Speeding up lightroom?

[TheStupidForeigner]

My computer is a little slow (no it's absolutely rubbish to be honest) so lightroom lags A LOT and makes editing a painful experience. I've already worked out that having multiple catalogs for small groups of photos runs a lot faster than dumping all my photos into one (I usually keep it under 100 photos per catalog). But is there anything else I can do to help me get through long editing sessions?

I was thinking of installing a second, super clean OS just for lightroom but would that work? And if so what OS Would work best? And is there anything else I can do?


Specs:
Lightroom 5.6
Windows 8 pro 64bit
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 (1.4GHz)
Memory: 3GB DDR2
Images: .CR2 12mp from a Canon T3

 

[sscarmack]

Get a mac

 

[Scatterbrained]

Get a mac

No, just get a decent PC. 3GB ram? 1.4Ghz Dual core CPU? That would have worked ok for Lr 3, but for Lr 5? Not really.

 

[TheStupidForeigner]

I'm travelling for several years in quite dangerous countries and also trying to stretch my budget as far as I can so getting a new an expensive computer isn't a good option for me right now. Need a quick fix until I settle down somewhere and start making money again.

 

[ShaneF]

Give this a read and hopefully it might give you a little boost.
10 Tips to Improve Lightroom's Speed and Performance Without Additional Hardware - Digital Photography School

 

[KmH]

Lightroom Help
Optimize performance

 

[astroNikon]

add .. more ... memory !!
try to get it up to at least 4 but preferably 8GB

 

[Braineack]

I have 16GB of DDR4 and want more just for LR...

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Besides things already mentioned in these guides and posts, all I can say is don't run a single program other than lightroom, especially during the import process, and go into task manager and make lightroom the number one priority program. Use all your ram for it and when you are using it, use nothing else.

Just be careful that it is actually closed when you exit it otherwise it could slow down your computer a lot.

 

[The_Traveler]

There is noooo way to fix this.
3 gb is not enough to run windows 8 efficiently, let alone LR.

 

[MOREGONE]

Note, don't scroll through your collection in Develop (D) module. Always view them in Loupe (E) it will be much quicker. Only switch to develop when you are going to edit. I believe LR will create a new preview while in the Develop module where in Loupe it will display what his already generated.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

There is noooo way to fix this.
3 gb is not enough to run windows 8 efficiently, let alone LR.

Fix it, maybe not, remedy it? there sure are. He could potentially make it take an hour to import 200 images rather than 5 hours. Still slow, but much faster.

 

[BananaRepublic]

I have windows seven so don't know if this is the same but if you: go search for or go to system configuration you can turn off programs that run all the time that you dont use that may help Google it

 

[Braineack]

There is noooo way to fix this.
3 gb is not enough to run windows 8 efficiently, let alone LR.

Fix it, maybe not, remedy it? there sure are. He could potentially make it take an hour to import 200 images rather than 5 hours. Still slow, but much faster.

lol.

 

[jeveretts]

As a benchmark. I have an i5 3570K, with 32GB of RAM on Windows 7 Pro, and everything in lightroom is literally instant.
So I think the big underlying factor is RAM.