Thursday, October 27, 2011

High CPU usage when using Lightroom + Dual Monitor?

Question

Wasn't sure if I should ask this question here or at another part of stackexchange, but I figured there would be more people using Lightroom here.

I just purchased a second monitor and have noticed that when I combine the second monitor with Lightroom my CPU usage goes up way way high, more than 100%!

I am using:

Macbook Pro 2009 OSX Lion 10.7 Lightroom 3.3

Is there anyone else experiencing this? Thanks

Answer

The current version of Adobe Lightroom is 3.5, if you are on 3.3 I would first recommend updating to the 3.5 version.

The Macbook Pro mid-2009 13" model came with 2GB of ram standard, I would be worried that if you only have that installed, you are already at the minimum system requirements for Lightroom. To run Lightroom well I would personally recommend at least 4GB of ram, 8 if possible on a 64bit system. It is possible that your system may be trying to swap out physical memory with the swap file and that would increase your processor usage I believe.

Another question I have, is that you stated that your CPU usage is over 100%. What exactly is happening on your PC that has you concerned? Is the actual performance of Lightroom poor?

To help diagnose I would turn off all other applications after restarting the machine, and make sure it isn't an issue after a restart. This may help to find a memory leak within the application. If you are still having issues with Lightroom, I think your best bet is the Adobe Forums.

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