Hey everyone! So I’ve been using DxO PhotoLab for a while and lately it’s been running kinda slow, especially with the AI Mask features and processing RAW files. I’m starting to think my hardware just isn’t keeping up anymore. I’ve been browsing around on Amazon, eBay, and eTech Devices looking at GPUs and workstations but honestly have no idea what’s actually worth buying for photo editing. Like does the GPU really make that big of a difference in PhotoLab or is it more about the CPU and RAM? Would love to hear what setup you guys are running and if you have any recommendations. Any help is super appreciated, thanks!
Yes, a good GPU is definitely a prerequisite for good performance from PhotoLab - especially for AI masking.
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As @John-M mentioned, a decent GPU is essential to PhotoLab running smoothly.
As of now, PhotoLab is a resource intensive application.
It benefits greatly from decent components in every part of your system: CPU, memory, GPU, and SSD/storage.
If you penny pinch elsewhere (a poor motherboard, PSU etc.) that also won’t help, but those are essentially small potatoes vs. the important stuff I mentioned above.
That said I’m able to run it reasonably with a 12+ year old system. At the time of building said system it was fairly high-spec, so it’s aged well, but even so it’s not buttery smooth at all times, and exporting can take a while. Depending on how I go about editing (whether masks are used (and how many), Lens Sharpness Optimisation, the de-noising process I pick in PhotoLab) I’ve seen a single photo export go from 15 seconds to 45 seconds. Same photo… different settings/process in PhotoLab.
Long story short: A good system does make a difference.
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As others have already said, PL requires a decent GPU.
My experience as a simple amateur not taking a huge number of pictures is that:
- PL9 runs comfortably on my Core i7, 16GB RAM, RTX 4050 6GB VRAM laptop
- PL9 is far more comfortable on my Core Ultra 7 265, 32GB RAM, RTX 5070 12GB VRAM desktop PC
In that context, and bearing in mind that hardware requirements are only likely to increase, to try to future proof your purchase to some extent, I would suggest you ought to buy something with a similar spec to that of my desktop PC. NB others here are likely to have different advice.
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I agree with that. I have an M4 iMac with 16 gig ram. It does not run PL9 well - it is a very jerky with the sliders. It is a laggy experience, more-so so when AI masking is brought into the equation. By comparison LrC runs as smooth as silk so the issue must be PLs coding. I can’t see me upgrading to V10 unless DxO do something about the performance.
I’m using a mac mini m4pro with 24gb ram. With each update of PL9 the reactivity is going down - not dramatic at all, but noticeable - performance overall is still very good. I moved from Win11 to Mac and I#m still very happy with this move - size, power consumption and efficiency is miles ahead of a Win PC.