Very few apps stretch the CPU in this way, and the compute power of our computers far exceeds the needs of most of our apps. (Adobe has also increased the use of processors for Library and export activities as well.) Camera Raw's non-destructive editing model, especially with all the newer adjustments Adobe has added in the later process versions, is much more CPU-intensive than the simpler pixel-editing model of Photoshop et al. Adobe has worked hard in the last couple of years to make it faster, by using more of the available processors and the GPU (using the GPU effectively can require using more of the processors). The number one complaint about LR and Camera Raw over the years has been that it is too slow.

Here's the total CPU usage resulting from moving the exposure slider back and forth for about 5 seconds:īut I think this CPU usage is by design and desirable. I observe the same behavior on my MacBook Pro with a Retina display. I just tried to move the exposure slider and the CPU percentage went up to 605% and the fans just fired up at full speed. When doing absolutely nothing, LR should consume no more than 5-10% CPU. You can check that by running Activity Monitor. You can see which of these background activities (previews, sync, face detection) is running by clicking on the nameplate in the upper-left corner:įinally, there have be a few intermittent reports of LR consuming a lot of CPU when supposedly no foreground or background activities are occurring. You can either wait overnight for it to complete or disable sync and restart LR. This can take a while if you have lots of photos synced, but once it's done, you shouldn't notice it again. If you have Sync with the LR CC enabled, LR 7.2 introduced a new background activity that computes a one-time hash for every synced photo. This can take a long time for large catalogs. It may be building a lot of previews (especially if you've just moved to a new computer).

LR may be running some background activities increasing the CPU load:

Complaints about excessive fan noise should be directed to Apple. That consumes a lot more power, which generates a lot more heat, which requires fans to dissipate. A frequent complaint about LR is that it is too slow, so Adobe has worked hard to have LR use as much of the CPU and graphics processor as possible. Most apps use only a tiny fraction of your processor's capacity.

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