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Very slow Lightroom in iMac 5K late 2015

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Henk

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Hi, I have read a lot about the performance of especialy Lightroom in the above mentioned iMac.
I planned to buy this iMac, which is BTW advised by the Macperformance guide, but a lot of people complained about the slowiness of Lightroom. Probably due to Adobe.

Is someone out there who wants to share his experience on this big problem?
 
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What big problem? A lot of people complain about lots of things, doesn't mean a problem is widespread. Some 5k iMac users had problems, but the vast majority of us haven't. When the 2014's first came out, some Apple glitches (remedied in a system update) caused some tiling and scrolling problems. Those are gone. Since many do run Lr just fine on 2014 and 2015 iMacs, it can't be a problem inherent to those models or the current version of Lr.

So, no "big" problem exists, unless of course you are one of the unlucky few with a problem, which could be down to all sorts of things besides the iMac itself or Lr. Like defective RAM, other utilities or extensions, a faulty installation, stray cosmic rays, a lemon iMac, whatever.
 
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I have no big problem but I am serious in doubt for buying the new iMac, because a lot of people have problems with the combination Lightroom and the late 2015 iMac.

I ask in this forum "Are there any people who recognize these problems". If you experienced Lightroom with the late iMac please inform me.

See also Running Adobe software in iMac 5K:
iMac 5k for Photographers (In-Depth Review)
or other fora.
 
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That's a year old review. And a sample of one. And Lightroom 5. If that makes you fearful to buy and gives you "serious doubt" then I'd recommend you not upgrade. Stick to old equipment instead; anything you buy or upgrade is likely to induce anxiety.
 
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I have a 5K iMac and I'm very happy with it. In fact, it's the happiest I've been with a computer (and I've had numerous machines, including a couple of Mac Pro's).

Older versions of Lightroom do struggle on the retina screen, simply because there are so many pixels to push around. Lightroom CC/6 benefits from the new GPU feature, which definitely helps with that.
 
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Hi Victoria, I like good and constructive news. Thanks. I plan to invest in a iMac late 2015, advised by theMac Performance Guide.
MPG recommends this iMac 5K: 27" Retina 5K Display, 4.0 GHz Intel Core i7 (Skylake), 1TB Flash, 8GB memory, AMD Radeon R9 M395X GPU (4GB GDDR5) + 64GB OWC memory.
This is a big investment, though before I decide 3 more questions:
1. Do you have the late 2015 iMac? 2. Which configuration? 3. Are you sure that all the performance issues within the combination of iMac 5K and Lightroom have been solved?
 
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I have 16GB of memory. And I never use more then 12GB when working in Lr.
Therefore, I would focus on getting 16GB, maybe 24GB and get faster memory rather then more.

Tim
 
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I have just bought a 27" 5K iMac. My research indicated that upgrading to the M395X was a good move for video but not so relevant for photo editing. So there is a possible saving there.

I went for a total of 24Gb RAM on the version you are looking at but without the GPU upgrade and with 512Gb flash. I am still setting up LR on my machine so can't be sure how it will perform but I will go for the Photography CC subscription (which I am just starting to trial) to get a version of LR that is proven on the 5K iMac. I also want Photoshop available and moving from PC can't xfer my copy across.
 
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I think they've done a minor update since mine, which was purchased in August 2015. Almost identical spec, except I put in 32GB rather than 64GB (also from a third party, except mine was from Crucial instead of OWC, simply because the exchange rates and VAT don't make OWC such a good deal in the UK these days). I would definitely buy it with 8GB from Apple and put the extra RAM in yourself.

I did get the M395X graphics, for the simple fact that software is moving towards the GPU and I want this machine to last at least 3 years.
 
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Oooooh, don't make me want to upgrade already! LOL You'll be very happy with the latest then!
 
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That's a nice speed bump. We're reaching read/write speeds that mean that other factors may be the bottlenecks.

