PM6 runs slowly

[Kirk Baker]

Same here...I did some tests with one of the early versions, I had friends (with high-end video cards, it turned out) raving about how much faster it was than PM5.  I timed some tasks on my machine in both, PM6 was the same or even a little slower on my machine (Xeon E5-2630, 16GB RAM and Radeon R9 280 2BG).  I know my hardware is not bleeding edge but it's no dog...and with promised performance increase being the only reason I upgraded, I'm disappointed to say the least.  Do you need a high-end video card to take advantage of the faster performance?

Which build are you using? PM6, build 3558 is the latest and fastest build of PM6 so far.  What OS are you running?

-Kirk

[keydet]

Yep, just downloaded the latest build this morning (although this was not the version I tested against)...haven't seen any obvious increase in performance since I've been using PM6, though.  If you think there should be I will go back and re-run my sort tests against PM5...you've never done me wrong before, Kirk.    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 1903.

[Kirk Baker]

Yep, just downloaded the latest build this morning (although this was not the version I tested against)...haven't seen any obvious increase in performance since I've been using PM6, though.  If you think there should be I will go back and re-run my sort tests against PM5...you've never done me wrong before, Kirk.    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 1903.

What are these 'sort' tests?

-Kirk

[keydet]

I just loaded a folder with 2,000-odd NEF & JPG files and timed how fast PM6 and PM5 took to sort and display them (each program run separately after a fresh reboot).  Took both programs about the same amount of time.  Did this after some fellow photogs raved about how fast PM6 was loading folders of images on their machines.

[Kirk Baker]

I just loaded a folder with 2,000-odd NEF & JPG files and timed how fast PM6 and PM5 took to sort and display them (each program run separately after a fresh reboot).  Took both programs about the same amount of time.  Did this after some fellow photogs raved about how fast PM6 was loading folders of images on their machines.

What is the sort type that you're using on both apps?

-Kirk

[keydet]

Capture time.

[Kirk Baker]

Capture time.

OK.  PM5 will block access to the contact sheet until the sort is complete, which on Capture Time sort, can take minutes if the number of images is large.  PM6 will initially sort by file creation time (if available in the file system or modification time otherwise) and perform the sort in the background and when the sort completes it will finalize the capture time sort.  But PM6 won't block you from using the contact sheet while the sort completes.

PM6 should allow you to start working with your images almost immediately and PM5 won't.

So I'm not sure what you're using as your test criteria to do your evaluation, but if you are considering the time at which you can start doing things with your images, PM6 should be much faster.

If you're waiting until you see "Sort Complete" in the bottom right corner of the window then I expect the two apps to be similar in speed.  Sorting takes time either way.  PM6 just doesn't block you from working while that time elapses.

-Kirk

[keydet]

True enough, I had noticed that I wasn't blocked in PM6.

[Kirk Baker]

True enough, I had noticed that I wasn't blocked in PM6.

OK, given that, what parts of PM6 are slower for you than PM5?

-Kirk

[Curlymac]

Mine is exactly the same. So slow I have had to give up on it and use another browser. So disappointed as there are so man great features on PM that I love

[Hayo Baan]

Can you please elaborate what is slow for you and what your system looks like?
* version (build) of PM
* OS and version
* pixel dimensions of monitor

Also, have you applied the tips above?

[JeffG]

PM6 should allow you to start working with your images almost immediately and PM5 won't.

If you're waiting until you see "Sort Complete" in the bottom right corner of the window then I expect the two apps to be similar in speed.  Sorting takes time either way.  PM6 just doesn't block you from working while that time elapses.

I just installed the new update (build 3889) and have a few observations already.  I'm not sure why, but now that the contact sheet is "locked" until sorting is finished, it actually sorts *much* faster than before.  In previous builds it used to take sometimes 10-30 seconds to sort, while in PM5 it was a second max.  Now it seems to be about the same time in both, at least on initial basic testing. 

Also, even though you previously had access to the contact sheet while it was sorting, that never actually helped me in practice because after going through my photos once, I then view the tagged ones only, so when I would switch out of PM6 to do something, then go back in, it would always force a re-sort, and the view I got while sorting was all the photos unsorted, could not easily find any of the photos I actually wanted to work on during that 10-30 second refresh time so had to wait until it was done so it only displayed the photos I actually was interested in.

So great update, this actually makes PM6 usable for me again.

[Kirk Baker]

PM6 should allow you to start working with your images almost immediately and PM5 won't.

If you're waiting until you see "Sort Complete" in the bottom right corner of the window then I expect the two apps to be similar in speed.  Sorting takes time either way.  PM6 just doesn't block you from working while that time elapses.

I just installed the new update (build 3889) and have a few observations already.  I'm not sure why, but now that the contact sheet is "locked" until sorting is finished, it actually sorts *much* faster than before.  In previous builds it used to take sometimes 10-30 seconds to sort, while in PM5 it was a second max.  Now it seems to be about the same time in both, at least on initial basic testing. 

Also, even though you previously had access to the contact sheet while it was sorting, that never actually helped me in practice because after going through my photos once, I then view the tagged ones only, so when I would switch out of PM6 to do something, then go back in, it would always force a re-sort, and the view I got while sorting was all the photos unsorted, could not easily find any of the photos I actually wanted to work on during that 10-30 second refresh time so had to wait until it was done so it only displayed the photos I actually was interested in.

So great update, this actually makes PM6 usable for me again.

Thanks.  The other feature that may be of use to you is the ability to disable the automatic rescan of all contact sheets when you come back to Photo Mechanic after having switched out of it.  From the ReadMe:

Added new preference for “Rescan on resume” of Photo Mechanic in the Contact Sheet
page of the Preferences dialog. It is on by default. If you turn it off then Photo Mechanic
will not rescan all of the folders you are browsing when you resume using it after having
switched to another application. This will decrease the time you have to wait to use
Photo Mechanic significantly, but you will have to manually rescan when you know that
you have made changes outside of Photo Mechanic that affect the folders you’re
working with (View->Rescan).

-Kirk

[JeffG]

Thanks.  The other feature that may be of use to you is the ability to disable the automatic rescan of all contact sheets when you come back to Photo Mechanic after having switched out of it.  From the ReadMe:

I missed that in the release notes.  That is even better!