soundoftheatom

Q: Lightroom CC stuttering on iMac 27 inch Retina 5k Late 2015

I bought my first iMac about 3 weeks ago, because my old pc which I built about 9 years ago appears to be on its last legs. As a keen amateur photographer I only really use my computer for Photoshop and Lightroom and as such decided to go for a reasonably well specced model. After much deliberation I ended up buying an iMac 27 inch retina 5K with the 2TB fusion drive. As I know Photoshop and Lightroom can be memory hungry I also went for 32GB of RAM.

 

I've finally managed to copy all my music and photo's onto my new machine and install the latest versions of Photoshop and Lightroom. Other than that there is virtually nothing else on it.

 

The problem is that I've only really been using Lightroom and Photoshop for the past couple of days and I have to admit I am very disappointed with the performance of my brand spanking new iMac, particularly when using Lightroom. It is slow and sluggish. Even just starting the program seems to take an age, with the coloured spinning circle thingy appearing very frequently and for quite a while each time it does appear. My old pc which only had 6gb of RAM and is 9 years old is quicker. Photoshop doesn't seem TOO bad, not quite the blistering pace I was expecting, but acceptable I suppose.

 

It's a lovely machine, the screen is amazing, but I'm really annoyed that having spent over £2000 it doesn't seem to perform for the main task I bought it for!

 

Does anybody have any ideas/suggestions as to what the problem might be?

 

Thanks

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Jan 6, 2016 1:08 PM

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Q: Lightroom CC stuttering on iMac 27 inch Retina 5k Late 2015

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  • by Pichon66,

    Pichon66 Pichon66 Jan 27, 2016 8:53 AM in response to rkaufmann87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 27, 2016 8:53 AM in response to rkaufmann87

    I'm late to this party, but I want to say that it doesn't appear that this problem (specifically, poor performance with current versions of Lightroom on iMac 5k) is at all unusual. There are many, many mentions on the web and the threads all follow the same path ending in a suggestion to post something on Adobe forums (if it's an Apple forum) or posting something on an Apple forum (if it's an Adobe forum). I personally was about to buy an iMac 5k then a member of my local club told me about his experience and frustration with getting any support from either company. (Apple support couldn't even offer anyone in their entire support group who had ever used Lightroom!). I'm certainly not forking over $2500 for a high end machine that can't run the software I use most.

  • by woodmeister50,

    woodmeister50 woodmeister50 Jan 27, 2016 9:39 AM in response to Pichon66
    Level 5 (5,510 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 27, 2016 9:39 AM in response to Pichon66

    These do seem to be issues that are somewhat unique to the 5k iMacs, however some

    don't have issues.  I guess no one has sat down and documented the issues as to whether

    it is the i5 or i7 iMacs or one of the 3 video cards that could be in the iMacs.  Or if it is

    none of the above.

     

    FWIW, my late 2013 27" i5 iMac does not have any major problems with Lightroom.

    The only issue I have seen is a very inconsistent delay when transferring from Lightroom to Photoshop. 

    Sometimes it is a second or two, other times it is several seconds and does not seem to happen with

    any apparent pattern.

  • by Sunshinetina,

    Sunshinetina Sunshinetina Feb 2, 2016 3:34 PM in response to soundoftheatom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2016 3:34 PM in response to soundoftheatom

    My partner just bought IMac today from Pc world with 8gb of Ram and 27inch, he downloaded cccloud lightroom and photoshop.  When i got home to test it bearing in mind also we have super fast fibre broadband with Bt.

     

    I went to the Develop module to try a few edits, and there was a delay when using the slider and paint brush etc.

     

    I then thought it may be the broadband but on my macbook pro retina it works fine with no delay, the iMac is less than 24 hours old, the whole point of buying it was just for editing.

     

    We have done no installing of other software and only a couple of pictures in the Catalogue.  Absolutely gutted, how can such an expensive machine run so slow with Adobe CC, or is this an issue with Adobe CC.