For example, it may now be more attractive to get the bigger SSD because the difference between its speed and even RAID may be more pronounced. And it makes the pure SSD more attractive than the Fusion by another order of magnitude. I would expect this would help with some Lr processes, but unless you're doing big batch stuff it isn't gonna be as huge a bump as mere benchmarks indicate...it never does. But ANY speed increase is desirable; it all adds up over time. Wait another year and the next iMac will be correspondingly faster, etc etc.

The Mac Pro, OTOH, not so much.... The iMac is clearly Apple's flagship now.
 
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Hi everyone. I have just bought my iMac 27" late 2015 with 1TB SSD and let put in 64GB memory. I made a fresh install of the latest Lightroom with an update to 6.5. But in the last week I have experienced many crashes especially when I zoom in. My Mac went on black and I must restart my Mac again. With my old Mac I never had such problems I never expected this. In general the plugins work much faster with the new iMac, but again zooming is a problem. Who can advise.
 
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Was this Apple that added the 64GB of RAM Henk, or third party?
 
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By a certificated reseller. As you know Apple has provided 4 slots for this memory in this iMac.
 
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If the reseller's using third party RAM, it could explain why you're having problems. I have no idea why, but one of the LR engineers said the other day that the issues they're seeing on the iMac all seem to have third party ram.
 
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Dear Queen. I have contacted Apple Care, but the advisor could not read read the Lightroom crash reports in the Diagnostic Reports of my Mac. That is a pity, because there were a lot of those reports.
The advisor also say that Adobe is a Third Product though the could not help me further. That is a shame I just bought the most expensive iMac with Apple Care and they would not help me because it is an Adobe Product!

Apple resellers put always third party ram afterwards into the Mac, even Apple does use third party ram. My ram was advised by:
MPG - Apple 2015 iMac 5K - iMac 5K (Late 2015): Flash Drive (SSD)

Though everything seems to be third party, where do I stand? This is a big problem and I hope that you or your Network is able to solve these crash problems.

Could it be that my Mac is too fast for the usb connection to my external drive, where I have stored all my images. (The Library is on the HD SD drive)
 
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Henk, are you putting your email address in when the Adobe Crash Reporter comes up? That would allow Adobe to search for the crash logs to take a look.

And can I get you to post the contents of one of the crash logs at Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum and then post the link here, so I can flag it up for an engineer please?
 
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Victoria, I did put my email address in the /Adobe Crash Reporter, do they reply?

When I follow the link Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum, I am directed to a Photoshop Community. I don't know what to do wiht it. Could I send my crashreport with an attachment directly to you? Please inform me how to go on further. Thanks.
 
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They don't usually reply, but if you post the issue on the Photoshop Community (just sign in with your Adobe ID and post a "problem"), I can forward it to an engineer and they can search the crash logs for any clues.
 
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Thanks Henk, I found it and I've forwarded it on to an engineer.
 
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Hi Victoria, I have send a few diagnostic reports of Apple today to the Photoshop Family. I hope you read them.
Also all the proposals of the others don't work. Hope your engineer find the solution.
 
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Seriously reconsider getting an 2015 iMac. Wait for Apple to announce the latest Skylake based machines. Those should deliver more bang for the buck, less power consumption, likely DDR4 memory bus, and USB C ports that do TB3 and USB 3.1 gen2 super fast USB speeds. Once the new machines are announced, then decide if you want one of them or a close out deal on a late 2015 machine. I hope the new 2016 machines are announced at WWDC in June.
 
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mcasan said:
Seriously reconsider getting an 2015 iMac. Wait for Apple to announce the Skylake based machines. Those should deliver more bang for the buck, less power consumption, likely DDR4 memory bus, and USB C ports that do TB3 and USB 3.1 gen2 super fast USB speeds. Once the new machines are announced, then decide if you want one of them or a close out deal on a 2015 machine. I hope the new machines are announced at WWDC in June.
Click to expand...

The problem with that mentality is that always in six months, or within the next three months there is going to be the latest and greats XXXX. It will be so much faster, that it can prepare your coffee before you even know you want coffee....

Tim (could on resist)
 
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