Aperture - Too slow to be really efficient?

I have been thinking about whether Aperture might be a way to go for me as far as working with my photographs. The ads etc. seemed like it offered some great features and I don't like the Nikon software that has come with my cameras. iPhoto is OK for my family snapshots, but I want more capabilities for my more serious stuff.

So I when i got an email mentioning the 30 day trial I figured that was a great opportunity to check it out. I was hoping I'd be pleased enough over that 30 days that spending the $300 dollars to buy it would be justified despite the fact that I have Photoshop CS2 and a few other way to organize my photos. Thus far $300 seemed way too steep simply to duplicate capabilities I already have and doesn't come close to offering the capabilities of a full blown image editing app like PS.

So my question is this. Is this thing really supposed to be as slow as it is? The app is running so slow on my Mac G5 dual 2.5 with Radeon 9600 with 2gb of Apple installed RAM that I can't see suffering through using it long enough to even see if it does some of the things I hope it does. I certainly couldn't see using it rountinely as an app for PRODUCTIVITY. There's nothing productive about an app that takes a good 5 seconds merely to remove a master from the library. Even clicking on an image to look at it takes way too long as the preview refines it's resolution.

I did a quick search on this issue and saw lots of stuff out there. I have waded through some of it and some of it is enlightening and some just adds to the confusion. Apparently there may be an issue when running dual monitors. Am I understanding that correctly? Seems to me that most Pros and heavy duty amateurs run 2 monitors (and for good reason - most of the apps these days need to screens to display all the neccessary palattes etc.) So if 2 displays hurt performance, I can't see how this is an app that is going to work for me. I certainly don't want to go reconfiguring my Mac simply to go through the latest batch of pics. It also seems to me that a large library could also be an issue - while I don't have huge numbers of images, I do have a couple of thousand that I keep active on my machine (and a ton more on backup DVD).

So anyway, I'd like to hear from people with a similar setup to mine . . . from your experience is trying to use this app on such a system (which is by no means a slow and incapable Mac at all - I push heavy pixels doing HD work in After Effects and Final Cut all day long and never feel like the apps are too slow to even use)? I am not going to run out and buy a new system simply to run Aperture since. Even if all the bells and whistles are what they seem, they aren't enough to justify it. I also don't want to waste any time using this trial version and learning it's ins and outs if going In know the app won't run efficiently enough.

So am I crazy? Is this thing really as slow as it seems? Are there really as many speed issues as a search of the forum reveals? Is there something I am missing?

G5 Dual 2.5ghz, Mac OS X (10.4.6), 2gb RAM

Posted on Jan 25, 2007 11:39 AM

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20 replies

Jan 25, 2007 4:42 PM in response to airekcne

You know what, IT IS DAM* DAM* DAM* SLOW.

APPLE had co**ed me with this program. Sold it for £100 on eBay at the end - lost £210. It is so bad it is criminal. NOBODY really wants it, I think at least for the small photographers (i.e. one man band).

I wished I have waited for the v1.5 30 days FREE TRIAL before I buy.

Go get Capture One 3.7.6 - the best in RAW Processing; iView PRO 3 - ULTRA-FAST CATALOGING (or whatever Microsoft calls it now) and Lightroom (it is better than APERTURE even though it is only BETA) for its PRINTING MODULE. It takes less time to run between the three software than just waiting for APERTURE to build my library, let alone the important RAW processing (stage 2 besides shooting of modern digital photography).

APERTURE is trying to do too many digital photography workflows. Screen becomes extremely crowded and too many bells and whistles (PALETTES) at the same time. Just building the library is like climbing HIMALAYAS - I had only 7000 shots for one project and it took forever!!!

Man, I love MAC & APPLE - but APERTURE for now really S *S. Same on the big photographer's ad (I am annoyed because Vincent is happened to be one of my favourite photographer). Worst still, the 3rd party plug-ins are coming up so fast when APERTURE really is NOT in order!!!

