This is my first topic on this forum and I have a problem......

I am running both LR and CS3 and I find that LR runs really slowly on my PowerMac G5. Specifically images take ten seconds or more to "load" in the Develop module and several seconds in Library and Print. Loading seems slower from a Collection rather than an imported folder and can take almost 15 seconds. It seems to have got markedly slower as I import more folders.

Here is what I am using

PowerMac G5 with dual 1.8 processors
4GB RAM
Image files are stored in external hard drives (GTech) connected by firewire 400
Apple 30 Cinema Screen with upgraded video card ATI Radeon X800 XT with 256MB VRAM

The G5 seems to be running noisy and warm most of the time when using LR

Here are some specific question:

Are there any settings that I could change to make loading faster?

Would a smaller monitor speed up loading?

Should I take my wife up on her kind offer to by me an new Intel Mac for my birthday? - would I get a significant speed upgrade.

Any other advice or comments would be appreciated

I am running LR and CS3 on a quad core Mac Pro with 6 gig Ram. Loading RAW files from a 16 mega pixel back takes about 2 sec and transfer to print 1 sec.

Steve

I did a few tests on an identical Mac (with 2.5GB of RAM only, everything else being equal). Going from grid view to develop takes 3-4 seconds (with 1D2 & 5D raw files). Doing the same from a collection doesn't seem to be much slower - or in other words I can't see the difference.
Transfer to print takes 1-2 seconds.

The library I used has about 7000 files only. On this machine, the library is on the same HD as the images.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.10. My power settings are on "automatic". The fans sometimes start revving up for 5 or 6 seconds and then go back down to normal.

I don't think that using a smaller monitor will help but you may try to set a lower resolution in the system preferences to see if it does the trick.
I would check integrity of the LR library, check your HD and see if any process is stealing CPU power. You could also try to move your files to the internal HD but usually a FW drive is plenty fast.
By the way, are you sure your HD doesn't spin-down and then has to "wake-up" again. It takes ages to get back to speed...

Now for the Intel thing, I can only say that running LR on the latest MacBook Pro (and non-pro) is definitely faster than on a G5 (at least the dual procs). Keep the Intel Mac high on the birthday presents list.

thanks I will try your suggestions and see if there is any improvement. If not I will take my wife up on her offer.

Good luck!

I just upgraded from a 2 X 2.5Ghz G5 to a 3Ghz Mac Pro, and it certainly is faster. However, I wouldn't call LightRoom slow on my G5. Are you generating standard size previews when you import your photos? I was not, but then I selected all my photos one night before bed and had it generate previews over night and things got noticeably faster for me.

You may want to check and make sure you are generating the large standard size preview to use with your 30" display. Preferences -> File Management. I agree with previous responder. You will get much better performance over all if you have your images on local disk, FW800 or eSATA.

Intel macs are pretty sweet, and you may want to take her up on the offer anyway. :-) My mac pro is a LOT quieter than my G5 was. And being able to use Parallels VM is just amazing.

Good luck!

Hi Pdm,

May I please ask you how you did this?

Namely:
1. What are "standard size" previews?
Under: Preferences --> Catalog settings --> File Handling
My Standard preview size is set to 1440
Preview Quality: Medium
Automatically Discard 1:1 Previews: Never

I use a G5 iMac, it's annoyingly slow when I double click an image to see it in full screen mode (10+ seconds to go from fuzzy blur with a "Loading/Working..." message floating over the image) to a seemingly optimal image. I don't remember ever seeing the "Working" or "Calculating" (in histogram) messages in Jeff/Michael's Lightroom tutorial video. If I can set my computer to do this "work" on my whole library while I sleep and get back to it in the morning, that would be great.

Which leads me to:
2. How do I create the previews from my existing library files and at what size should I do so?
I plan on upgrading to an Intel iMac 24" (presumably 1920 x 1200) as soon as a new one is released (Santa Rosa based iMac with 4GB of RAM), so I'd like to generate previews greater than my current iMac's limits.

Do I go to my library, Command-A to select all photos, and then what? Would like to know the steps you took. Thanks in advance.

I'm using a 2.1 Ghz iMac G5, and usually the switching between library and develop module is OK (about one second).

When I'm doing a lot of healing work, suddenly the whole application kind of shuts down. Changing from one shapshot to the next can take as much as ten seconds!

Maybe it is the long history that slows it down with sometimes sixty healings. When I leave that particular shot, go back to library, take another photo, things speed up again.

So maybe history (even though not large in file size) may be in charge of speed loss.

But I couldn't notice so far that clearing the history would help.