i5-9600k vs I9 Lightroom Large files

[Jong875]

I have a Sony a7r ii and the raws are 86MB a piece. Will the i5 handle this just fine or best to get the i9?

 

[mikehalloran]

Lightroom likes raw CPU horsepower and takes advantage of multiple cores, lots of RAM and decent GPU.

What do you think?

This article is 3 years old. Update it to 2019.
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-performance-computer-hardware/

 

[nihil0]

I have a Sony a7r ii and the raws are 86MB a piece. Will the i5 handle this just fine or best to get the i9?

It will handle it but the only thing you will lose is processing time. With i9 your tasks will be done around 15-30% quicker than with i5. So, as another user on this forums advised me - if you can sell that time, go for i9.

 

[Jong875]

It will handle it but the only thing you will lose is processing time. With i9 your tasks will be done around 15-30% quicker than with i5. So, as another user on this forums advised me - if you can sell that time, go for i9.

I know it will handle it, but will it run smoothly and no lag? What do you mean in terms of processing time for Lightroom?

 

[nihil0]

I know it will handle it, but will it run smoothly and no lag? What do you mean in terms of processing time for Lightroom?

In Lr you have option to render 1:1 previews, which is also recommended by Adobe to have smooth workflow. The time which would take to make those renders is the difference between i5 and i9. I9 will be obviously much faster because of 8C/16T. But after renders are done, it dowsn’t matter which CPU you have. So, hypotetically, it would take 15 minutes to render 100 RAWs on i5 and 7 minutes on i9. If that is worth your time and you process lot of photos daily, go for i9. If you want to use it for only few photos (I assume that since you have R version, you are landscape photographer), i5 will be enough. However, for HDRs and panoramas stitching, i9 will once again provide you with much quicker times.

For general editing, i5 will be enough.

 

[mikehalloran]

I know it will handle it, but will it run smoothly and no lag? What do you mean in terms of processing time for Lightroom?

If Time saved = Money earned, the i9 with the Vega 48 (or better, an iMac Pro) is a no-brainer.

If you’re a hobbyist and can wait, the i5 will do it but slower.

Lightroom without rendering time does not exist.

I know, you really want someone to tell you what the differences are in your projects but we aren’t running them. The answers you’ve already gotten are as good as you’re going to get.

 

[macduke]

I have a Sony a7r ii and the raws are 86MB a piece. Will the i5 handle this just fine or best to get the i9?

Are you shooting uncompressed? Do you shoot star trails or something? Otherwise there isn't much reason to shoot uncompressed RAW. I think they've fixed the algorithms with extreme gradation situations, haven't they? Might try updating your firmware and testing it out. I shoot compressed RAW with files around 42MB from my a7R III and haven't noticed any issues such as banding and I can be a very picky pixel peeper. The only time I might shoot uncompressed is with Pixel Shift Multi Shooting when I want to make absolutely sure all that extra detail is preserved, but that's not very often and the camera automatically switches to uncompressed for those images. I'm not ready for my image sizes to be that huge, lol, especially since I store my photos on SSD.

 

[Jong875]

I have the 9600k. There are times when there is no lag moving the sliders, but for the majority there is a lot of lag and previewing presets takes quite some time as well. Not sure if the 9900k would make a huge difference?