The preference files are easy enough to find and rename.eg Win 7 <root>/users/<user name>/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Lightroom/Preferences/Deleting old preference files makes no difference here. LR4 wasn't good, 4.1 was a bit better, 4.2 seems very slightly better, but it's still painfully unreactive at times.Now using an i7 @3.5/3.9ghz, 32gb ram, SATA III SSDs for OS & scratch disks onto a GTX470 powered 3840x1440 desktop. It really ought to fly with that hardware.
The files in my Win 7 folder are ".agprefs", not ".plist" - is this the mac extension of the same file or maybe plist is in a different folder (looked briefly but could not find it)?
I can also make the claim that LR is slow to update changes made in Develop.
Not trying to minimize your complaints, but I run a 6 core, W7, 24 GB ram, LR 4.2 machine and it runs fine...... All adjustments are instantaneous.
On what screen size ? what file size ?
24"
That's the bit that makes it work acceptably for you. Small desktops mean less pixels to change.You won't find it so great if you upgrade to a larger monitor(s).
BS. 2D is absolutely nothing to pump out. This isn't rendering or using card acceleration.
I run two minitors. Both Lacie 24" one is pretty old.
Every time you move a slider in LR every screen pixel is recalculated. Double the size of the image, double the CPU workload.
What you fail to realize is that workload is a tiny, tiny percentage. Turn on a CPU meter and run through things yourself. it doesn't peg 100% at ALL no matter the screen size.
Sorry but some of you have absolutely no idea how a CPU/GPU and drivers work together or what things they are used for.
Really ? actually I run CPU & GPU meter all the time and have been doing so since LR3 to try to find out where things can be improved.Have a look at the attached screen shot. 7 cores over 60%, 3 cores over 70%, 3 cores at over 80% and one core at 94% and that's just a quick stab at getting a screen shot of LR4.2 in action. Given reaction times it could have been even higher.GPU really isn't an issue with LR. Again look at the screen shot and see how much the graphics card is doing....next to nothing.