Photo Mechanic > Support
Photo Mechanic runs slow?
jeremynicholl:
I've been trying PM for the last few days as part of a revised workflow, and although there are a lot of things I like, I seem to be have major speed problems with contact sheet. At times images render extremely slowly, especially in the preview pane. The speed varies, but it can slow to a virtually unusable crawl.
PM has a reputation for speed, so I'm sure i'm doing something wrong, but what? I've left a lot of the prererences at the defaults: should I adjust the cache? I always shoot RAW files: could that be the problem?
It's PM version 4.2.2, and is running on a G4 Powerbook OSX 10.4.6.
Thanks,
Jeremy Nicholl
Kirk Baker:
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl on May 01, 2006, 11:05:25 PM ---I've been trying PM for the last few days as part of a revised workflow, and although there are a lot of things I like, I seem to be have major speed problems with contact sheet. At times images render extremely slowly, especially in the preview pane. The speed varies, but it can slow to a virtually unusable crawl.
PM has a reputation for speed, so I'm sure i'm doing something wrong, but what? I've left a lot of the prererences at the defaults: should I adjust the cache? I always shoot RAW files: could that be the problem?
It's PM version 4.2.2, and is running on a G4 Powerbook OSX 10.4.6.
--- End quote ---
Version 4.2.2 would be very old by now. Are you sure it isn't 4.4.2?
How many files do you have in a given folder? You said RAW, but that's a generic term. What are the actual file types? How much RAM do you have? Do you have other memory hungry apps like Photoshop running at the same time?
Answer those questions and I can probably help you.
-Kirk
jeremynicholl:
--- Quote from: Kirk Baker on May 02, 2006, 06:20:03 AM ---
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl on May 01, 2006, 11:05:25 PM ---I've been trying PM for the last few days as part of a revised workflow, and although there are a lot of things I like, I seem to be have major speed problems with contact sheet. At times images render extremely slowly, especially in the preview pane. The speed varies, but it can slow to a virtually unusable crawl.
PM has a reputation for speed, so I'm sure i'm doing something wrong, but what? I've left a lot of the prererences at the defaults: should I adjust the cache? I always shoot RAW files: could that be the problem?
It's PM version 4.2.2, and is running on a G4 Powerbook OSX 10.4.6.
--- End quote ---
Version 4.2.2 would be very old by now. Are you sure it isn't 4.4.2?
How many files do you have in a given folder? You said RAW, but that's a generic term. What are the actual file types? How much RAM do you have? Do you have other memory hungry apps like Photoshop running at the same time?
Answer those questions and I can probably help you.
-Kirk
--- End quote ---
Yes, you're right it's version 4.4.2. The files are from Canon 20D cameras, shot RAW+JPG, so they show in PM as, for example, 29446cr2+jpg. The powerbook has 640MB RAM.
I've just tested it with no other programmes running and 208 images in the contact sheet [that's 208 raw + 208 jpg = 416 total]. I "think" it's a bit faster than before, but it still feels rather sluggish to me. The speed lags aren't consistent: some images render at 100% instantly, others spend quite a few seconds in a jagged state before they're viewable. ISTM that PM processes the images in small groups in the background. For example images 1-4 might render quickly, but when I move to image 5 it takes a while for it to render. I also notice that from time to time the images in the film strip just disappear as I progress then they reappear, as if processing is "catching up" in the background. Is that right?
This may all be normal for the programme on my machine. I don't know since I'm only testing PM and haven't had an opportunity to compare its performance on my powerbook against another computer. Also, 208 files isn't very many: I'd often expect to load more, sometimes a lot more. Does PM slow up when large numbers are ingested? Is there a realistic working limit for the number of images?
Thanks for your help,
Jeremy Nicholl
Kirk Baker:
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl on May 02, 2006, 11:06:50 AM ---
--- Quote from: Kirk Baker on May 02, 2006, 06:20:03 AM ---
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl on May 01, 2006, 11:05:25 PM ---I've been trying PM for the last few days as part of a revised workflow, and although there are a lot of things I like, I seem to be have major speed problems with contact sheet. At times images render extremely slowly, especially in the preview pane. The speed varies, but it can slow to a virtually unusable crawl.
PM has a reputation for speed, so I'm sure i'm doing something wrong, but what? I've left a lot of the prererences at the defaults: should I adjust the cache? I always shoot RAW files: could that be the problem?
It's PM version 4.2.2, and is running on a G4 Powerbook OSX 10.4.6.
--- End quote ---
Version 4.2.2 would be very old by now. Are you sure it isn't 4.4.2?
