iPhoto slow - ways to improve or alternative programs?

[Pablo]

As the size of my Photo Library increases, the speed of iPhoto noticably decreases (17" Powerbook -1Gb RAM).
Other than archiving to DVD/CD, is there any way to speed iPhoto up?

Or are there any suggestions for alternatives?

I really like the functionality of iPhoto, and it's integration to the other apps as well as .Mac, but I can't live with the poor performance.

Perhaps using another program (Photoshop's album viewer?) for all photos, then import only those I want into iPhoto to be published to the web, hard cover book, slide shows, etc?

A search turned up the following tools to work with iPhoto

iPhoto Buddy
iPhoto Library Manager


Or these alternatives:

iView Media Pro 2 (Looks nice, but expensive at $160)
Graphic Converter


Any help?

 

[robbieduncan]

Keep your library below 1000 photos. Use something like iPhoto Librarian (which you alreadsy found) for this.

Also turn off the shadows on the pictures (check in the preferences). This helps a lot more than you might imagine.

 

[Pablo]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a shot this evening.