47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I use ON1 Photo Raw 2019.5 (release of today 13.5.1.7136) and have been plagued by slow rendering of raw files (most are about 24-26mb) ever since the initial bug infested version of 2019.5. My computer is a 5 yr old Dell XPS 8700 running a quad i7 processor with 16gb memory along with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 635 GPU. Other issues aside, I contacted ON1 tech support about the slow rendering and a couple other sluggage performance gripes. After a pretty lengthy discussion where the tech reported that he couldn't duplicate my problems, he suggested that my "older" computer's GPU was likely a contributor to the rendering issue. ON1 puts a lot of burden on the GPU, so he said and then suggested I consider upgrading the GPU. Even though he didn't offer any specific recommendations, he did say that a gaming GPU was not necessary, but that I look for a bus powered card (single fan?), relatively low (<85w nominally) power consumption from my 460w computer power supply, 4gb of onboard memory, and support for OpenGL 4.0 or higher. I have the room in the chassis for a double width card but it can't be any longer than about 7 1/2 inches. I don't game at all and would ideally, given the age of the computer, like to keep the cost under $200. Since the XPS 8700 is not a gaming machine, should I also be concerned about heat buildup within the chassis? I have quickly found myself wrapped around the "too many choices" axle. Adobe has a web page where they list cards they have tested but provide no information on results. I did run across an article on "punchtechnology.co.uk that listed a number of cards, a one that I've looked at that appears to meet the suggest criteria, namely the NVidia GTX 1050 4gb.
So.... cutting to the chase, I'm interested in opinions from UHH users that have faced a similar dilemma and what their course of action was, particularly if you upgraded the GPU. Or... since my desktop has a few years under its belt whether I should learn to live with the performance as is?

Shooter313

You didn't mention what kind of hard drive your using? Is it a regular HD or a Solid State hard drive, sort of like a big memory chip?
In today's machines I have found the biggest slow down on computers to be their hard drives. While it may be your graphics card, I would suspect the hard drive more.
As your running a i7 processor, I'm pretty sure that's not your problem.
When ever I build a new box either for myself or one of my clients, the two things I never scrimp on is the HD, and the graphics card. I only use gaming cards myself. Over the last 100 years or so I have found that photo software is constantly straining what ever is currently on the market for non gaming cards. I have never regretted the money I have spent on top end products for my computer's..be it memory, video cards, or hard drives. I always used the best LAST generation of mother board available. (The new ones are seldom worth the money..next year a new BETTER one will be out, and the one you bought can now for several hundred bucks can then be had for a LOT less!)
It's a digital world my friend, but only if you can show it on a screen properly.
Good luck to you! ;)
Gary*

TBerwick Loc: Houston, Texas

Make sure the space you're looking at in you Dell allows the use of a PCIe card. GTX1050 & up "should" meet your needs and the amount of RAM in your system should be sufficient. I concur with the hard drive mentioned by Gary up above. A solid state drive ( SSD ) makes a world of difference in apparent machine speed. You didn't mention how much free space is on your hard drive. If it's loaded up with very little room left, your system is spending a lot of time utilizing disc space for your temp files which are created when using your programs.

elent

Look for the largest GPU in your price range. That would be the easiest way.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I have two 1TB 7200 rpm HDs. The main c: is <1/2 full, the 2nd drive has <100 mb.

Haydon

Your big bottleneck is your mechanical boot HD holding your applications and operating system. Look for a Sata SSD or if your board supports it a NVMe M2.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

I'm using an quad I5 processor, 16GB ram and a graphics card that cam over on the Queen Mary. Although I use a PC rather than a Mac I don't believe that makes a difference. I work with Photoshop and what helps me keep getting good results with my older equipment is the proper set up of my scratch disks. If ON1 also uses scratch disks what are you allocating for them and are you using your C drive for them also?
I am 99 and 44/100% sure the problem is not your graphics card.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

YNo question - spend your $200 on a 1TB SSD as suggested before considering a graphics card upgrade. If your MB will support an MVMe M2 disk then choose that - if not, choose a SATA connected SSD and be sure to use a 6Gb SATA port if available. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the performance increase. Personally, I would choose either an Intel or Samsung SSD.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

Rich - In program preferences, there is a "Scratch Folder Location heading. I had moved it to my second almost empty hard drive some time ago. That drive is a 1TB 7200 rpm drive.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

That shoots one thought down.

Can you control how much of your available ram ON1 is allowed to use? My system has 16GB and PS is set to use 12 of that.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I give the executable blessing to use 80% of ram, which is about the same as you.

ggab Loc: ?

He also needs to take into account:

1- Power supply limitations
2- PCIe availability. PCIe slots are much smaller than the standard card slot.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I had that Dell. Check the specs. It should be able to take a Me SSD card, a total of 32gigs of memory and and an upgraded video card

ggab Loc: ?

I just downloaded the same version on a homebrew PC that is roughly the same age. I use an AMD processor instead of Intel.
I have an NVidia GTX 650Ti Boost video card and the program is able to use that card for rendering, I can see it is selected in the preferences "system" tab.
Quick question, in preferences how do you have your performance slider set up? Mine is at about 75% quality. If rendering is slow, perhaps moving the slider to the left a bit will help.
I also find that setting the "Raw Preview" to "fast" improves the rendering a lot.
The default location for the scratch folder is the same folder the program is installed in.
I use an older SSD for my boot and program storage and a 7200 RPM 4TB Sata III drive for data storage.

My system works fine rendering Canon Raw Files, prox .5-.75 seconds per image. With all things computer, faster is always better. I find that over time, we get used to the speed our computers do things and want them done faster.

IR Jim Loc: St. Louis

Have you tried updating the drivers on your video card? If not I'd start there.