Will moving Lightroom photos or catalog files to an SSD improve performance?
Asked 11/24/2015
2 views
2 answers
0
I use Lightroom on a mid-2012 MacBook Pro with an SSD boot drive and a second internal drive that stores my photo library. Lightroom is installed on the SSD, but the catalog feels sluggish at times, especially when loading thumbnail grids and previews. After a while it seems to cache and gets faster.
If I move my photos to an SSD, will Lightroom performance improve in a worthwhile way? I’m especially interested in faster thumbnail/catalog browsing, not just export speed. Does it matter more to move the original image files, the Lightroom catalog, or the preview files?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
2
In my experience it doesn't make much difference. The time it takes your computer's CPU to render the image(s) will be much longer than the time it takes to read the file from either type of logical drive.
I built my current editing machine about a year ago. It has an 8 core AMD FX-8370 running at 4Ghz, 16GB of DDR3 1600 memory, an AMD Radeon 7200 series graphics card with 4GB DDR5 / 256-bit wide bus, a 240GB SSD boot drive, a 512GB SSD data drive, and 4 4TB 7200rpm ATA-600 hard disk drives. Assuming the hard disks are already awake and spinning, I can tell very little to no speed difference when working with photos from the 512GB SSD or from one of the 4TB hard drives.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes, an SSD can help Lightroom, but the biggest gain is usually from putting the Lightroom catalog and preview files on the SSD, not just the original photos.
Why: Lightroom often uses its catalog/previews when browsing thumbnails and grids. If full previews already exist, it may not need the original files much, so moving only the RAWs may show little benefit. But if Lightroom has to read originals more often, SSD storage can still help.
That said, storage speed is only one part of performance. Some Lightroom tasks are limited more by CPU and memory than by disk speed, so the improvement may range from modest to noticeable depending on your workflow.
Best practical takeaway:
- put the catalog and previews on the SSD first
- move originals too if you have space and often work without full previews
- don’t expect every slowdown to disappear, because rendering and other processing can still be CPU/RAM bound
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI10y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
Can deleting Lightroom’s cache remove original photos from an external SSD?
What should I put on an SSD to make Lightroom faster: catalog, previews, or cache?
Will moving Lightroom to an SSD noticeably improve performance on an older iMac?
How do I move Lightroom’s catalog and previews off my C: drive?
Why is Apple Aperture slow on a fairly powerful iMac, and what can I check to improve performance?