Computer setup for photo editing

[msommers]

I built my photo editing rig with a 3600 and Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite back in December and I've been really happy with it. Granted, I was coming from an 8 year old i7 2600k so anything modern would have been substantially better haha



Interesting, this is what I have. I figured the slow-down was a result of incremental crap that I download/install/uninstall etc. I've tried to speed up LR by making a massive scratch disk, putting the catalogs, photos and Adobe progams all on one hard drive...

What's unfortunate is that because I'm still on W7, I can't take advatange of the GPU. My specs are:

i7 2600K
32Gb DDR3
P8P67 Mobo (this is old, I'll admit)
Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 SC
WD Black HDD for storage/programs, SSD for boot

Maybe an OC would add some noticeable performance.

When you use the sliders in LR, are they liquid smooth or a tiny big laggy?

[D'z Nutz]

Interesting, this is what I have. I figured the slow-down was a result of incremental crap that I download/install/uninstall etc. I've tried to speed up LR by making a massive scratch disk, putting the catalogs, photos and Adobe progams all on one hard drive...

What's unfortunate is that because I'm still on W7, I can't take advatange of the GPU. My specs are:

i7 2600K
32Gb DDR3
P8P67 Mobo (this is old, I'll admit)
Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 SC
WD Black HDD for storage/programs, SSD for boot

Maybe an OC would add some noticeable performance.

When you use the sliders in LR, are they liquid smooth or a tiny big laggy?

Your set up is better than my old rig:

Intel i7 2600k
Gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3
16GB RAM
Win 7

and I was also using integrated video. The only reason why I upgraded in December was because I had a leftover balance on my wellness benefit that I would have lost had I not used it, otherwise I'd still be on the same hardware; I never felt the computer was holding me back with my editing.

I'm assuming when you put all your LR files and catalogues onto the same hard drive, it was an SSD you put it on? If that's the case, spend the $20 and get a Windows 10 license from OnTheHub so that you can enable GPU acceleration in Lightroom. Keep in mind Adobe is still pretty behind the ball with utilizing the GPU, so it only makes a difference with previews, not processing:


How does Lightroom Classic leverage the graphics processor?

You can use a compatible graphics processor (also called a graphics card, video card, or GPU) in Lightroom Classic to speed up the task of adjusting images in the Develop module. If you run Lightroom Classic on a Windows computer, using a compatible graphics processor accelerates rendering of images in the Library module's Grid view, Loupe view, and Filmstrip. Enhance Details feature in Lightroom Classic is also accelerated by GPU. Using a compatible graphics processor can also provide a significant speed improvement on high-resolution displays, such as 4K and 5K monitors.


https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/lightroom-classic/kb/lightroom-gpu-faq.html

I added a $50 R9 270x and yeah, it was noticeably smoother than integrated video so I think your GTX 960 will make a huge difference:


NVIDIA: For NVIDIA cards, consider using a card from the GeForce GTX 760+ line (760, 770, 780, or later) or from the GeForce GTX 900 series.

[msommers]

Maybe we can split this off for the photog section, sorry fellas.

I have all my photos, Adobe programs, scratch disk and catalogs on a HDD (4TB). Perhaps there are way to optimize the current setup.

[D'z Nutz]

Maybe we can split this off for the photog section, sorry fellas.

I have all my photos, Adobe programs, scratch disk and catalogs on a HDD (4TB). Perhaps there are way to optimize the current setup.

At minimum, put your catalogues, scratch, and previews on an SSD for faster reading/writing. Putting the programs on an SSD won't really make a huge difference outside of the initial start up, after that it runs from memory.

Photos, I split into two categories (actually three): photos that need to be worked on and photos I'm done with. My workflow is to copy all photos onto an SSD and into Lightroom until I'm finished editing, then I delete them from my catalogue and copy it to a "Done" HDD. Then I periodically clean up my "Done" folder and move them to a couple "Archive" drives. But all this has more to do with anal retentive housekeeping than speed optimization.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Your set up is better than my old rig:

Intel i7 2600k
Gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3
16GB RAM
Win 7


Your old rig is basically my current rig, haha. Chugs a bit on export to HDD but quite usable otherwise.

[taemo]

At minimum, put your catalogues, scratch, and previews on an SSD for faster reading/writing. Putting the programs on an SSD won't really make a huge difference outside of the initial start up, after that it runs from memory.

Photos, I split into two categories (actually three): photos that need to be worked on and photos I'm done with. My workflow is to copy all photos onto an SSD and into Lightroom until I'm finished editing, then I delete them from my catalogue and copy it to a "Done" HDD. Then I periodically clean up my "Done" folder and move them to a couple "Archive" drives. But all this has more to do with anal retentive housekeeping than speed optimization.

+1
Put catalog, preview and cache on SSD, RAW file is ok to be on HDD.

I'm running 2 SSDs (first is OS and second is for Lightroom catalog/preview/cache and games) and 1 HDD to store all my raw files which gets synced to my NAS and the cloud.
I also have several smaller catalogs instead of having one giant one.

Also when I import raw photos in a catalog, I first run a 1:1 build preview on all of them before working on them. Otherwise there's a 3s load time on each file when I first zoom into them on my current i4790 CPU, build preview will be ~30% faster if I upgrade to Ryzen 3600.

[taemo]

The only reason why I upgraded in December was because I had a leftover balance on my wellness benefit that I would have lost had I not used it, otherwise I'd still be on the same hardware; I never felt the computer was holding me back with my editing.