APERTURE is really only good if you got a FULL-TIME assistant running the C**P for the photographer.

LOVELY CONCEPT BUT VERY VERY BAD EXECUTION - remembered when it first come out - very HIGH SPEC REQUIRED. My machine is no slower - QUAD G5 3gb ram 500gb drive (I bought it really because of APERTURE and APPLE failed me BAD).

Jan 25, 2007 4:52 PM in response to nlbford

The ad (remember most of these photographers might have a FULL-TIME APERTURE ASSISTANT and MONEY from FREE COPIES OF APERTURE APPLE and the 100% lupe were very attractive.

But BOY, it is slow as H**L!!! I was a early buyer who believe APPLE could fix it fast, but NO and I lost half of my v1.1 money on eBay at the end - it hurt £110 gone from the £210 retail price I paid. The 30-days trial should have been there from day 1!

Capture One 3.7.6 (RAW processing), iView PRO (cataloging) and Lightroom (printing) is the way to go! It is better to run around different programs to get things right than trying to use APERTURE because it aims to be ONE WORKFLOW FOR EVERYTHING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - does not work - LIGHTROOM's modular system is much much better as a SINGLE WORKFLOW SYSTEM for digital photography!!! Adobe's BETA tactic works (but for a BETA program it is fantastic). SHAME ON APPLE ON THIS ONE, this RETAIL APERTURE is more like a BETA!

If some one from APPLE sees my fourm replies, please DO NOT take these down as I am trying to be very constructive in my comments. I have been an APPLE fan since Apple //c era and my son is call MAC! I love APPLE but with APERTURE IT MAKES ME M*D!!!

Jan 25, 2007 4:57 PM in response to nlbford

So am I crazy?


I have no such evidence.

Is this thing really as slow as it seems?


In my personal experience, for all practical purposes it's unusable on my configuration. A Mac user since 1986, I purchased my Mac Pro configured specifically for Aperture, including an upgraded video card. The outcome has been underwhelming.

As I can't buy a faster computer, I can only assume Aperture is suited to hardware yet to be released. Aperture is the lowest point in my experience as a Mac user.

Are there really as many speed issues as a search of the forum reveals?


My experience suggests this, but I can't account for them all. In addition, 'Spot and Patch' has obvious problems, including causing a performance hit and often other problems when related images are accessed, manipulated, displayed and printed.

Upgrades 1.5.1 and 1.5.2 were silent as to these issues. I feel abandoned.

Is there something I am missing?


I'm evaluating Aperture (which I have purchased at full retail price) alongside the beta of another professional photo app which is yet to be released. The jury is still out, but growing restless.

Jan 25, 2007 5:19 PM in response to lightcreator

I was hoping that Aperture could do what it claims efficiently. I can do all the things I need to do right now with what I have. No need to buy or upgrade anything. I was hoping that Aperture would provide a way to unify the thing I bounce back and forth to do already (Bridge, Photoshop, iPhoto, Picture Project . . . ). So far I can't see spending $300 just to feel I am less efficient staying in one place for much of the work. I also can't see putting too much ground work into developing a workflow in a system that ultimately frustrates and slows me down. I sure won't pay a bunch of money to upgrade my system simply to make one piece of software do what it SHOULD do even on a lesser machine. I do plenty of high-end video and motion graphics work on this machine and what aperture does shouldn't take the power it does when compared to other apps. Too bad.

I have 29 more days to see if there's any value to this software - and I'd like to be able to think I;d buy it at that point because there are a couple of things I like so far. But the way things are going, I can't believe I will view this as anything more than a very ovderpriced iPhoto that seems like it is on steroids, but doesn't deliver like it.

Jan 25, 2007 9:38 PM in response to W.W. Webster

So am I crazy?


I have no such evidence.


Well, give it time.

