ACDSee Ultimate 2022 very slow Raw decode

[eevalf]

I have seen recently upgraded from ACDSee Ultimate 2020 to 2022. I have initially noticed that exporting photos seemed to take a lot longer in the new version, as well as entering develop mode, as has been noted in another thread.

I think the root cause of this slow performance is that somehow the Raw decoding has gotten dramatically slower in the new version. To test this, when I open a raw file in view mode with the "RAW Decode" option checked, ACDSee gives the load time. Raw files from my D850 that used to take around 4 seconds to decode on ACDSee 2020 now take around 15 seconds to be decoded, a 300% increase in decoding time. This is opening the same exact file from an SSD on the same computer.

To make sure there was no external factor affecting the tests I installed a trial version of ACDSee Ultimate 2020 2021 and 2022 on a virtual machine running an up to date fresh install of Windows 10. The only setting I changed in each version of ACDSee was to disable face recognition to prevent it to hog the CPU. Both ACDSee 2020 and 2021 decoded the RAW files in a similar time and once again I noticed that ACDSee 2022 was taking roughly 4 times longer to decode the same fiiles. I also ran the tests with raw files from my Sony RX100 V and noticed the same difference in performance.

Have other users noticed this performance issue ? For the time being I have decided to keep using ACDSee 2020 since the few new features in 2022 do not justify such a big performance hit.

[Greyfox]

Have other users noticed this performance issue ?

Frankly, No

I have U2021 and U2022 installed on the same PC.
For comparison I used a 24.0MP 6000 x 4000px 137.3 MB uncompressed RAW image from a Sony A9-MK2 camera.

Open ACDSee
Select image in Manage mode
Click on Develop
Time to Image completely decoded in Develop mode

U2021 2.97 seconds
U2022 3.01 seconds

Obviously reaction time pressing stop watch buttons could be an issue..

I get similar performance with 24.2 MP .NEF RAW images from Nikon D600, and from 24.0 MP Sony A7 MK3 RAW images.

The images are on a local SSD drive. Tools/General/Raw display is set to RAW decode. .

For all practical purposes, I see no difference between U2021 and U2022 in regards to the decode time.

[eevalf]

Thanks for your reply Greyfox. This is really strange...

To remove any uncertainty regarding timing during my tests, when opening an image in View mode with the Raw Decode on, ACDSee displays the loading time at the bottom of the window. In the case of this particular image the loading time in U2020 was 4.73s vs 11.09s in U2022. The loading times vary from image to image and the ratio between the U2022 and U2020 speed varies between 2 and 4.

[Greyfox]

eevalf



I thought you were talking decode time in Develop.
As you can see in View mode U2022 is takling just 0.75 second for the Sony A9 image (raw decode set)

Open ACDSee
Select folder in Manage mode
Select Image
Click on View
Time 0.75 sec.

There are many factors that could affect this. I'd perhaps start by looking at whether your antivirus is playing a part. For instance are the exclusions the same for both applications.

[Regor250]

Are you running Avast? Check other threads of similar discussions. I have issues with Avast+U2022 I never had before with U2021.

[Framon]

@ eevalf :
I had never activated "RAW Decode". I just did some tests now and I also notice that it takes about 30 times longer to load if this setting is enabled. But it is true that my PC is not a very powerful model.
As I only have the 2022 version installed, I can't make any further comparisons.

Naive question: what is the interest of activating this option?

What I also noticed is that switching from "View" to "Edit" mode for a RAW file takes 5 times more time than switching from "View" to "Develop" mode.
I don't know why but it doesn't bother me because I always use the "Develop" mode for RAW...

[eevalf]

Are you running Avast? Check other threads of similar discussions. I have issues with Avast+U2022 I never had before with U2021.

I had seen the other thread, I am not running Avast, only the native Windows Virus & Threat Protection. I ran the test again with the protection disabled and the results are the same

[eevalf]

@ eevalf :
I had never activated "RAW Decode". I just did some tests now and I also notice that it takes about 30 times longer to load if this setting is enabled. But it is true that my PC is not a very powerful model.
As I only have the 2022 version installed, I can't make any further comparisons.

Naive question: what is the interest of activating this option?

What I also noticed is that switching from "View" to "Edit" mode for a RAW file takes 5 times more time than switching from "View" to "Develop" mode.
I don't know why but it doesn't bother me because I always use the "Develop" mode for RAW...

This option is used to display the actual content of the raw files instead of the jpeg preview that is also stored by the camera in the raw file. It can be useful for some camera models that store a heavily compressed jpeg preview, such as the Sony RX100 V, it is not so useful for cameras that store a decent preview such as Nikon DSLRs.

