Lightroom running slow on MacPro 6 core

[maser]

I need some help from the team here.
A couple of months ago, my Imac 27" I7 died (motherboard) and apparently apple no longer makes the motherboard for it. So I decided to get a Mac Pro, 6 core, 16GIG unit. I am an armature photographer and I send some of my time using Lightroom and Photoshop. Lightroom runs very slow on this computer. e.g Preview changes (\) takes 3-4 seconds Vs less than 1 second on my macbook air. Same goes to applying filters; much faster with the air. I have tried several "speed optimization" suggested found on YouTube (increase cache, disable 3d processing, etc) to no avail. What am I missing?

 

[h9826790]

Is your photos stored on the internal SSD?

 

[JimGoshorn]

Do you have GPU acceleration on in Lightroom? If so, turn it off. Many postings have had issues with the acceleration.

 

[maser]

Is your photos stored on the internal SSD?

I am using an external SSD connected through thunderbolt.

Do you have GPU acceleration on in Lightroom? If so, turn it off. Many postings have had issues with the acceleration.

GPU is unchecked.

 

[JimGoshorn]

Does it do this every time you open it and on the same images? Wondering if there is a problem with the previews?

Edit: Have you asked this on the Adobe Lightroom forum?

 

[filmak]

Here no problems with the GPU acceleration, works really fast.

Your macOS version is?
Where are the photos stored ? NAS in use? external disk? usb? TB?
Have you increased the LR camera RAW caches? a big number - really solves problems...
Are you building in the same time 1:1 previews?
What about your monitor, is it a 4k one?
Are you working with medium format? What resolution your photos are ?

 

[maser]

Does it do this every time you open it and on the same images? Wondering if there is a problem with the previews?

Edit: Have you asked this on the Adobe Lightroom forum?

It does it every time. I asked here 1st as it seems to be a computer related issue. Runnning the same OS and version of LR (CC) on both computers but the Mac Pro is noticably slower than the mac book air.

Thank you all for all the responses, appreciated

 

[theatremusician]

Did you buy the Mac Pro used? If so, wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything. Also check Activity monitor to see if something is running in the background that is slowing things down. In any case, open it up to check that the video cards and RAM are seated properly.

 

[h9826790]

Did you buy the Mac Pro used? If so, wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything. Also check Activity monitor to see if something is running in the background that is slowing things down. In any case, open it up to check that the video cards and RAM are seated properly.

Since OP is using the nMP, it's almost guarantee that the graphic cards are seated properly.

To OP, how about if you tick the box for GPU acceleration?

 

[pastrychef]

If your MacBook Air is 2013 or newer, they have much faster SSDs...

 

[h9826790]

If your MacBook Air is 2013 or newer, they have much faster SSDs...

This is my 1st suspect, however, OP is also using SSD via thunderbolt, the difference shouldn't be that big.

 

[maser]

Since OP is using the nMP, it's almost guarantee that the graphic cards are seated properly.

To OP, how about if you tick the box for GPU acceleration?

I bought it new from the local Apple store and I have since loaded a fresh copy of the latest OS in an attempt at solving this problem but to no avail.

 

[pat500000]

I don't know..could this be a software problem?

 

[pastrychef]

This is my 1st suspect, however, OP is also using SSD via thunderbolt, the difference shouldn't be that big.

The difference is about 550MB/s vs about 1600MB/s or approx 3x. This corresponds well with the OP seeing 3-4 seconds vs 1 second.

 

[maser]

That is a fair s

The difference is about 550MB/s vs about 1600MB/s or approx 3x. This corresponds well with the OP seeing 3-4 seconds vs 1 second.

Good point, let me move the catalog and a few of the photos to the main (internal) drive and see if it makes a difference.

thanks

 

[h9826790]

The difference is about 550MB/s vs about 1600MB/s or approx 3x. This corresponds well with the OP seeing 3-4 seconds vs 1 second.

But the photo itself is not 1600MB in size. The slow response in photo's related application usually because of the high latency from the HDD. As long as using SSD, even a 100MB size photo, only takes 0.2s for a 550MB/s SSD to load. How can it make the respond time to 3 seconds? It just doesn't make any sense.

Of course, it could be the enclosure / connection / cable's problem or even a faulty SSD. However, the difference should be coming from the speed difference of the SSD, unless the photo is extremely large.

Also, it still couldn't explain why the Air can apply filter faster than the Mac Pro.

 

[pastrychef]

If it's just one photo, sure, it won't make much difference. But we don't know how large his library is. A large library of raws will definitely be affected by the SSDs.

 

[maser]

If it's just one photo, sure, it won't make much difference. But we don't know how large his library is. A large library of raws will definitely be affected by the SSDs.

The photos are around 30mb each and the library contains around 3000 photos.

 

[filmak]

But how big can a library be if resides in Air's SSD ?

Is there an external drive involved?

EDIT: just saw the OP's reply. 3000 are not too much... it's a small number

 

[pastrychef]

The photos are around 30mb each and the library contains around 3000 photos.

Have you tried loading the library off of your external SSD on the MacBook Air? How long does it take?

 

[filmak]

Also are you plugging the ssd directly to MP or through a dock or after another device?

 

[maser]

Also are you plugging the ssd directly to MP or through a dock or after another device?

It is connected directly to the MP. The library is located in the internal drive of the MP and the photos are in a external drive connected to the Mac pro via Thunderbolt. "BlackMagic" returned 335mb/sec read time (enough to load 10 pictures per second).

 

[h9826790]

If it's just one photo, sure, it won't make much difference. But we don't know how large his library is. A large library of raws will definitely be affected by the SSDs.

I know, but obviously LR doesn't need to access the whole library every time before give me any respond. If OP is talking about the library importing time. Yes, definitely the faster SSD has advantage.

It is connected directly to the MP. The library is located in the internal drive of the MP and the photos are in a external drive connected to the Mac pro via Thunderbolt. "BlackMagic" returned 335mb/sec read time (enough to load 10 pictures per second).

335MB/s seems a bit low for SSD via a TB connection, what SSD is it?

 

[filmak]

A corrupted library?
Do you think that there will be any benefit if you take the time to copy the Air's current library to MP?

 

[JamesPDX]

Preferences: File Handling and Catalog Settings: What's your Preview Rendering Quality setting? What's your RAW cache folder setting? See my attachments. Don't purge stuff more than you need to or it'll slow down your workflow. I only discard my 1:1 HQ previews after 30 days because I "develop" within a few days of importing. YMMV.