How many files do you have in a given folder? You said RAW, but that's a generic term. What are the actual file types? How much RAM do you have? Do you have other memory hungry apps like Photoshop running at the same time?
Answer those questions and I can probably help you.
--- End quote ---
Yes, you're right it's version 4.4.2. The files are from Canon 20D cameras, shot RAW+JPG, so they show in PM as, for example, 29446cr2+jpg. The powerbook has 640MB RAM.
--- End quote ---
640 MB of RAM is extremely small in this day and age. Any chance you could upgrade your RAM?
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl ---I've just tested it with no other programmes running and 208 images in the contact sheet [that's 208 raw + 208 jpg = 416 total]. I "think" it's a bit faster than before, but it still feels rather sluggish to me. The speed lags aren't consistent: some images render at 100% instantly, others spend quite a few seconds in a jagged state before they're viewable. ISTM that PM processes the images in small groups in the background. For example images 1-4 might render quickly, but when I move to image 5 it takes a while for it to render. I also notice that from time to time the images in the film strip just disappear as I progress then they reappear, as if processing is "catching up" in the background. Is that right?
--- End quote ---
Photo Mechanic pre-caches up to four previews in the direction that you're viewing. Once cached, images will be fetched from the cache.
The 20D produces 8 megapixel images which are kind of large for a 1.5 GHz G4 with only 640 MB of RAM.
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl ---This may all be normal for the programme on my machine. I don't know since I'm only testing PM and haven't had an opportunity to compare its performance on my powerbook against another computer. Also, 208 files isn't very many: I'd often expect to load more, sometimes a lot more. Does PM slow up when large numbers are ingested? Is there a realistic working limit for the number of images?
--- End quote ---
We regularly test with a folder containing 30,000 images. It works fine, though there is no hard limit.
HTH,
-Kirk
jeremynicholl:
--- Quote from: Kirk Baker on May 02, 2006, 11:13:25 AM ---
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl on May 02, 2006, 11:06:50 AM ---
--- Quote from: Kirk Baker on May 02, 2006, 06:20:03 AM ---
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl on May 01, 2006, 11:05:25 PM ---I've been trying PM for the last few days as part of a revised workflow, and although there are a lot of things I like, I seem to be have major speed problems with contact sheet. At times images render extremely slowly, especially in the preview pane. The speed varies, but it can slow to a virtually unusable crawl.
PM has a reputation for speed, so I'm sure i'm doing something wrong, but what? I've left a lot of the prererences at the defaults: should I adjust the cache? I always shoot RAW files: could that be the problem?
It's PM version 4.2.2, and is running on a G4 Powerbook OSX 10.4.6.
--- End quote ---
Version 4.2.2 would be very old by now. Are you sure it isn't 4.4.2?
How many files do you have in a given folder? You said RAW, but that's a generic term. What are the actual file types? How much RAM do you have? Do you have other memory hungry apps like Photoshop running at the same time?
Answer those questions and I can probably help you.
--- End quote ---
Yes, you're right it's version 4.4.2. The files are from Canon 20D cameras, shot RAW+JPG, so they show in PM as, for example, 29446cr2+jpg. The powerbook has 640MB RAM.
--- End quote ---
640 MB of RAM is extremely small in this day and age. Any chance you could upgrade your RAM?
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl ---I've just tested it with no other programmes running and 208 images in the contact sheet [that's 208 raw + 208 jpg = 416 total]. I "think" it's a bit faster than before, but it still feels rather sluggish to me. The speed lags aren't consistent: some images render at 100% instantly, others spend quite a few seconds in a jagged state before they're viewable. ISTM that PM processes the images in small groups in the background. For example images 1-4 might render quickly, but when I move to image 5 it takes a while for it to render. I also notice that from time to time the images in the film strip just disappear as I progress then they reappear, as if processing is "catching up" in the background. Is that right?
--- End quote ---
Photo Mechanic pre-caches up to four previews in the direction that you're viewing. Once cached, images will be fetched from the cache.
The 20D produces 8 megapixel images which are kind of large for a 1.5 GHz G4 with only 640 MB of RAM.
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl ---This may all be normal for the programme on my machine. I don't know since I'm only testing PM and haven't had an opportunity to compare its performance on my powerbook against another computer. Also, 208 files isn't very many: I'd often expect to load more, sometimes a lot more. Does PM slow up when large numbers are ingested? Is there a realistic working limit for the number of images?
--- End quote ---
We regularly test with a folder containing 30,000 images. It works fine, though there is no hard limit.
HTH,
-Kirk
--- End quote ---
Yes that helps a lot. ISTM that PM is behaving normally, I just need a machine upgrade.
Thanks,
jeremy Nicholl
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