Improving RAW file export times via new computer

[Macshroomer]

Hi, I am a full time pro who has been in business for nearly 30 years, I shoot commercial advertising and editorial work on digital, fine art black and white on film using a darkroom. I use Nikon, Leica and Hasselblad for both digital and film work.

For the most part, my workflow is tolerable as I use very little if any photoshop in my work, get it right in camera. But the two things I want to see improved are thumbnail render times and most importantly the time in which it takes to convert raw files to either TIFF or JEPG ( depends on the client, ad firm likes TIFF, New York Times likes JPEG ).

I'm using a 13" Retina from 2013 and a fairly built up MacPro from 2012. I am considering upgrading the laptop to a maxed out 2017 15" but I really need to get into the nuts and bolts of just how much faster is this going to be at rendering thumbnails, processing 24MP, 36MP and 50MP RAW files from my cameras?

There is just not a heck of a lot out there, it's all 3-D rendering, gaming and other tech-head benchmarks. So when one figures in all the usual Moore's Law type of incremental speed increases and how they actually apply to the real world, how does this actually bear out in plowing through hundreds of RAW files on a job, would the new 15" maxed out cut my export times in half of what they would be with my 2013 Retina or....what?

 

[robgendreau]

You're right. Hard to say. Time it on your machine, then scuttle down to a store with a thumbdrive and time it on one of Apple's. Different software may affect the result as well.

The speediest solution might be a dedicated Windows machine, if you have to do say a whole ton of exports.

But without knowing the software, RAW formats, workflow, and so on we'd just be throwing wild A guesses at you.

 

[Macshroomer]

But without knowing the software, RAW formats, workflow, and so on we'd just be throwing wild A guesses at you.

I use Photoshop, Bridge, Lightroom, DXO Optics Pro and Hasselblad Phocus to export RAW files from
Nikon D750 / D810, Leica M240 and a Hasselblad CFV50c digital back.

The closest Apple store is 220 miles away, so the flash drive thing is not really a viable option. I just figured since RAW converting via Adobe type products has been around since 2003, there has to be an ongoing insight into how hardware plays into this.

I could always just buy the machine and see how it does and if it is only a marginal improvement, return it within the 14 day window.

 

[Moakesy]

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but just tried a simple test.

Details of my machine are:
MBP with touch bar (late 2016) 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3
Radeon Pro 455 2048 MB & Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB

I have done two tests for you. I used the same 100 RAW files and exported them in either JPEG or Tiff. All this done using Lightroom.

100 x RAW (NEF) Images from a Nikon D750, so each image was 24MP

Test 1) Exported to JPEG, Highest quality. Time was 3mins 17s
Test 2) Exported to TIFF, No compression. Time was 3mins 2s

All images taken from and exported to the SSD, so no external drives etc.

Assuming you can do a similar test on your current machine, you should be able to compare results.

Hope that helps.

 

[TheDrift-]

I have a top spec i7,SSD 2015 MBP, it takes (i just timed it) a little over 2 ½ mins to render 50 full size jpegs from full size 5d iv RAW files.

I do have it set to apply screen sharpening and all meta data too.

I have found the 'Brew' fix to be a great help when importing/exporting large amounts of files....This generally involves wandering away and having a cup of coffee, while this does nothing to improve speed, you do of course end up a cup of coffee better off.

 

[Macshroomer]

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but just tried a simple test.

Details of my machine are:
MBP with touch bar (late 2016) 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3
Radeon Pro 455 2048 MB & Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB

I have done two tests for you. I used the same 100 RAW files and exported them in either JPEG or Tiff. All this done using Lightroom.

100 x RAW (NEF) Images from a Nikon D750, so each image was 24MP

Test 1) Exported to JPEG, Highest quality. Time was 3mins 17s
Test 2) Exported to TIFF, No compression. Time was 3mins 2s

All images taken from and exported to the SSD, so no external drives etc.

Assuming you can do a similar test on your current machine, you should be able to compare results.

Hope that helps.

Being the same camera, this helps a lot, thanks!

So I did the same test with 100 D750 files doing test 1 and got 6 minutes flat with the 2013 Retina 13" and 4:50 with my 2012 MacPro 6 x 3.46.

I am betting with the new 2017 maxed out I will get sub 3 minutes which looks like a good upgrade.

I think this seals the deal, I am pulling the trigger!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Being the same camera, this helps a lot, thanks!

So I did the same test with 100 D750 files doing test 1 and got 6 minutes flat with the 2013 Retina 13" and 4:50 with my 2012 MacPro 6 x 3.46.

I am betting with the new 2017 maxed out I will get sub 3 minutes which looks like a good upgrade.

I think this seals the deal, I am pulling the trigger!

Be sure to post back the results as you are right there is little out there for real world tests.
[doublepost=1499113364][/doublepost]

I have a top spec i7,SSD 2015 MBP, it takes (i just timed it) a little over 2 ½ mins to render 50 full size jpegs from full size 5d iv RAW files.

I do have it set to apply screen sharpening and all meta data too.

I have found the 'Brew' fix to be a great help when importing/exporting large amounts of files....This generally involves wandering away and having a cup of coffee, while this does nothing to improve speed, you do of course end up a cup of coffee better off.

Or just browse MR for a few minutes in between.

 

[Macshroomer]

Got my MacBook pro today, I did the same 100 NEF D750 files in 3:00 flat. I'm happy.

 

[Foogoofish]

Very glad you're happy! I don't know if this is useful anymore, but I found it this morning while researching similar and thought it was a very interesting read in case anyone is looking for similar info in the future regarding number of cores and the usefulness of an 8 / 12 / 16 core system (iMac Pro / nMac Pro) setup in Lightroom.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Lightroom-CC-6-Multi-Core-Performance-649/

G

 

[Macshroomer]

Very glad you're happy! I don't know if this is useful anymore, but I found it this morning while researching similar and thought it was a very interesting read in case anyone is looking for similar info in the future regarding number of cores and the usefulness of an 8 / 12 / 16 core system (iMac Pro / nMac Pro) setup in Lightroom.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Adobe-Lightroom-CC-6-Multi-Core-Performance-649/

G

I think that considering Adobe has really done very little in the way of optimizing software to speed up with current and future hardware, this is very valuable, so thanks! It looks like once you get passed 4 cores, significant increases in clock speed are what is needed to make a dent in timing.

My only gripe about this machine is that it is still only at 16GB of ram which I suspect will change in no later than two more product announcements, likely one. So I will keep this sucker mint if I decide to move to that machine. I usually keep my laptops for right around 4 years but 32GB of RAM will likely see this next cycle be an exception.