In my personal experience, for all practical purposes
it's unusable on my configuration. A Mac user since
1986, I purchased my Mac Pro configured specifically
for Aperture, including an upgraded video card. The
outcome has been underwhelming.

As I can't buy a faster computer, I can only assume
Aperture is suited to hardware yet to be released.
Aperture is the lowest point in my experience as a
Mac user.


I am actually hearing that sentiment more than I would like to as I ask around. Too bad. On the surface it looks quite good. I findit odd that the company that has taken on such great things as it has in the video world can't make this a more efficient piece of software. Perhaps they see much bigger money in the volume that comes from focusing on phones with video and computers for your TV and thus don't really care about an app like Aperature which would really just appeal to dedicated photographers at it's current pricing and probably doesn't rpresent enough revenue - even amongst photogs with cash to burn.

I'm evaluating Aperture (which I have purchased at
full retail price) alongside the beta of another
professional photo app which is yet to be released.
The jury is still out, but growing restless.



Yeah, I have played with the Beta from one of the "Others". It was interesting. It was a while ago and that version didn't seem as potentially "robust" as aperture did. But I think it may be time to go back and take another look.

Jan 25, 2007 9:42 PM in response to Michael C

I use an old 2.1 GHZ iMac with 2.5GB of ram and an
external 20" Dell lcd, the performance seems ok to
me, not great but I use it every day. I even use my
MacBook 2.0 with a 20" external display and it also
seems fast enough. I process 20D RAW files and have
well over 15000 in my library.


Hmmm. Just for kicks I should see what happens on our iMac that my wife uses for email.

Jan 26, 2007 2:59 AM in response to nlbford

I bought Aperture at v1.0 and it was clearly released too early. V1.1 was hardly any better so I decided to go back to Capture One, and felt thoroughly robbed. Had there been a trial period I would never have bought it. I then signed up to Lynda.com for some online tutorials for other software and have now looked at their training for Aperture, now at V1.5.2. This seems to have been a very extensive re write - the update is over 100mb. All I can say is now I understand the software better, together with it's now much faster performance on my machine I think it really can start to deliver what it promised to.

The best thing would be to use the trial period to see how it runs, and to really get to know the software before deciding. It is quite complex and there is a learning curve - without the online training I would probably never have gone back to it, missing out on what I now think is the best workflow available.

G5 2.3DP 4.5 GB ram xt800 card Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Jan 26, 2007 8:50 AM in response to nlbford

I agree, I'm disappointed in the performance of Aperture when applying multiple adjustments. It really bogs down. I figured with my setup, it should be pretty quick (Mac Pro 3ghz, 4gig, X1900, 4-drive RAID 10). I even went into the local Apple Store to play with Aperture on their machines to see if something was not right with my system - it performed the same on a similarly configured machine.

It's apparent to me that the use of the video card's GPU is the bottleneck. We've all heard/read that Aperture uses Core Image and thus the GPU to do it's image processing. I've been using Hardware Monitor to monitor the GPU Utilization. After having several adjustments applied to a RAW image and moving the sliders on another one (say Edge Sharpen) I can see the GPU Utilization jump up while my main 4 CPU cores are barely being used.

We need a faster video card - better yet faster card with ability to do SLI or Crossfire for multiple GPU use. I know this area will get better in the future. Apple is betting on GPU performance outpacing CPU performance. It probably will but for right now, It feels weird to me to have all that CPU horsepower and still have the image processing be as slow as it is. I personally like many aspects of Aperture's interface and cataloging abilities so I'll probably be sticking with it. But I'll be waiting anxiously for a way to stuff in a BUNCH more GPU power.

Until then, I make heavy use of the Loupe while making adjustments. This makes the sliders move quite smooth since the change only applies to the view inside the loupe until you release the slider - then it applies to the rest of the image. Still there are times when I'd rather see an adjustment's overall affect on an image.

Enjoy Shooting (and hopefully Processing)

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Aperture - Too slow to be really efficient?

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