Usually, yes—Photo Mechanic is often perceived as faster for ingesting and culling than Lightroom. Lightroom’s import speed can vary a lot depending on settings like preview generation, whether it builds larger previews, and when it renders full-size images. If Lightroom is set to minimal previews and smart previews are off, the gap may be smaller, since simple file copying itself is limited by your card, drive, and computer speed. The big difference is that Photo Mechanic is designed primarily for fast ingesting, browsing, and selecting images, while Lightroom also handles cataloging and editing tasks that can slow the process. So if your priority is getting images in and reviewing them quickly, Photo Mechanic may feel much faster. If you need Lightroom’s editing and library features, it’s a different tool with different tradeoffs. The most reliable answer for your setup is to test both on the same card and files.