Stop struggling with Lightroom! There's no need to spend hours hunting for the answers to your Lightroom Classic questions. All the information you need is in 
- Lightroom Version Number
- Lightroom Classic version: 8.0
- Operating System
- macOS 10.14 Mojave
My first post here, but hope this is of some interest.
I have used Lightroom for many years for my work and like many before me have suffered from performance issues from time to time - sometimes solving them with an upgrade (hardware or software) or just getting used to the balance between new features and slower performance. The exception being smart previews which, in my opinion, are the best thing to happen to LR for many years.
My current setup - LR Classic 8.0, MacBook Pro with 15" Retina 2015, quad core 2.8GHz , 16GB, SSD and thunderbolt 2 external hard drives (catalogues on SSD, images on external HDD) connected to a 27" 2560 × 1440 external monitor, was sort of fine, if a little choppy sometimes especially on previews (even smart previews).
At the weekend, with shoots to be edited and delivered and new shoots coming up this week, my 27" 2560 × 1440 monitor stopped working (after 9 years of service) and much as I thought working on the 15" Retina MacBook Screen would be fine in the interim, it just was too small for me to edit hundreds of images to a deadline. A panic buy from a store in the form of a budget 27" IPS Screen followed - for about $175/£150.
The thing is, the new screen is 'only' 1900x1080 at native resolution. Now although this does of course mean text and, if you really sit close, images can appear less sharp, when sitting at a normal viewing distance (3+ feet) it is more than OK and the increase in size for the panel text in LR is most welcome too. However this is a tiny detail compared to the improvement in performance I am now getting. LR is like it used to be years ago - something I had long since thought lost on my setup. I guess the MacBook & LR very much like pushing around fewer pixels.
The replacement screen was initially bought as a "get me though the next few weeks until I work out what to do" replacement, but I am tempted to keep it as my main screen despite the lower resolution. It calibrated itself extremely well colour wise (using a Spyder Elite) and I can, of course, still check how images look at a much higher PPI using my Retina Laptop Screen if needed.
This experience also completely puts me off the trend for 4K or even 5K screens which, when my old screen stopped working, was what I thought I would ultimately replace it with. Of course one could go for a much higher resolution screen then scale it down to 1900x1080 for the same performance benefits, but I doubt they would look as good when down-scaled as a screen with the same native resolution. I can also appreciate how a 4K or 5K screen could be used to wow clients, but for editing I am now not sure it is worth the upgrade.
Am I alone in not writing off lower resolution monitors for editing?
I have used Lightroom for many years for my work and like many before me have suffered from performance issues from time to time - sometimes solving them with an upgrade (hardware or software) or just getting used to the balance between new features and slower performance. The exception being smart previews which, in my opinion, are the best thing to happen to LR for many years.
My current setup - LR Classic 8.0, MacBook Pro with 15" Retina 2015, quad core 2.8GHz , 16GB, SSD and thunderbolt 2 external hard drives (catalogues on SSD, images on external HDD) connected to a 27" 2560 × 1440 external monitor, was sort of fine, if a little choppy sometimes especially on previews (even smart previews).
At the weekend, with shoots to be edited and delivered and new shoots coming up this week, my 27" 2560 × 1440 monitor stopped working (after 9 years of service) and much as I thought working on the 15" Retina MacBook Screen would be fine in the interim, it just was too small for me to edit hundreds of images to a deadline. A panic buy from a store in the form of a budget 27" IPS Screen followed - for about $175/£150.
The thing is, the new screen is 'only' 1900x1080 at native resolution. Now although this does of course mean text and, if you really sit close, images can appear less sharp, when sitting at a normal viewing distance (3+ feet) it is more than OK and the increase in size for the panel text in LR is most welcome too. However this is a tiny detail compared to the improvement in performance I am now getting. LR is like it used to be years ago - something I had long since thought lost on my setup. I guess the MacBook & LR very much like pushing around fewer pixels.
The replacement screen was initially bought as a "get me though the next few weeks until I work out what to do" replacement, but I am tempted to keep it as my main screen despite the lower resolution. It calibrated itself extremely well colour wise (using a Spyder Elite) and I can, of course, still check how images look at a much higher PPI using my Retina Laptop Screen if needed.
This experience also completely puts me off the trend for 4K or even 5K screens which, when my old screen stopped working, was what I thought I would ultimately replace it with. Of course one could go for a much higher resolution screen then scale it down to 1900x1080 for the same performance benefits, but I doubt they would look as good when down-scaled as a screen with the same native resolution. I can also appreciate how a 4K or 5K screen could be used to wow clients, but for editing I am now not sure it is worth the upgrade.
Am I alone in not writing off lower resolution monitors for editing?
