I have a 2017 iMacPro with 63GB RAM, 2TB internal SSD and Radeon Pro Bega 56 8GB graphics card running Catalina. I've been using Capture One Pro 20 since the beta release.
One easy recommendations is in C1P Preferences to turn both Open CL settings from the default of Auto to Never. This was recommendation from C1 support a few versions ago to stop sluggish performance. It worked.
Now that I have the latest version of C1P installed, I turned the Open CL settings back to Auto. I have not noticed any difference in performance since doing that.
I have found that a big issue is where you store your C1P catalogs. I have them installed on my internal SSD. I use a reference folder file structure. My 6 TB of image files reside on a OWC ThunderBlade SSD external drive connected via Thunderbolt2. I'm very happy with my setup.
Another important issue, especially if you are coming from Lightroom. C1P does not handle large catalogs like LR. When I converted to C1P about three years ago, my LR catalog referenced about 130k+ images. C1P choked on the import of this catalog. I ended up splitting my catalog in to separate catalogs for each 2-3 years of images. A nice feature of C1P is that you can have multiple catalogs open at the same time, unlike LR. However, have separate catalogs limits your ability to search across your whole image catalog.
I'm a hobbyist, so I generate about 10k images a year. If you keep your C1P catalogs under 20k images, they will remain responsive.
The speed of your drives is also an important function in overall performance. Prior to the OWD ThunderBlade drive, I used a 4-bay OWC ThunderBay4 with fast 4TB drives in RAID 0 configuration. The average read/write speeds of the ThunderBay4 was about 500-600 MPS. The OWC ThunderBlade 8TB SSD drive has average read/writes speeds to 1,900-2,000 MPS which is similar to the iMac Pro internal SSD speeds. It flies!
For those considering converting from Lightroom to C1P, do it! The image quality is better and I've found that the program is so capable that I no longer use expensive plugins like NIK or others. B&W conversion is awesome too. I print to my Epson P800 from within C1P. The C1P print function is very usable, but not as elegant or feature rich as the LR Print Module. I find this a minor issue compared to all of the other benefits of C1P.
Regards,
Bud James
Please check out my fine art and travel photography at
www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at
www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.
