laptop monitor (17") and a Dell 24" widescreen monitor set at 1920x1200 on both.  I am not sure I could work any other way anymore.  On the speed of editing issue, how many images do you have open in the filmstrip.  I normally do not have a large number (usually less than 20) of images open in the filmstrip when I am editing.  This feels like a configuration issue but I do not know what it may be.  I recently setup a new catalog when I got my D300 and it does not have very many images in it yet and it is faster than my older catalog which has several thousand images.  This should not be an issue for the volume of data I have but maybe you have more.

Maybe Michael or Jeff will read this and have a suggestion.

Merry Christmas
Tom
BTW My favorite definition of poverty is having one child attending college,  I do not know what I would call having two.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2007, 01:31:35 am by TMcCulley »
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dhlewis

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Performance during rendering of previews
« Reply #13 on: December 25, 2007, 01:24:46 pm »

Quote
Dale,
I did not mention it but I am using both the laptop monitor (17") and a Dell 24" widescreen monitor set at 1920x1200 on both.  I am not sure I could work any other way anymore.  On the speed of editing issue, how many images do you have open in the filmstrip.  I normally do not have a large number (usually less than 20) of images open in the filmstrip when I am editing.  This feels like a configuration issue but I do not know what it may be.  I recently setup a new catalog when I got my D300 and it does not have very many images in it yet and it is faster than my older catalog which has several thousand images.  This should not be an issue for the volume of data I have but maybe you have more.

Maybe Michael or Jeff will read this and have a suggestion.

Merry Christmas
Tom
BTW My favorite definition of poverty is having one child attending college,  I do not know what I would call having two.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=162824\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Here is a final update for everyone as I now consider this issue closed since my issues are attributed to the Nvidea desktop manager software.

As previously referenced and mentioned earlier in this thread this software does not  behave well with Lightroom. It causes resources to be hogged and drags the PC to it's knees.

Now the performance of my Dell laptop is what I would consider to be very acceptable. Solution, turn off the Nvidea desktop manager software, continue to use the Nvidea display drivers and use Windows to manage the second display.

Here is a summary of a test I ran yesterday. Had Photoshop CS2 open and two images loaded one was about 200mb and the other was 48mb both tiff files. Had Firefox open with 4 or 5 tabs. Opened Lightroom and ran import on a directory with 148 8mb raw files from my MarkIIn. Had Lightroom render full 1:1 previews and apply my Exif and preset data. It took 38 minutes to process the 148 images from start to completion. Watching I noticed that initially it was processing  about 6 or 7 images a minute and as time went on it slowed to under 3 per minute at the end. However, there's more to it than this, all the while the import was taking place I was able to continue to use my PC to browse the web and edit in Photoshop. The CPU's were cycling between 60% and 100%, memory usage was averaging 1.25 to 1.4 gb. The time slicing between tasks was taking place and although some activities were delayed for a second or two the computer did not stall or lockup.

One other point I'll mention is that since the Nvidea desktop manager I used was issued through Dell it may be older than what they are shipping with their more current external displays and newer laptops. So it may be worth testing in your configuration.

Tom,
having two in college is very painfull,  but this hobby helps me keep my mind off of it and the next check I have to write, which by the way is tomorrow, Merry Christmas.
« Last Edit: December 25, 2007, 02:08:09 pm by dhlewis »
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