I'm assuming when you put all your LR files and catalogues onto the same hard drive, it was an SSD you put it on? If that's the case, spend the $20 and get a Windows 10 license from OnTheHub so that you can enable GPU acceleration in Lightroom. Keep in mind Adobe is still pretty behind the ball with utilizing the GPU, so it only makes a difference with previews, not processing:



haha same here, I dont see myself traveling much this year so I'm thinking of using my wellness benefit on a new computer instead.

my photo editing workflow is pretty simple and basic anyway but exporting to jpeg should be noticeably quicker on a newer CPU but not a huge deal either.
the i7 4790 CPU is still pretty good in 2020 and I'm just itching to build something new :rofl:

[finboy]

iPad Pro for 99% of edits now

[D'z Nutz]

Your old rig is basically my current rig, haha. Chugs a bit on export to HDD but quite usable otherwise.

It's a tried, trusted, and true setup! The computers didn't get slower, the megapixels just got bigger! I keep forgetting you guys are using 36MP bodies so that's gotta be factored in.


Also when I import raw photos in a catalog, I first run a 1:1 build preview on all of them before working on them.

How long does that add to the import process? I never thought to do that, but then again I rarely zoom in 1:1 unless I need to clone out sensor dust or something.

[msommers]

I'll migrate all that over to the boot SSD and see if there is a difference, thanks!

How big is you're guys' cache/scratch disk size?

[taemo]

How long does that add to the import process? I never thought to do that, but then again I rarely zoom in 1:1 unless I need to clone out sensor dust or something.

not a lot, about 2-3s per file, basically it's just pre-rendering the 1:1 previews all at once instead of you having to wait ~2s whenever you zoom in to a file.


I'll migrate all that over to the boot SSD and see if there is a difference, thanks!

How big is you're guys' cache/scratch disk size?

200GB but that's because I have a 500GB SSD for Lightroom/games but TBH dont see much difference between when it was set to 20GB vs 200GB
I also set my preview retention to 1 week as by then usually I'm usually done post processing. I thought about keeping my preview forever but with 3+ TB of files, that would mean at least 1TB of extra storage

[D'z Nutz]

I've always kept my cache size the default. I think it was more important that it's moved to a fast reading/writing disk.

[The_Rural_Juror]

Lightroom was a lot smoother going from 4790 to 2700. It's a little smoother going from 2700 to 3600x, but I would say that it's probably due to the newer hardware and nvme drive.
Luminar, however, continues to be slow.

Catalogs on ssd, raw and output files on sata.

[taemo]

I finished installing Windows 10 and Lightroom CC on the new rig and yeah... on the 4790, there was a 2.5-3s delay when zooming in 1:1 on an image.
On the 3700X.. 0-0.5s :nut:

This is only with 1 NVME SSD drive though, will see how it fares once I connect my Lightroom Catalog SSD drive and Storage HDD drive.

[D'z Nutz]

Did you enable GPU acceleration in LR?

[taemo]

Did you enable GPU acceleration in LR?

yup same setting as in the old machine and same video card (6GB GTX 1060)

Use Graphics Processor: Custom
"Use GPU for display" and "Use GPU for image processing" both checked.

[D'z Nutz]

Haha nice

[The_Rural_Juror]

91604

[blitz]

Remember to build 1:1 previews after you’ve culled your images!

[msommers]

I finished installing Windows 10 and Lightroom CC on the new rig and yeah... on the 4790, there was a 2.5-3s delay when zooming in 1:1 on an image.
On the 3700X.. 0-0.5s :nut:

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-2700K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-3700X/1985vs4043

Wow double the cores and threads vs. what I have...I'd have to do a complete rebuild though.

Maybe I can OC this thing a nunch and see if there's much, if any, performance difference.

[Mitsu3000gt]

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-2700K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-3700X/1985vs4043

Wow double the cores and threads vs. what I have...I'd have to do a complete rebuild though.

Maybe I can OC this thing a nunch and see if there's much, if any, performance difference.

Just a caution when using userbenchmark, the site is no longer trusted and has been caught many times falsifying results in favor of Intel CPUs. While straightforward and convenient, unfortunately it can't be used for any CPU comparisons as it is highly synthetic and the data in many cases has been manipulated or is simply false. I know one thing they did is applied their own arbitrary weighting to core count / threads, which does not reflect real world performance. It also had a very curious change in its algorithms right after the Ryzen 3000 launch.

Currently it only weights performance beyond 4 cores at 2% which is laughable and creates some wildly inaccurate comparisons. Single core is weighted 40% and quad core is weighted 58%.

Especially if you're looking at photo/video editing tasks, you can ignore userbechmark entirely.

[msommers]

That's good to know, thanks! I've overclocked the 2700K to ~4.3 and it seems fine, idle temps are ~34-38C.

I tried a really large file in Lightroom vs. Photoshop using the Camera Raw Filter in each. For the same file, using the same adjustments, Photoshop is noticeably smoother. So I think it's just program limited in terms of how each uses resources or because PS is able to use my GPU while LR cannot.

Trying to get the CPU above 60C was a challenge and temps drop quickly once processing is done. So I think I'll leave it here for now.

Moving cache/catalogs/previews to the SSD has also helped. Cheers!

[taemo]

That's good to know, thanks! I've overclocked the 2700K to ~4.3 and it seems fine, idle temps are ~34-38C.

I tried a really large file in Lightroom vs. Photoshop using the Camera Raw Filter in each. For the same file, using the same adjustments, Photoshop is noticeably smoother. So I think it's just program limited in terms of how each uses resources or because PS is able to use my GPU while LR cannot.

Trying to get the CPU above 60C was a challenge and temps drop quickly once processing is done. So I think I'll leave it here for now.

Moving cache/catalogs/previews to the SSD has also helped. Cheers!



hey Matt, if you want we can trade rigs.. you can have my i7 4790 with 16GB miniITX rig and I'll take yours.

[msommers]

Very generous, Earl. Unfortunately I'm far too lazy haha :)