Slowness issues

[IcelandAurora]

My LR3.4 still suffers with the slowness issue.

my computer is fairly powerful.
Intel Celeron CPU 3.20 GHz 3.21 Ghz
3.50 Gig RAM
32 bit OS (windows 7)
Nivida Geforce GTS 450

Currently I have my Raw files on a dedicated drive which is separate from my LR installation.  Just wondering if there is a better configuration?

[Hans Kruse]

My LR3.4 still suffers with the slowness issue.

my computer is fairly powerful.
Intel Celeron CPU 3.20 GHz 3.21 Ghz
3.50 Gig RAM
32 bit OS (windows 7)
Nivida Geforce GTS 450

Currently I have my Raw files on a dedicated drive which is separate from my LR installation.  Just wondering if there is a better configuration?

I assume it is a dual core Celeron? If yes, it is not by todays standard a fast machine. Since it looks like a desktop machine is your separate drive an internal drive or a USB drive? And where is your LR catalog located?

[IcelandAurora]

Hey hkruse
yes it is a dual core and I realise that it is a bit dated by modern standards.

The hard drives are all internal HDDs
The program, catalogue, raw files are all on separate drives (or at least separate partitions)

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Can you describe slowness a little better? Lightroom does a lot of calculations and that takes a lot of time.

It may also depend the size of your images, what camera are you using?

You could also post help->System info (with serial number removed). That may offer some insight.


Best regards
Erik

My LR3.4 still suffers with the slowness issue.

my computer is fairly powerful.
Intel Celeron CPU 3.20 GHz 3.21 Ghz
3.50 Gig RAM
32 bit OS (windows 7)
Nivida Geforce GTS 450

Currently I have my Raw files on a dedicated drive which is separate from my LR installation.  Just wondering if there is a better configuration?

[Hans Kruse]

Hey hkruse
yes it is a dual core and I realise that it is a bit dated by modern standards.

The hard drives are all internal HDDs
The program, catalogue, raw files are all on separate drives (or at least separate partitions)

I'm using a MacBook Pro 15" 2,8Ghz Core2 Duo 8GB with 500GB 7200 rpm HD and an external 30" HP monitor at 2560x1600 resolution. Typically new images are on the internal HD and most of my older pictrures are on a 2TB FireWire 800 connected drive.

I find Lightroom running fast through all operations, except 1:1 preview generation and local editing using the brush and especially if I have a number of brushes. I have a quad core Windows 7 core2 duo machine with 8GB ram and a number 7200 rpm internal drives. Except for preview generation I find the two machines operating at about the same speed. Both machines run 64 bit and the amount of RAM is important. I found a significant speed increase when I went from Windows XP 32 bit 4GB of RAM to Windows 7 64 and 8GB RAM bit on the same machine.

So a bit more insight into when you find your machine sluggish would be useful.

[IcelandAurora]

Hi
I am dealing with Canon 5D2 raw files and I find slowness when:
Loading full screen preview (10-30 seconds)
Loading image into Develop (40-120 seconds) I am talking about being able to use brushes etc.
Loading 100% preview (40-120 seconds)
Exporting a Tiff file (around 60 seconds)

All of the above slow significantly if a file is being exported.

Thanks
For your help!

[Hans Kruse]

Hi
I am dealing with Canon 5D2 raw files and I find slowness when:
Loading full screen preview (10-30 seconds)
Loading image into Develop (40-120 seconds) I am talking about being able to use brushes etc.
Loading 100% preview (40-120 seconds)
Exporting a Tiff file (around 60 seconds)

All of the above slow significantly if a file is being exported.

Thanks
For your help!

Have you generated 1:1 previews before you start editing and viewing your pictures? This is absolutely essential for performance. Do you see a difference in performance when you run Lightroom alone on the PC with no other apps active?

In comparison here are my subjective timings on my MacBook Pro

Preview generation: 10 seconds per picture
Loading full screen preview (1-2 seconds)
Loading image into Develop (5-7 seconds) depending on how much editing already took place.
Loading 100% preview (1-2 seconds) zoom in on already loaded full screen view.
Exporting a Tiff file (around 20 seconds) in full resolution.
Exporting a JPG in 1200x800 around 12 seconds.

And all on 1Ds mkIII RAW files and all on 30" screen at 2560x1600 resolution.

So when I haven generated previews everything is pretty fast and feels instant except going into develop to be ready to edit a picture, but that's ok with 5-7 seconds.

