Upgrade 4790K to Ryzen 1700 for Lightroom?

[Chesebert]

I am a fairly heavy Lightroom user and it is currently running on a 4790k system overclocked to 4.7Ghz. I have noticed that with heavily processed photos having multiple adjustment brushes, heal/spot removals, sharpen, perspective correct and gradient filters, my 4790k would often get to 80-90% CPU usage with all 8 threads working when I then need to change some basic settings (e.g., white balance) and it would take a couple of seconds to process. On a new untouched raw image, the editing is fairly instantaneous. I also run Lightroom using my main 1440p monitor and a separate 1080p monitor (in portrait mode) as a second display.

I know Lightroom does not win any programming awards in terms of efficiency, but does anyone know if I can speed up Lightroom by switching to Ryzen with 8 cores vs 4790K? I use LIghroom 5.7 (I am not sure if Lightroom 6 or CC would be any better).

I game as well, but at 1440p. GPU is bottlenecked at that resolution with enhanced graphics (Fury X).

 

[Puffnstuff]

You might take a look at this test to help you find an answer to your question. This excerpt is from their conclusion:
"Overall, Ryzen is unfortunately not a great choice for Lightroom. If you are concerned about general Lightroom performance, the Intel Core i7 7700K is significantly faster for most tasks and only 10-15% slower when exporting images. At the same time, if you do care about export times then the Intel Core i7 6850K is ~40% faster at exporting images along with being ~15% at everything else in Lightroom. Considering that Ryzen is also either slower or comparable to these two Intel CPU options in other programs like Photoshop, Intel CPUs are a pretty clear winner for photo editing and image processing workstations."

 

[Insomniator]

As you can see I don't think the Ryzen would be faster for Lightroom. Maybe equal... possibly even a little slower based on your OC.

 

[richierich1212]

You might take a look at this test to help you find an answer to your question. This excerpt is from their conclusion:
"Overall, Ryzen is unfortunately not a great choice for Lightroom. If you are concerned about general Lightroom performance, the Intel Core i7 7700K is significantly faster for most tasks and only 10-15% slower when exporting images. At the same time, if you do care about export times then the Intel Core i7 6850K is ~40% faster at exporting images along with being ~15% at everything else in Lightroom. Considering that Ryzen is also either slower or comparable to these two Intel CPU options in other programs like Photoshop, Intel CPUs are a pretty clear winner for photo editing and image processing workstations."

It doesn't look like that test is detailed enough to draw a conclusion. But even so, based on their findings, it seems that LR isn't really optimized to use more than 4 cores. A few of their results have the Broadwell-E CPU results tied, because they all have the same clock speed even though they all differ in # of cores.

 

[Chesebert]

It doesn't look like that test is detailed enough to draw a conclusion. But even so, based on their findings, it seems that LR isn't really optimized to use more than 4 cores. A few of their results have the Broadwell-E CPU results tied, because they all have the same clock speed even though they all differ in # of cores.

I have read that review but I am not sure they are correct. With heavy editing (many adjustments with filters, tools and sliders) driving two monitors, I often see all 8 threads of my 4790k being used and once in a while it would peak at 100%. On a fresh raw file, I do not see more than 2 cores used when I begin making changes and the CPU usage is fairly low. However, as I progress further with more adjustments and brushes and tools layered on LR starts to use all 8 threads and my 4790K feels like it's being tapped out.

 

[Timur Born]

I am currently on a 4790K and ordered a 1800X (Asus mainboard still not available). My hope would be to get more performance out of Lightroom, but the sad fact is that LR is badly implemented when it comes to using multiple cores. There has been an older review that showed very diminishing returns once you use more than 4 cores, even more so with more than 6 cores (that still showed some benefit).

The worst example is its face-detection (plugin) that's mostly a single-core process. Other stuff mostly seems to run on 2 or 3 cores, with the occasional load taxing all 4 cores. Older reviews already demonstrated that LR scales bad for more than 4 cores. Still one can hope.

Brushes can be made to tax all my 4 cores (doesn't seem to make much use of Hyperthreading cores), but ironically CPU load is higher when GPU acceleration is active in Lightroom. So I am curious how this will work out with Ryzens 8 cores.

I wonder why in the linked test/review the creation of previews was faster on the 7700K. This is one area where Lightroom makes use of all 4 cores a good chunk of the time (not all the time, though). But maybe that's also a process where more than 4 cores don't give you so much in return. Software's fault entirely, because several images can be processed at once (enough RAM and SSD help there).

This is a chicken vs. egg problem. Ryzen brings multi-core at affordable prices "to the masses" (they hope). This could and should motivate software developers to finally make more use of said cores.

 

[richierich1212]

I wonder why in the linked test/review the creation of previews was faster on the 7700K. This is one area where Lightroom makes use of all 4 cores a good chunk of the time (not all the time, though). But maybe that's also a process where more than 4 cores don't give you so much in return. Software's fault entirely, because several images can be processed at once (enough RAM and SSD help there).

This is a chicken vs. egg problem. Ryzen brings multi-core at affordable prices "to the masses" (they hope). This could and should motivate software developers to finally make more use of said cores.

The 7700K turbos to 4.5GHz. Since it also is Skylake, it has the fastest single-core performance of any Intel CPU out right now.

 

[USER8000]

I would be more worried about storage speed TBF!!

 

[Puffnstuff]

I would be more worried about storage speed TBF!!

Funny you should mention that as I came across an article about that very thing over at TweakTown.

