Photo Mechanic > Support
Photo Mechanic runs slow?
Kirk Baker:
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl on May 02, 2006, 11:05:53 PM ---
--- 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.
--- End quote ---
Yes that helps a lot. ISTM that PM is behaving normally, I just need a machine upgrade.
--- End quote ---
We could do more to check to see if virtual memory is thrashing by having you run some commands from the Terminal window if you want...
BTW, the new MacBookPro laptops run Photo Mechanic *extremely* well. Better than my 2.0 GHz dual G5 PowerMac tower.
-Kirk
jeremynicholl:
We could do more to check to see if virtual memory is thrashing by having you run some commands from the Terminal window if you want...
-Kirk
[/quote]
Yes please. Tell me what to do and I'll try that.
Jeremy
Kirk Baker:
--- Quote from: kbaker ---We could do more to check to see if virtual memory is thrashing by having you run some commands from the Terminal window if you want...
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl ---Yes please. Tell me what to do and I'll try that.
--- End quote ---
Open up a Terminal window. The Terminal application is in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
Enter the following and hit return:
top -ocpu -R -F -s 10 -n30
You'll see a bunch of information listed on the screen. Use the mouse to select all that you see and then copy it to the clipboard by pressing Command-C. Then paste it into a reply to this message and post it. I'll take a look at it. Make sure you have PM (and any other apps you usually have running) active at the time of the test.
Thanks,
-Kirk
jeremynicholl:
--- Quote from: Kirk Baker on May 05, 2006, 06:25:08 AM ---
--- Quote from: kbaker ---We could do more to check to see if virtual memory is thrashing by having you run some commands from the Terminal window if you want...
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl ---Yes please. Tell me what to do and I'll try that.
--- End quote ---
Open up a Terminal window. The Terminal application is in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
Enter the following and hit return:
top -ocpu -R -F -s 10 -n30
You'll see a bunch of information listed on the screen. Use the mouse to select all that you see and then copy it to the clipboard by pressing Command-C. Then paste it into a reply to this message and post it. I'll take a look at it. Make sure you have PM (and any other apps you usually have running) active at the time of the test.
Thanks,
-Kirk
--- End quote ---
Hi Kirk,
Here it all is below.
Many thanks,
Jeremy
Last login: Fri May 5 08:32:54 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
0-103:~ Jeremy$ top -ocpu -R -F -s 10 -n30
Processes: 54 total, 2 running, 52 sleeping... 166 threads 09:34:43
Load Avg: 0.20, 0.65, 0.74 CPU usage: 4.5% user, 2.6% sys, 92.9% idle
SharedLibs: num = 0, resident = 0B code, 0B data, 0B LinkEdit
MemRegions: num = 0, resident = 0B + 0B private, 0B shared
PhysMem: 83.7M wired, 282M active, 219M inactive, 585M used, 54.0M free
VM: 4.09G + 0B 322524(0) pageins, 139413(0) pageouts
PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
1009 Photo Mech 4.1% 1:42.80 7 270 0 0K 0K 85.5M 278M
87 WindowServ 2.9% 2:08:51 2 617 0 0K 0K 72.7M+ 208M+
0 kernel_tas 1.7% 37:42.51 41 2 0 0K 0K 70.1M 687M
1018 Terminal 0.6% 0:03.40 4 92 0 0K 0K 19.4M 156M
232 SystemUISe 0.6% 10:29.29 3 265 0 0K 0K 3.48M 161M
1024 top 0.5% 0:00.69 1 18 0 0K 0K 3.09M+ 26.9M
283 CNQL1212_B 0.1% 1:41.88 1 60 0 0K 0K 664K 125M
109 ntpd 0.0% 0:13.53 1 11 0 0K 0K 264K 26.9M
205 cupsd 0.0% 0:14.21 2 27 0 0K 0K 576K 27.8M
176 AppleFileS 0.0% 0:07.27 2 40 0 0K 0K 824K 34.1M
206 httpd 0.0% 0:07.27 1 13 0 0K 0K 1.37M 28.5M
198 ARDHelper 0.0% 0:07.64 1 9 0 0K 0K 100K 26.6M
39 mDNSRespon 0.0% 0:08.13 4 36 0 0K 0K 668K 28.4M
214 slpd 0.0% 0:00.97 6 31 0 0K 0K 420K 30.2M
1021 bash 0.0% 0:00.05 1 14 0 0K 0K 1.34M 27.2M
