What makes Lightroom fast (or slow)

[futureal33]

Afternoon all,

I have a pretty decent specced machine (specs below) which I use for all my editing. I hardly touch Photoshop these days, and 99.99% of my editing is done is Lightroom alone.

My system runs quickly... but I often wonder how much better a better specced system would make it?

I have 16GB of RAM, but when I look at what the system usage is, it typically sits around 4-5GB useage, even with Lightroom, iTunes, Chrome open.
I have an i5 processor running at around 3.4ghz, yet when using LR this typically fluctuates around 10% useage. When doing a full export of 500+ files, it still sits around 20-30% utilisation..

So am I right in thinking that upgrading my CPU or RAM wouldn't make things any quicker, as what I currently have isnt anywhere near 100% utilised anyway?!

Thanks for any help!

Intel i5 CPU @ 3.4ghz x 4
Corsair 16GB Vengeance RAM 9-9-9-12
256GB SSD drive for current working files

 

[johnnypanic]

Hopefully, lightroom 6 launching tomorrow, will have significant speed enhancements.

 

[michaelg]

Afternoon all,

I have a pretty decent specced machine (specs below) which I use for all my editing. I hardly touch Photoshop these days, and 99.99% of my editing is done is Lightroom alone.

My system runs quickly... but I often wonder how much better a better specced system would make it?

I have 16GB of RAM, but when I look at what the system usage is, it typically sits around 4-5GB useage, even with Lightroom, iTunes, Chrome open.
I have an i5 processor running at around 3.4ghz, yet when using LR this typically fluctuates around 10% useage. When doing a full export of 500+ files, it still sits around 20-30% utilisation..

So am I right in thinking that upgrading my CPU or RAM wouldn't make things any quicker, as what I currently have isnt anywhere near 100% utilised anyway?!

Thanks for any help!

Intel i5 CPU @ 3.4ghz x 4
Corsair 16GB Vengeance RAM 9-9-9-12
256GB SSD drive for current working files

I have an almost identical set-up and am wondering if I should consider a separate graphics card to take advantage of the GPU accleration with LR CC. Some of my other software uses GPU accleration too so would like to know what would be a suitable card to see some benefit without spending too much....