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Lightroom CC running very slow on new Laptop

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alexthephotoguy

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Joined
Jul 26, 2009
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8
Location
Atlanta
I just upgraded to a new Lenovo PC with maxed out specs:

64GB RAM
2.8Gz Xeon Processor
Intel Graphics card
SSD operating hard drive - with OS, Lightoom catalog, etc.
2TB second internal hard drive for my RAW files and Lightroom cache
Windows 10 64bit

I expected everything to FLY on the new machine, but so far Lightroom has been much slower. The laptop boots in under 10 seconds, but when I'm using LR it's much more sluggish than on my 4 year old laptop. Photoshop seems to run quite quickly, but LR is terrible at seemingly random times.

I generally understand it being a little slow with rendering RAW files, but my concern is it can be very slow just using tools in the develop module. The crop tool can take 10 seconds to be useable. It can then take 6 or 7 seconds to CLOSE the crop tool (I click on it, it looks like nothing happens, then it closes).

Another very annoying item is that when I scroll from photo to photo in develop it can take 8 to 10 seconds just to show the new photo in the preview pane. I don't mean it takes that long to render it- it takes that long just to switch from the photo I was on to the photo I clicked to via the filmstrip.

Another example. At times, I'll change a slider- like exposure for color temp. The slider will move okay, then I have to wait 7 seconds for it to show on the photo.

I've disabled AV for the Lightroom files and folders, Optimized my catalog, unchecked "write to XMP"... any thoughts would be helpful. The only differences between using my old laptop from two weeks ago and the new one is that the old one was on Windows 7 and it had last month's Lightroom version.
 
Do you have 'Use Graphics Processor' checked? It's under the Performance tab of Lightroom Preferences. If it's checked, uncheck it. If it's unchecked, check it.
 
You mentioned that your 'Lightroom cache' is on the second (non-SSD) drive. What do you mean by that? AFAIK, Lightroom uses two kinds of caches: The previews cache, which is in your catalog folder, and the ACR cache that should be on your start-up disk. Did you change any of this?
 
Try running the "Task Manager" with additional details clicked. Look at the performance tab and see if you see any obvious performance constraints. Is CPU pegged? Is memory?
 
As far as cache goes, I read on one of the forums to put my cache on a non-USB drive but not on the OS partition... I didn't know there were two kinds. I have now changed the Camera Raw Cache (under preferences) on my operating drive (an SSD). What is the other cache you refer to? The catalog itself it also stores on the operating system SSD. Is there a better option?

I will try checking the box for GPU to see if it helps.

I've run the task manager and don't see anything else other than Lightroom (and photoshop when it's open) tying up the CPU. What do you mean by "pegged?"

Thanks everyone!
 
I just upgraded to a new Lenovo PC with maxed out specs:

64GB RAM
2.8Gz Xeon Processor
Intel Graphics card
SSD operating hard drive - with OS, Lightoom catalog, etc.
2TB second internal hard drive for my RAW files and Lightroom cache
Windows 10 64bit

I expected everything to FLY on the new machine, but so far Lightroom has been much slower. The laptop boots in under 10 seconds, but when I'm using LR it's much more sluggish than on my 4 year old laptop. Photoshop seems to run quite quickly, but LR is terrible at seemingly random times.

I generally understand it being a little slow with rendering RAW files, but my concern is it can be very slow just using tools in the develop module. The crop tool can take 10 seconds to be useable. It can then take 6 or 7 seconds to CLOSE the crop tool (I click on it, it looks like nothing happens, then it closes).

Another very annoying item is that when I scroll from photo to photo in develop it can take 8 to 10 seconds just to show the new photo in the preview pane. I don't mean it takes that long to render it- it takes that long just to switch from the photo I was on to the photo I clicked to via the filmstrip.

Another example. At times, I'll change a slider- like exposure for color temp. The slider will move okay, then I have to wait 7 seconds for it to show on the photo.

I've disabled AV for the Lightroom files and folders, Optimized my catalog, unchecked "write to XMP"... any thoughts would be helpful. The only differences between using my old laptop from two weeks ago and the new one is that the old one was on Windows 7 and it had last month's Lightroom version.

Have you checked the swapfile location? Do you have enough free space on the SSD for the entire swapfile, or is the swapfile spilling over to the slow HDD?
 
Alex,

Pegged is that the CPU or some other resource has consumed the majority of a resource and it is near capacity. From a practical standpoint, on a laptop this is about 80% generally for the CPU. If the CPU is over 80% then you are likely CPU bound. Why that is, is the next set of questions.
 
I expected everything to FLY on the new machine, but so far Lightroom has been much slower. The laptop boots in under 10 seconds, but when I'm using LR it's much more sluggish than on my 4 year old laptop. Photoshop seems to run quite quickly, but LR is terrible at seemingly random times.
What version of LR are you having problems with? There have been reports of memory leaks and other issues with LRCC2015.6/LR6.6. I just rolled back to LRCC2015.5.1 and I believe my LR craziness is gone.
 
Thanks for the replies and sorry for the delay- was on vacation!

The CPU usage seems to be sucked by either LR or PS- no other open program seems to be sucking more than a few % points at any given time. I just ran a bunch of procresses in LR (export, merge, while changing develop settings) and the CPU usage for LR (via watching the Task Manager) spiked up to 91%, but mostly hovered around 40-80%.

I did see something interesting though- while watching task manager, the CPU would fluctuate, but the highest the Memory would go to is 33%. Could this be a bottleneck? I would be running lots of tasks, but the total memory only went up to 33% and stayed there until everything calmed down. Again- I have 64GB of ram and about 200GB or free hard drive space on my SSD.

@Clee- If I can't get something worked out, I will definitely look at rolling back to the previous version! Thanks!
 
I had the same problem when i upgraded to 6.6.1. I came across this post to see if 6.7 was any better. Apparently not. 6.4 works great for me. I haven't tried 6.5. I suggest reverting back to 6.4 for now and start looking into other software alternatives like I have been. The new On1 photo Raw looks like it might be an option. Of course there is also Capture one.
 
The new On1 photo Raw looks like it might be an option.
On1 Photo RAW needs some time before it is mature. Also it lacks anything more that the most basic image management (i.e. only files system browsing.) Currently On1 Photo RAW is on its second prerelease with a full release scheduled for December 19th.
 
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