     

    Any help or suggetions out there or advise.

     

    Ps i have never posted on a Forum before so i think this post is linked to the post i was reading.

     

    I haven't created a new post so hoping linking in a little late someone can help.

  • by Sunshinetina,

    Sunshinetina Sunshinetina Feb 2, 2016 3:37 PM in response to soundoftheatom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2016 3:37 PM in response to soundoftheatom

    Hey see my post i am having the same problems, straight out of the box.

     

    Did you find a solution, i am really gutted, lots of money for poor results in less than 24 hours.

  • by Pichon66,

    Pichon66 Pichon66 Feb 3, 2016 7:38 PM in response to Sunshinetina
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2016 7:38 PM in response to Sunshinetina

    Sunshinetina, I think I've read every post on every forum (Apple, Adobe, various photo forums) about this issues and they all follow the same pattern. People are trying to be helpful but clearly either nobody knows the cause, or if they do (hello Apple, Adobe?) nobody is telling us what it really is. It appears there are some  27" iMac retina users who say that LR works fine on their machines. But it appears there are lots who have top-end configured machines and LR has issues. Bottom line: no solutions, no word from Adobe or Apple about what causes the poor performance and therefore what sort of "fix" (software, OS, hardware?) would potentially solve it in the future. I REALLY think Adobe and Apple should be warning people about this before they fork over thousands of dollars/pound/euros for a high-end machine that can't fulfill the primary job for which it is being purchased. I think you have 14 days to return your iMac from the purchase date. I've heard the 21" retina works fine, but I don't have personal experience with it.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Feb 3, 2016 8:21 PM in response to Pichon66
    Level 5 (6,197 points)
    Mac App Store
    Feb 3, 2016 8:21 PM in response to Pichon66

    FWIW, the reason there are no definitive answers about Lightroom is because between various hardware configurations and third-party software, there are a nearly infinite number of combinations which no company can fully test which is one reason I believe Apple started a Public Beta program so there were more bodies to ferret out various problems.

     

    Modern operating systems and software are very complex and it's a wonder to me they work together as well as they do.

  • by woodmeister50,

    woodmeister50 woodmeister50 Feb 4, 2016 3:34 AM in response to Pichon66
    Level 5 (5,510 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 4, 2016 3:34 AM in response to Pichon66

    FWIW, I was poking around in the Lightroom forums yesterday to find something

    about an unrelated issue.  From what I saw, there seems to be a lot of posts

    about Lightroom's performance, not just on Macs but also on Windows machines.

    Many seem to be on platforms that should never have any performance issues.

     

    Maybe Adobe themselves can't even figure out what is causing it and it seems to

    be the latest version as many say Lightroom 5 was just fine.

  • by mcrean,

    mcrean mcrean Feb 4, 2016 4:43 AM in response to soundoftheatom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 4, 2016 4:43 AM in response to soundoftheatom

    Just a reminder, Apple has a 14 day return policy on their Macs. I would suggest getting your new iMac from Apple directly or from an Apple store if one is close to you to make returning it easier. Myself, I want the iMac and will devote the 1st couple days or so to exercising it thoroughly and if it has a problem with LR and PS, back it goes.

  • by Pichon66,

    Pichon66 Pichon66 Feb 4, 2016 7:18 PM in response to mcrean
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 4, 2016 7:18 PM in response to mcrean

    mcrean, if you do go through with a purchase of the 27" iMac and test LR performance on it, I (and others, I'm sure) would be eager to hear your result. (BTW, I have not heard of problems with PS...but don't know if that includes Camera Raw, which is a lot like the Develop module in LR).

  • by tiagd,

    tiagd tiagd Jul 11, 2016 3:26 PM in response to soundoftheatom
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 11, 2016 3:26 PM in response to soundoftheatom

    Did you ever resolve this issue?

     

    I have a brand new iMac and Lightroom is slower than by 6 year old Macbook Air!!

     

    Very frustrating

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