Very bad performance with PM6 on Mojave

[sdwheeler]

Three weeks after updating to Mojave on a Late 2015 i5 iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) 3.3 GHz, i5 8 GB Ram and a 128Gb/2TB Fusion drive, I find my whole system is sort of laggy. Its slow to wake from sleep, slow to launch Microsoft Office apps, but that just might be Microsoft bloatware, Photo Mechanic 6 is behaving reasonably well, probably about as fast as PM5 was on the previous OS. I find PM 6 to be quite usable, but my folders rarely go over 1200 raw files from a 5D IV.

I wonder if Mojave is more demanding on low powered systems like mine? I had no problems with OS 10.13, but didn't want to be too many generations behind on my OS.

I also have Mid 2015 MacBook Pro with a 2.8 GHz i7 and 16 Gb of Ram and a 500 GB SSD. I haven't updated that to Mojave yet. I will do that and see its any less laggy overall. I don't use the laptop much to edit photos as I'm addicted to the 5K screen on the iMac.

[Hayo Baan]

Three weeks after updating to Mojave on a Late 2015 i5 iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) 3.3 GHz, i5 8 GB Ram and a 128Gb/2TB Fusion drive, I find my whole system is sort of laggy. Its slow to wake from sleep, slow to launch Microsoft Office apps, but that just might be Microsoft bloatware, Photo Mechanic 6 is behaving reasonably well, probably about as fast as PM5 was on the previous OS. I find PM 6 to be quite usable, but my folders rarely go over 1200 raw files from a 5D IV.

I wonder if Mojave is more demanding on low powered systems like mine? I had no problems with OS 10.13, but didn't want to be too many generations behind on my OS.

I also have Mid 2015 MacBook Pro with a 2.8 GHz i7 and 16 Gb of Ram and a 500 GB SSD. I haven't updated that to Mojave yet. I will do that and see its any less laggy overall. I don't use the laptop much to edit photos as I'm addicted to the 5K screen on the iMac.

Hmm, I don't think Mojave is actually more demanding; I had it installed on a 2012 MacBook Pro and never saw any performance degradation. Note though that I think your setup (i.e. high res and bit depth display) is one of those that initially had performance problems with PM6. Problems caused by bugs in Apple code, so it might be that your other applications are suffering from that too?

[schlotz]

I do appreciate the analysis which is fine for a specific set of hardware mentioned.  At the end of the day, I would be willing to bet the majority of PM5 users are operating with slightly older configurations and those are what Camerabits should be measuring the performance of PM6 v 5.  At this point, if Camerabits wants to put their best foot forward, I would suggest the following. Provide a fully functioning trial PM6 version that when installed DOES NOT TOUCH OR UTILIZE any of the PM5 installed files so that concerned PM5 users can verify how PM6 will truly function on their equipment. Obviously the trial version would have to be time limited, maybe 2 weeks? Further, users should be able to delete the trial PM6 without affecting their continued use of PM5.

Actually, I also have a 2008 MacPro and a 2012 MacBook Pro, both of which also shine with PM6. The common denominator of systems with performance issues seems to be high bitdepth screens. As said though, for most people the issues have been solve with PM6's latest updates.

On a Mac (and I'm sure on Windows too) you can safely run PM5 and PM6 together; they won't bite each other. At the moment can already test to see if PM6 is working well for them (without having to buy the license); you can install it with a (limited time) demo licence.

If you have performance (or any other) problems with PM6 on your hardware now please report so Camerabits can investigate and provide work-arounds/fixes. I'm sure that if you need an extension of the demo period, something can be arranged as well.

So if you haven't already tried it, please don't let this post stop you from trying PM6 on your hardware; that's what the demo licence is for

Really appreciate the input Hayo.  Based on it, I went and got the trial version and tested it.  Ver 6 appeared to be running just as fast as Ver 5 on both my iMac and MBP so I went and upgraded.  All is well.  For others, my iMac is late 2015 27" 5K Retina, 4GHz i7, 24GB, 500GB SSD  and the MBP is late 2016 3.3GHz i7, 16GB, 500GB SSD

[Hayo Baan]

 

[evergreen25]

I'm still experiencing a 2-3 second lag when navigating from one image to the next in PM 6 build 3331. I have PM 5 and am relying on that until this (hopefully) gets fixed as the navigation between images is basically instantaneous on that.

System specs
macOS Mojave
Mac Pro 2013 quad core 3.7GHz Xeon E5
16 GB RAM
AMD D500 graphics
Dell UP3216Q 3840x2160 display, set to scale to 3008x1692 (can't see text/fine detail otherwise), using custom display color profile.

[cedars]

I'm still experiencing a 2-3 second lag when navigating from one image to the next in PM 6 build 3331. I have PM 5 and am relying on that until this (hopefully) gets fixed as the navigation between images is basically instantaneous on that.

I created an account just to chime in and say that I also am still having performance issues regarding speed. I've reverted back to PM5 for the time being. Performance issues are most notable when moving from one image to the next.

The difference between PM5 and PM6 is in the milliseconds but that adds up when you're going through hundreds or thousands of photos. Even going through a few is bothersome.

I'm typically connect to my files over smb to a NAS but speed differences are also present when files are located on an external SSD.

2018 MacBook Pro 15"
16 GB RAM
Radeon Pro 650X 4 GB
Built in monitor and LG 5K Ultrafine External Monitor

[Kirk Baker]

I'm still experiencing a 2-3 second lag when navigating from one image to the next in PM 6 build 3331. I have PM 5 and am relying on that until this (hopefully) gets fixed as the navigation between images is basically instantaneous on that.