[Framon]

OK, eevalf, thank You. I use a Canon 7D Mk II, So a decent camera also... ;-)

[dizzyrobot]

I've been seeing the same problem. I upgraded to 2022 from 2020 and certain things become a lot slower. It took me a while to figure it out, but it seems anything that requires RAW decode is slower. This has been my experience in using 2020 and 2022 on the same computer and running tests on the same files:

DEVELOP MODE
RAW in 2020 - smooth and quick
JPG in 2022 - smooth and quick
RAW in 2022- slow and jerky, cannot edit in real time, I make a change to a setting then have to wait a moment to see the results

EDIT MODE
RAW in 2022 - smooth and quick after the initial load (I think this is because the file is converted to acdsee format before edits begin)

EXPORT 4 IMAGES
RAW in 2020 - takes about 7 seconds
JPG in 2022 - takes about 3 seconds
RAW in 2022 - takes almost a minute

FACE DETECTION OF 4 IMAGES
RAW in 2020 - takes about 7 seconds
JPG in 2022 - takes about 3 seconds
RAW in 2022 - takes about 50 seconds

I use Canon CR2 files myself but I downloaded sample RAW files in NEF (Nikon), ARW (Sony), and DNG formats and had the same results. So it doesn't seem to be a problem with the decode for specific formats but something more general. I tried disabling decode/encode plugins for any formats I didn't need, but that didn't have any impact.

[Greyfox]

dizzyrobot

If you are by chance using Avast antivirus, it appears from this and other threads that it can have a significant effect on the performance of U2022, perhaps more so than it did on U2021 and maybe U2020. That might also apply to some other 3rd party Antivirus products.

I can't speak for others. I'm not experiencing any performance issues with U2022 (see the example times I posted posted earlier in this thread), nor did I with U2021, which I have on the same PC. I have U2020, but it is on an older and slower PC, and as should be expected, it's performance isn't up to that of U2021 and U2022.

There are just too many variables that could affect individual installations on different PC's, and even different versions on the same PC, to be able to offer anything definitive in the way of improving the situation on your particular PC.

You could perhaps open a support ticket at https://www.acdsee.com/en/support/, provide them a specific image or images, and a detailed set of steps that will consistently show a significant difference between the two versions, and see what they have to say.

[dizzyrobot]

Thanks for the reply Greyfox. I did see the comments about Avast. I don't have Avast - just the built in Windows security. I've already tried turning that off and just about any other services I have with no impact.

My system meets or exceeds all the hardware and software requirements. There shouldn't be any reason for any of it to be slow. That's why I mentioned the speed in Edit mode which is fine. I figure Edit mode is the most complex part of the software and if any part was going to be slow it would be that. But it runs fine for me, and I presume that's because it's not actually working with the RAW file, but a version that's been copied into acdsee format. If the problem isn't related to RAW files, then I would expect to see other slow downs or differences in work processes that don't involve RAW files. But that hasn't been my experience.

I see that some (most?) people don't have problems with 2022. So perhaps it's some kind of issue with a specific hardware set or something. I was throwing my experience out there in case it helps bring us closer to a solution for those that do have a problem.

I do have an open ticket with ACDSee. It started out as a generic "it's slow" ticket because I hadn't yet grasped the slowness only happened with RAW files. In my last reply to support, I explained essentially what I said above - stating my theory that it's a problem with the new version of the RAW decode. I haven't gotten a reply yet but I will share the response here.

[Greyfox]

dizzyrobot

Thanks for the feedback. Yes it will be interesting to see what Support have to say.

In my view, in terms of the image itself, the three modes View, Develop and Edit all have one thing in common, they have to take the RAW file (ex camera and not previously processed) and decode it using the appropriate decode for that image type, and AFAIK that is being done via the ID_DCRaw.api. While there are other considerations such as the different layouts and whether the film strip is enabled in each of the different modes, the basic decode can be accurately timed in view mode, where the time to full decode is shown in the status bar.

The time I'm seeing for the decode of a Canon .CR2 RAW image from a Canon EOS-60d camera (17.9MP, 102.5 MB uncompressed size) is consistently 1.04 seconds with OpenCL image processing enabled, and 1.2 seconds with OpenCL disabled (ACDSee restarted in each case), which is somewhat slower than the 0.75 second for the larger Sony A9 MK2 image I posted earlier. (24MP 137.3MB uncompressed). Interestingly that has now increased to 0.79 seconds (OpenCL enabled) with a change to the latest NViDIA 511.65 drives installed today.

Going by the release notes, there has been support added for at least 44 additional cameras since 2020, (17 in 2021 plus 10 in a RAW update in 2021 and 17 in 2022), so there would have been changes to possibly the ID_DCRaw.api itself and also possibly the LibRaw components.

[dizzyrobot]

I did the View RAW Decode time test on a fresh database with the default layout in 2022. The typical decode time is about 16 seconds. In 2020, the typical decode time is about 2 seconds. I'll pass that along to support.

[Emil]

I did the View RAW Decode time test on a fresh database with the default layout in 2022.

I'd not only try a fresh db but also move "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ACD Systems" aside.