Remember my MBP is the old model from 2009. The new 15" has a quad core option with the i7 cpu which will more than double the performance compared to mine. But so far I have not found that performance increase justifying an upgrade. Even though I have a quad core Windows 7 machine I hardly ever use it any more since I find it so much more convenient to have a single machine (laptop) that I can bring everywhere. When I'm out on reasearch or doing workshops I can bring all I need with me and when I return from a shoot with possibly thousands of pictures they are all (at least partially ) rated  and partly edited and all previews are generated so I can plug the machine into the 30" screen and continue. Before I had to move all the images from the laptop to the desktop machine and it took quite some time. The other thing is that except for preview generation of heavy exports that require a lot of cpu the MBP is completely quiet which is a thing I really like.

[Electromen]

Try this:
1.  File > Optimize Catalog
2.  Lightroom > Preferences > File Handling set cache to 50GB > choose a drive not being used for OS or program > Purge Cache.

[Steve Weldon]

Hey hkruse
yes it is a dual core and I realise that it is a bit dated by modern standards.

The hard drives are all internal HDDs
The program, catalogue, raw files are all on separate drives (or at least separate partitions)

For Lightroom your computer is not powerful at all.  It's less powerful than a $600 modern laptop.  Yet, for browsing, word processing, and other minor tasks it's more than adequate.  The symptoms you describe show an overall lack of 'ummphhh' in the computer horsepower department.

With that said you could target specific areas for improvement, but really considering the vintage of your machine I think your money would be better spent on a new system.

[John.Murray]

Windows 7/32 is only capable of addressing 3GB Ram.  Try running  Resource Monitor ( start | type "resource" in search box | select resource monitor ).  I'd be willing to bet you are running out of memory .....

Lightroom is fully 64bit capable, consider replacing your current machine with one running Win7/64

[IcelandAurora]

Thanks Guys!
My machine is a little more than a browser/ word processor.  For instance it runs CS3 and Lightroom 2 more than adequately.

Just wondering why LR3 is much slower than LR2?

[Hans Kruse]

Thanks Guys!
My machine is a little more than a browser/ word processor.  For instance it runs CS3 and Lightroom 2 more than adequately.

Just wondering why LR3 is much slower than LR2?

I have not experienced LR3 to run slower than LR2, but anyway do yourself a favor and get a new machine

[francois]

…
Just wondering why LR3 is much slower than LR2?

I haven't found LR3 to be really slower than LR2 unless I'm using LR3 features that are not in LR2 like lens corrections.

[IcelandAurora]

Just to let you know that I did a monster upgrade and now have a Quad chipset, 64bit OS and LR3 is much faster.  i wouldn't say it is fast, but definitely faster.  Thanks for you help guys!!

[Philmar]

Try this:
1.  File > Optimize Catalog
2.  Lightroom > Preferences > File Handling set cache to 50GB > choose a drive not being used for OS or program > Purge Cache.

I have already allocated my LR cache to a completely empty fully dedicated disk.
A real question (not a sarcastic remark): How does purging the cache speed things up?
And is purging the cache regularly of any help?

[KeithR]

Just to let you know that I did a monster upgrade and now have a Quad chipset, 64bit OS and LR3 is much faster.  i wouldn't say it is fast, but definitely faster.  Thanks for you help guys!!

You did the right thing by upgrading. Your earlier comment on your previous system: "For instance it runs CS3 and Lightroom 2 more than adequately." was ok for that older system. The architecture of CS5 & LR3 was designed to take better advantage of multiple cores and a 64 bit OS. By upgrading to a quad core you can see the difference.

[djcsmith]

I, too, am having slowness issues.
My issues are only on one catalog; the one I do all my recent imports.  A single edit can sometimes take minutes.
I have tried catalog optimization, and system utilities, but will look into cache sizes and purging.

It can be frustrating, because my complete archive catalog has over 150,000 photos (mostly RAW), and while it takes a while to back-up, edits are lightning fast.

I have found that rather than spending large amounts of time trouble-shooting, it is often just easier to create a new catalog, then trash the slow one.

[degrub]

does keeping the disks defragged help ?

[djcsmith]

My slowness issue turned out to be an external drive that was sick.
After testing the drive on another Mac, I concluded that it was neither my laptop or Lightroom that was the issue.

Trying to copy photos to a safe drive with Finder wasn't working, as Finder just stops when it finds a bad file.
Exporting new copies from Lightroom is managing to get my photos onto another drive, as it skips corrupt files and keeps on chugging along.

Obviously Murphy's Law applies to back-up routines . . . . The one time I am in a hurry, and copied photos to only one drive, my drive gets sick.