I created an account just to chime in and say that I also am still having performance issues regarding speed. I've reverted back to PM5 for the time being. Performance issues are most notable when moving from one image to the next.

The difference between PM5 and PM6 is in the milliseconds but that adds up when you're going through hundreds or thousands of photos. Even going through a few is bothersome.

I'm typically connect to my files over smb to a NAS but speed differences are also present when files are located on an external SSD.

2018 MacBook Pro 15"
16 GB RAM
Radeon Pro 650X 4 GB
Built in monitor and LG 5K Ultrafine External Monitor

You didn't mention which build of PM6 you're running but please try the 3558 build: http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=12699.0 which was released this afternoon.  In all of our testing it outperforms PM5 with the same images on the same hardware on both macOS and Windows.

-Kirk

[scphoto]

I am still have speed issues both scrolling through thumbnails and previews. The lag is very noticeable and affects productivity. I have still been using version 5 most of the time due to the issue.

I have both a 15" MacBook Pro and a 13" MacBook Pro exhibiting the issue. On both machines I can change the color profile to sRGB and the issue goes away. Every other color profile I have tried has the issue. I have tried custom profiles I created along with the default Color LCD profile and Adobe RGB (1998) profile. Without changing any other settings I can change the color profile to sRGB and version 6 immediately runs smoothly. I then change the color profile back and the problem comes right back.

I tried changing the retina scaling factor on the 13" and discovered that the 1280x800 resolution seemed to work smoothly regardless of the color profile chosen. When I choose either the default 1440x900 or 1680x1050 resolution (scaling) the lag comes back. I am currently unable to test the same on my 15" MacBook Pro as it has been sent in for repair.

Both machines are running the latest version 6 release (3558) on Mojave 10.14.6.

15" MacBook Pro Specs
15-Inch MacBook Pro (Mid-2017)
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB of GDDR5 memory

13" MacBook Pro Specs
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB RAM
256 GB SSD
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536 MB

[Kirk Baker]

I am still have speed issues both scrolling through thumbnails and previews. The lag is very noticeable and affects productivity. I have still been using version 5 most of the time due to the issue.

I have both a 15" MacBook Pro and a 13" MacBook Pro exhibiting the issue. On both machines I can change the color profile to sRGB and the issue goes away. Every other color profile I have tried has the issue. I have tried custom profiles I created along with the default Color LCD profile and Adobe RGB (1998) profile. Without changing any other settings I can change the color profile to sRGB and version 6 immediately runs smoothly. I then change the color profile back and the problem comes right back.

I tried changing the retina scaling factor on the 13" and discovered that the 1280x800 resolution seemed to work smoothly regardless of the color profile chosen. When I choose either the default 1440x900 or 1680x1050 resolution (scaling) the lag comes back. I am currently unable to test the same on my 15" MacBook Pro as it has been sent in for repair.

Both machines are running the latest version 6 release (3558) on Mojave 10.14.6.

15" MacBook Pro Specs
15-Inch MacBook Pro (Mid-2017)
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD
2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB of GDDR5 memory

13" MacBook Pro Specs
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB RAM
256 GB SSD
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536 MB

Can you make a screen recording showing the issue and share it with me?  I have the same 15" system as you and PM6 build 3558 flies through the images and is very responsive.  It is faster than PM5.  I'm using the default Color LCD profile.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[scphoto]

Here is an update on my performance issue. Kirk advised me to make 3 changes to my settings which have completely resolved the issue. PM6 is now at least as fast as PM5 and so far appears to be faster.

The first 2 of these settings are in the Photo Mechanic 6 -> Preferences menu.

1. Contact Sheet Page - My High DPI Display Quality was set to Better (slower) and it is now set to Best (uses more memory). This setting seems to be the one that made the largest improvement. The speed difference is quite noticeable when I switch between them. Best seems to be the "Best" setting.

2. Caching Page - My Memory Cache size was set to 20% and it was changed to 10%. This change definitely helped performance as well. It turns out that more is not necessarily better. If the cache is set too high it expects the system to have that much memory always available. If other applications are open and using their share of memory it can cause issues with PM.

3. In preview, I had inadvertently turned on the Show blown highlights option under the Histogram. I must have inadvertently toggled this on with the keyboard shortcut as I don't recall intentionally do so. Since this is an additional calculation for each image as it is displayed it makes sense that it would cause some degradation in performance. Turning the option off helped as well.

In my case making these 3 changes to me from a very laggy, unusable PM6 experience to an application that at worst case is on par with PM5 performance but seems to be somewhat faster. I would definitely advise anyone else having severe performance issues to also look at these settings.

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Thank you for the followup scphoto! Very helpful

[Luiz Muzzi]

Hi,
I am currently using 20% as Memory Cache Size and my High DPI Display Quality is set to Standard (fastest) and PM6 is working fine.
Regards,
-Luiz Muzzi

[Mokane]

I'm extremely disappointed with PM6, performance with my admittedly older iMac pro running high sierra, I feel as If the camera bits engineers are using us as beta testers for their software. Perhaps  PM 6 went golden too soon?

Michael O'Kane

a Photo Mechanic user since V. 4

[Hayo Baan]

Can you be a bit more specific about your hw setup and display? What are your cache and high dpi settings?

PM6 on my 2008 (!) Mac Pro works just fine, at least as fast as PM5. Also any problems with speed were all on Mojave and related to issues with Apple’s code. Camerabits has worked around all of those as far as I can tell.

[Kirk Baker]

If following the guidelines here doesn't solve your issue: https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48000828176-troubleshooting-slow-rendering-issues

Then please list specific areas of Photo Mechanic 6 that are slow.  I cannot help you if you don't give me more detail than "it's slow."

Thanks,

-Kirk