new iMac/slow LR

[L Robbin]

Lightroom Version Number

5.7

Operating System

1. macOS 10.13 High Sierra

My old iMac died. I just got a newer refurbished one. LR is very slow. Every action is preceded by small rainbow circle indicating it's processing but not doing. Any ideas what's up? I'll check with the Mac guy, too.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

What spec of iMac? Is it only LR that's giving issues? Is the catalog located on the system disk?

 

[L Robbin]

My OS is Mojave. The iMac is a 2015 model. I believe the catalog is on the system disk (it's in the middle of a long re-start)

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I suspect it's the combination of 5.7 and a 5k screen that's the issue. It's about 8x as many pixels as a standard resolution screen, and whereas newer LR versions utilize the GPU to help handle the large number of pixels to process, that wasn't introduced until LR6 initially, and improved greatly in 8.4.

 

[L Robbin]

So if this is the problem, then it makes sense to upgrade to LR 6... until that upgrade introduce other problems.

 

[Hal P Anderson]

You'll have a tough time finding a copy. Adobe doesn't sell them anymore. Also, LR 6 is gradually losing capabilities as operating systems change.

 

[L Robbin]

I was looking around to see if I could upgrade from 5.7 to 6, but no such luck. If anyone knows if there is a way to do that, please let me know.

 

[Paul McFarlane]

Lightroom 6 is no longer on sale,

 

[Victoria Bampton]

It's subscription time L Robbin. Or, you could hook up a standard resolution monitor and use Lightroom on that, if you're really really anti-subscription.