Conclusion: Storage speed is not the bottleneck for image loading, faster storage for originals doesn’t help. The verdict: Load speed was practically the same on both types of storage (just a tiny difference). Now, back to storage. Many people ask whether storage speed could be a bottleneck, so just this week, The Lightroom Queen forums has a thread where a couple of users, including the website owner, tested storing original images on a fast SSD vs a slow hard drive and then seeing how quickly Lightroom Classic could load them. The base MacBook Air and Mac mini, the cheapest Macs available (as low as $599 new), both have no less than 8 CPU cores. The point is, a quad-core CPU is no longer even part of the bottom of the Mac lineup these days. I am reasonably satisfied with Lightroom Classic even with my midrange M1 Pro CPU with just 8 CPU cores (6 performance, 2 efficiency).

The M1 Max has 10 CPU cores (8 performance, 2 efficiency), the M1 Ultra has 20 cores (16 performance, 4 efficiency).Ĭompare that, today’s state of the art - up to 16 performance cores on efficient Apple Silicon - to just 4 cores on an Intel i7 architecture from several years ago. Bulk preview creation is one of the few areas where Lightroom Classic benefits from upgrading to an M1 Max or M1 Ultra Apple Silicon CPU, because they have so many more cores. Tests done by Art on his ArtIsRight channel on YouTube (and others) consistently show that the number of CPU cores correlates directly to speed of Lightroom Classic preview creation. Search attempts for answers lead down different rabbit holes.Ĥ Ghz Quad i7 By think those specs show a major part of the bottleneck: A 4 core Intel i7 CPU.

Also my catalogs are broken up by large projects and for catch all bi yearly.ġ) In each LRC catalog, create 'select' collectionsĢ) Use the 'Export this collection as a catalog' option for eachĤ) Use the 'Import from another catalog' to add the images from step 2 to the LRC '4 Porfolio' catalogĥ) In the LRC '4 Porfolio' catalog, organize images by collectionsĦa) This will reduce file sizes automatically and not count against the 20gb allocation correct? See link below.ħ) Assign LR folders or collections to Portfolio.Īny suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I realize Adobe's logic for LRC / LR / Portfolio is to have 1 LRC catalog but that doesn't work with my tech and storage / bkp plan.

My iMac slows down with catalogs over 1TB so I have several catalogs.

Adobe lightroom classic apple m1