The 7700K turbos to 4.5GHz. Since it also is Skylake, it has the fastest single-core performance of any Intel CPU out right now.

You are correct and my Haswell 4790k only turbos to 4.4ghz on a single thread.

 

[imported_jjj]

You should look for better tests that use DRAM with decent clocks and timings. Not sure how well Lightroom scales but it's likely that it needs memory bandwidth. That review uses DDR4 2400 at CL17 and that's less than ideal for 8 cores in something memory heavy.

 

[Chesebert]

Looks like I got no reason to upgrade. Dam

I would be more worried about storage speed TBF!!

How? The program and catalog are already running on an SSD. Memory is DDR3 2400. I hate the fact I can't just throw computing power at Lightroom...

I guess I am grasping at the straws trying to find a reason to buy Ryzen.

 

[Timur Born]

Here is some more fodder for you.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/search.php?query=lightroom

 

[LTC8K6]

It seems like your 4790K at 4.7 and fast ram with SSD is going to be close to the front row performance-wise.

It doesn't look like you'd see worthwhile gains going to more cores at this time.

Wait and see what develops in a few months.

 

[nathanddrews]

Love Puget Systems, it's great that they provide realistic benchmarks that their customers actually use.

Premiere Pro CC 2017
Ryzen on par with 6900K and ahead of the 7700K, except Warp Stabilization where the 7700K dominates.

Lightroom CC 2015.8
Discussed above, Ryzen doesn't do great.

SOLIDWORKS 2017
Ryzen is stronger than 7700K, but trades blows with the 6850K and 6900K.

Photoshop CC 2017
Ryzen does poorly in comparison.

Obviously, the more multi-threaded plugins and applications you have in your total workflow, the better Ryzen will be.

 

[Timur Born]

If you read the comments about Warp Stabilization then the 7700K may not dominate so much in practice. They only tested a single clip whereas users seem to use warp stabilization on several clips at once to force it to multi-threading. Since this seems to be common practice there likely is an advantage for the higher core processors.

Concerning Lightroom I'd not say that Ryzen doesn't do great, but Lightroom doesn't do great. Hopefully their next major version scales better with more cores and even makes use of more than a single core for facial recognition.

The Photoshop results are unfortunate. Hopefully that improves once the whole memory, cache and scheduler situation is improved via software updates from all sides involved.

 

[Bassman2003]

I want to have a good reason to move to Ryzen from my 4790 but it is complicated as shown by this thread. I do video and photography. My main two programs are Lightroom and Edius for my video editing. Both like single core clock speed for in-program effectiveness while the exporting is an 8 or 10 core world. So we need both. Too bad Intel does not make dual socket i7 chipsets. That would be the best of all worlds Or a 9 core chip with one core above 5Ghz and the other 8 for encoding...

Anyway, I just can not make a decision yet on Ryzen. I need to see some improvements in overclocking/bios optimizations to justify the move. The middle of the road single core performance is what is holding me back. It just is not that far away from my 4790 outside of rendering. But that is my problem with Intel, the generations are just not that far away from each other in performance and the E-chips have slower clocks. I am sure Ryzen would be "fine" but I think it would feel like a stepping stone build just waiting for the next build. Frankly, so do the Intels while we all wait for the 10nm chips with optimism. Sorry, no clear direction from me.

 

[USER8000]

Looks like I got no reason to upgrade. Dam

How? The program and catalog are already running on an SSD. Memory is DDR3 2400. I hate the fact I can't just throw computing power at Lightroom...

I guess I am grasping at the straws trying to find a reason to buy Ryzen.

But export speeds are just as limited to the disk you are exporting to also.

The only other improvement I would suggest is a RAM disk:

https://www.slrlounge.com/super-charge-lightroom-photoshop-ram-disk/

 

[hasu]

I am on the same boat. I use Lightroom on a machine built upon AMD FX-8370E (8 Core Processor) with 16GB DDR3 and Windows 10. I have another i7 4790K/16GB that certainly is much faster. I just noticed that while exporting 400+ images from RAW to JPG, all eight cores are being used optimally (meaning close to 100% on all logical cores during that process). I am using the latest free upgrade to Lightroom 6 (IIRC the updator said it was 6.2 but the about box still shows 6.1). So I am wondering if Adobe fixed their software to effectively use multiple cores. If that is correct then I might upgrade to either i7 7700K or 1800X.

 

[ZGR]

Guess you should wait and see how Skylake-X or Ryzen 2 performs. Going to Broadwell-E or Ryzen just won't be worth it.

It may be better to invest in a fast m.2 SSD if your board supports it. If you can find any specials on used fast 3 GHz+ DDR3 it may be worth looking into as well; but it may require your OC to be re-tuned.

 

[Rifter]

I noticed a massive increase in lightroom speed going from my i7 930@4.2Ghz to my ryzen 1700@3.9Ghz. However this is mostly due to using spinners before and a M2 SSD now.

video work though is where it really shines, my video work goes 2-3 times faster now than on my old system(off spinners on both systems).

 

[Puffnstuff]

I noticed a massive increase in lightroom speed going from my i7 930@4.2Ghz to my ryzen 1700@3.9Ghz. However this is mostly due to using spinners before and a M2 SSD now.

video work though is where it really shines, my video work goes 2-3 times faster now than on my old system(off spinners on both systems).

I remember when I upgraded from my 930 to 4790k that the difference was like night and day for me. I'm waiting to see how things shape up this fall before deciding on what to use for my next build.