1020 login 0.0% 0:00.06 1 16 0 0K 0K 1.70M 26.9M
975 mdimport 0.0% 0:00.60 3 61 0 0K 0K 4.08M 53.6M
933 mdimport 0.0% 0:05.71 4 67 0 0K 0K 6.03M 62.2M
849 httpd 0.0% 0:00.00 1 11 0 0K 0K 432K 27.7M
358 AppleSpell 0.0% 0:00.95 1 33 0 0K 0K 668K 37.7M
273 iCalAlarmS 0.0% 0:02.04 1 64 0 0K 0K 1.14M 139M
267 Image Capt 0.0% 0:04.94 2 92 0 0K 0K 1.15M 139M
233 Finder 0.0% 13:50.94 3 148 0 0K 0K 22.5M 320M
231 Dock 0.0% 0:19.19 2 106 0 0K 0K 2.82M 158M
226 pbs 0.0% 0:01.51 2 41 0 0K 0K 976K 63.2M
225 AppleVNCSe 0.0% 0:00.07 1 30 0 0K 0K 212K 91.4M
224 ARDAgent 0.0% 0:00.89 6 92 0 0K 0K 748K 112M
181 mds 0.0% 40:49.10 8 97 0 0K 0K 9.86M 48.4M
145 crashrepor 0.0% 0:00.01 1 34 0 0K 0K 84K 27.1M
141 automount 0.0% 0:00.76 3 42 0 0K 0K 476K 28.7M
Kirk Baker:
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl on May 05, 2006, 10:42:29 PM ---
--- Quote from: Kirk Baker on May 05, 2006, 06:25:08 AM ---
--- Quote from: kbaker ---We could do more to check to see if virtual memory is thrashing by having you run some commands from the Terminal window if you want...
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: jeremynicholl ---Yes please. Tell me what to do and I'll try that.
--- End quote ---
Open up a Terminal window. The Terminal application is in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
Enter the following and hit return:
top -ocpu -R -F -s 10 -n30
You'll see a bunch of information listed on the screen. Use the mouse to select all that you see and then copy it to the clipboard by pressing Command-C. Then paste it into a reply to this message and post it. I'll take a look at it. Make sure you have PM (and any other apps you usually have running) active at the time of the test.
--- End quote ---
Processes: 54 total, 2 running, 52 sleeping... 166 threads 09:34:43
Load Avg: 0.20, 0.65, 0.74 CPU usage: 4.5% user, 2.6% sys, 92.9% idle
SharedLibs: num = 0, resident = 0B code, 0B data, 0B LinkEdit
MemRegions: num = 0, resident = 0B + 0B private, 0B shared
PhysMem: 83.7M wired, 282M active, 219M inactive, 585M used, 54.0M free
VM: 4.09G + 0B 322524(0) pageins, 139413(0) pageouts
PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
1009 Photo Mech 4.1% 1:42.80 7 270 0 0K 0K 85.5M 278M
87 WindowServ 2.9% 2:08:51 2 617 0 0K 0K 72.7M+ 208M+
0 kernel_tas 1.7% 37:42.51 41 2 0 0K 0K 70.1M 687M
1018 Terminal 0.6% 0:03.40 4 92 0 0K 0K 19.4M 156M
232 SystemUISe 0.6% 10:29.29 3 265 0 0K 0K 3.48M 161M
1024 top 0.5% 0:00.69 1 18 0 0K 0K 3.09M+ 26.9M
--- End quote ---
If your system has been running for a while without a reboot and you have been launching and quitting a number of applications then 139413 pageouts is reasonable. But if this was after a recent reboot, then that would be a fair number of pageouts. Mac OS X does a 'pageout' when it doesn't have enough memory for a memory request. It pages out some memory to disk so that memory can be made available. The reason the pageins doesn't match is if an application's memory is swapped out to disk and then you end up quitting the app and it didn't get around to touching all of its allocated memory (thus causing it to pagein) then Mac OS X's VM system is smart enough to just drop them.
Adding more memory to your system would help performance, but mainly the thing that hobbles all Mac laptops prior to the MacBook Pro is the extremely slow bus speed. Unfortunately unlike RAM and sometimes CPUs, you can't upgrade the speed of your system bus. The PowerBook G4 series has a 167MHz bus speed. The MacBook Pro has a 667MHz bus speed which is significantly faster. It also doesn't hurt that it has dual CPU cores on a single chip and a large amount of Level 1 cache.
If you can't upgrade to a newer system, then I would at least max out your RAM which I think on your system can go as high as 1.5GB.
HTH,
-Kirk
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