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andym172

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
335
3
UK
I've recently upgraded from a Dual 2.5 G5 to a 2.66 Mac Pro (& XT1900), and in doing so have imported approx 50,000 images into my Aperture library.

Even with 2GB RAM I've noticed the Mac Pro really struggles, with looooong lags. I'd wanted to wait until the Pro RAM prices came down a little, but it's now getting very tiresome.

So, I'm curious to know the amount of RAM people have found to be a happy medium?

4GB+ seems to be calling <cries my wallet> :)
 
My iMac (1.9 GHz G5) has 1GB, I really should have more for Aperture and FCP but I don't feel like spending the money. Aperture runs fine while I'm listening to iTunes except when I do straightening, then it gets slow and iTunes skips a little.
 
My iMac (1.9 GHz G5) has 1GB, I really should have more for Aperture and FCP but I don't feel like spending the money. Aperture runs fine while I'm listening to iTunes except when I do straightening, then it gets slow and iTunes skips a little.
That sounds more like a CPU issue then RAM. I don't get that iTunes skipping issue on dual-core. *shrug*
 
I have 2GB here and it's fine for me on a MacBook Pro (CD).

Kind of scary that you're having that type of performance. What size are those photos you're importing (on average)? Are they RAW or JPG? I'm curious.
 
I have 2GB here and it's fine for me on a MacBook Pro (CD).

Kind of scary that you're having that type of performance. What size are those photos you're importing (on average)? Are they RAW or JPG? I'm curious.

Yes, I should have mentioned - these are the RAW files from my Canon 5D (12.7mp). Average RAW file is approx 12mb per file, and 70mb+ if converted to TIFF.

I would say my libray is 90% JPEG though :)
 
I went from 2GB to 4GB and Aperture responded very positively, no writing out to the HDD at any point which is good given I'm working with RAW images.
 
Yes, I should have mentioned - these are the RAW files from my Canon 5D (12.7mp). Average RAW file is approx 12mb per file, and 70mb+ if converted to TIFF.

I would say my libray is 90% JPEG though :)

Very odd. As another poster said, he's having better experience with 4GB. More than 60% of my photos in my Aperture library are RAW from a Canon 20D. Yes, they're smaller than your 5D, but they're still 8-10mb or so. 34,957 files as of now.
 
After a couple of days of constant lock-up's when using Aperture, I came to the end of my tether and wrote the following rant to Apple:

I purchased Aperture 1.5 two-to-three weeks ago, and - as with most Apple software - have found it very intuitive, and to a great extent a real pleasure to use.

Yet, this is not my reason for contacting you. My Aperture experience has taken a massive downturn, leaving me questioning my future use of the application.

What has caused this? Aperture's speed (or lack of it!).

My personal library contains 50,000+ of images taken over a period of 5-6 years, using cameras in variety from a 0.3 megapixel camera phone, to my current camera – a 12.8 megapixel Canon 5D.

Upon importing my library to the computers hard drive, I noticed my computer (a high spec dual 2.5GHz G5) was badly labouring. Not the result I was expecting, but then again the computer was nearly 2 years old and so maybe it was a time to upgrade.

Soon I was the happy owner of a 2.66GHz Mac Pro, with XT1900 graphics card, and 2GB RAM. A computer which was “ushering in a new era of outstanding performance”, which contained a “state-of-the-art processor, [making] Mac Pro one of the fastest desktop computers on the planet.”

Again, I imported my library of images directly into Aperture. Result: much the same as with the G5. Frustrating, but maybe I’d expected too much.

I then purchased another 2GB of RAM in the hope that a total of 4GB would pep things up a bit, and what’s more, to help ease the situation I reduced the size of my library; again, and again, and again. Having slashed my library down to 15,000 images (approx 40GB), and with very little improvement, I stopped. With so little return, why reduce it further still?

“Shooting more than you’ve ever shot before? Everyone is. And that’s why Aperture was designed with powerful photo management tools. Not only can this innovative application accommodate hundreds of thousands of images…”

Hundreds of thousands?!! Don’t make me laugh.

Aperture must be one of the most in-efficient applications ever to have been invented, and is certainly one of the most frustrating.

To rule out a hardware problem, I tried iView Media Pro, and Adobe Lightroom beta. These two applications fly, and are infinitely faster than ambling Aperture.

Please tell me my ‘investment’ in Aperture has not be wasted. Please tell me we can expect a huge increase in speed with Aperture 1.5.2, as without it, this app is dead in the water.

Has anybody else shared this experience?
 
I have 2GB here and it's fine for me on a MacBook Pro (CD).

Kind of scary that you're having that type of performance. What size are those photos you're importing (on average)? Are they RAW or JPG? I'm curious.

Really? I have a 30D and I've been using Aperture on my old MBP 1.8ghz 2gb ram machine. I used to believe that Aperture ran ok. It could be sluggish and sure 1.5 was definitely faster but since I sent my MBP back for a refund I've been using Windows on my A64 2ghz 1gb PC. Now what I've noticed is that iView MediaPro can handle over 50k of images without any issue on a lesser machine. It even runs fine on my PPC Mac Mini. RawShooter runs quickly too. Lesser machine yet faster workflow. Its made me re-evaluate Aperture. Going from the information on Barefeats it seems I'll never get the true performance I want from Aperture on my new MBP 2.16ghz 2gb C2D model. So my plan is to use iView MediaPro to manage my images as its fast and works on any machine I own. I will then use Photoshop or perhaps learn Capture 1 to edit my RAW's. Sure Aperture is nice but it just feels bloated some days. It shouldn't lag or slowdown when other similar apps have no issue on worse hardware.
 
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