darktable slower or misconfigured?

I did a fresh setup of Xubuntu 26.04 (no upgrade) with darktable 5.6.1-1.1+120.1 (from OBS repo)

What is confusing me:

3.1965 [dev_process_export] pixel pipeline processing took 1.957 secs (2.324 CPU)

With 24.04 I had a benchmark with below 1.5secs, but probably older dt, when I tested. About 2secs is a lot more. Full log attached.

Could I do something wrong? I removed the installed darktable dir and use the dir from Ubuntu 24.04. Both use the same darktable version.

darktable 5.6.1 with xubuntu 26.04.1.txt (10.5 KB)

1 Like

I am on Windows 11 and have not noticed any slower processing but I am not bench marking.

1 Like

Darktable is as fast as it is, this needs no discussion. But it makes sense to be aware of bad configuration.

Last time I learned, that my renderings got a lot faster, setting ā€œdarktable resourcesā€ to large.

I should have access to a 24.04 manchine with the same graphics-adapter but faster cpu. I will try a benchmark there. I do benchmark too, to see if opencl works.

I think this corresponds to my log:

[dt_get_sysresource_level] switched to `large’
[opencl_init] opencl_scheduling_profile: ā€˜very fast GPU’

With all my machines, Linux is about 30% faster than Windows.

Can I do the test via ssh?

[opencl_init] FINALLY: opencl PREFERENCE=NO is NOT AVAILABLE and NOT ENABLED

I am quoting my own posting with dt 5.2

2.7521 [dev_process_export] pixel pipeline processing took 1.516 secs (2.361 CPU)

On my archlinux machine I also noticed that Darktable is slower since 5.6. In my experience what is slow is when I switch between modules : the first time I use the exposure module, I’ll have to wait a bit, then each exposure modification will be fast, but if I move to another module, let’s say RGB Curve, the first alteration will be slow and then reasonably fast again.
I did not experience this with 5.4 and I did not change my configuration. 5.6.1 behave that same way than 5.6 for me.

I did not talk about it before because I didn’t want to bitch about my very beloved software that I couldn’t contribute a single line of code to.

1 Like

There were some changes that slowed down darktable for 5.6.0. Afaik, those changes have been reverted for 5.6.1

Indeed, bitching isn’t nice. But reporting an unwanted change is the only practical way to get bugs corrected(*). And asking about it here is an easy way to see if there are more that have the same issue before posting a bug report on github. And filing bug reports is a way to contribute, even if you can’t code, if you are willing to follow up on the reported issues (not just file the report and disappear).

Note that you can’t ask for someone else to file a bug report for you: the devs may have to ask you for extra information.


(* : some bugs can appear only on certain hardware figurations, OS versions, or combinations thereof; the devs don’t have access to all possible combinations…)

3 Likes

Maybe @sugarbravo (Šarūnas Burdulis) can say something about this topic. He has an Intel B580 too.

If someone needs the setubal files for testing, you can get it here:
https://math.dartmouth.edu/~sarunas/bench_raw/setubal/

The only thing, why I am discussing this, is not optimal configuration by me. Some nice people here posted their Nvidia-benchmarks a while ago, and I wondered a lot of the differences compared to my nvidia-card.

I have no problem with the dt speed itself.

I have no idea, but there could be new configuration options in dt, which influence the benchmark.

It could happen too, that a new driver of the graphic adapter influences the speed.

Which NVidia card?

That’s not an NVidia card afaik… (but it is the same as in the log of your first post)

So if you do have an Nvidia ward in your computer, something is misconfigured, as that card isn’t seen at all (going by the log in the first post)

The screen shot you posted shows that you in fact told dt not to use any NVidia card/driver on your system. (the white dot next to the unchecked box), or rather, you forced dt to only use an Intel GPU

For sure, it is an Intel card.

But the topic is about not oprimal configuration, and I think mainly you can do things wrong with configuration:

And then it doesn’t depend, if you use Intel or Nvidia. With my pcs, setting sysresource to large makes a big difference, which is not default.

I had discussions here about a better card than NVIDIA TU116 [GeForce GTX 1660]. So I tried to compare benchmarks and found out, that my card has benchmarks nearly as good as a lot more expensive card. There ware 2 reasons: dt-configuration and Linux vs Win. At the end I landed at Intel.

So I am discussing here, if there are options which could slow down dt. I am not talking about, that dt is slow.

If dt got slower, no problem for me, but I know then, that it is not a configuration issue with my pc.

Data transfer rates between devices can slow thing down besides the GPU.

Debian Sid with daily updates, Intel Arc B580.

I ran darktable-cli benchmark on 5.4.1 again just before upgrading to 5.6.1. Then benchmark on 5.6.1, and there was no difference in timing, neither for CPU-only, nor OpenCL on GPU processing.

However 5.4.1 processing was now a bit slower compared to tests several months ago:

CPU: 10.4 → 11.4 (s)
GPU: 2.7 → 2.8 (s)

darktable 5.4.1 didn’t change of course, but OS did, including, but not limited to, Intel kernel module xe and OpenCL runtime.

Thanks a lot. So I should be happy with

I am wondering that Debian is so much slower than Ubuntu 26.04.

So it looks like my darktable configuration is fine.

If someone is interested in my system:

System:
  Kernel: 7.0.0-28-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 Distro: Xubuntu 24.04.4 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (MS-7E62)
    v: 2.0 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 2.A44
    date: 07/11/2025
CPU:
  Info: 12-core model: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 bits: 64 type: MT MCP MCM cache:
    L2: 12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3051 min/max: 430/5485 cores: 1: 4072 2: 3007 3: 3007
    4: 3007 5: 3007 6: 3007 7: 3007 8: 3007 9: 3007 10: 3007 11: 3007 12: 3007
    13: 3007 14: 3007 15: 3007 16: 3007 17: 3007 18: 3007 19: 3007 20: 3007
    21: 3007 22: 3007 23: 3007 24: 3007
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel driver: xe v: kernel
  Device-2: AMD Raphael driver: amdgpu v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu,modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: xe
    resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,kms_swrast,radeonsi,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa
    v: 25.2.8-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 renderer: Mesa Intel Arc B580 Graphics (BMG G21)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib

Sorry this was a query with the old system. Now it is:

$ inxi -Fz

System:
  Kernel: 7.0.0-31-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.1 Distro: Xubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (Resolute Raccoon)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (MS-7E62)
    v: 2.0 serial: <superuser required> Firmware: UEFI vendor: American
    Megatrends LLC. v: 2.A44 date: 07/11/2025
CPU:
  Info: 12-core model: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
    L2: 12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3598 min/max: 430/5485 cores: 1: 3598 2: 3598 3: 3598
    4: 3598 5: 3598 6: 3598 7: 3598 8: 3598 9: 3598 10: 3598 11: 3598 12: 3598
    13: 3598 14: 3598 15: 3598 16: 3598 17: 3598 18: 3598 19: 3598 20: 3598
    21: 3598 22: 3598 23: 3598 24: 3598
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Battlemage G21 [Arc B580] driver: xe v: kernel
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Raphael driver: amdgpu
    v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.22 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.10 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu,modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: xe
    resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,kms_swrast,radeonsi,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 26.0.8-1ubuntu0.3
    renderer: Mesa Intel Arc B580 Graphics (BMG G21)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 drivers: intel,radv,llvmpipe surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: xfce4-display-settings wl: swaymsg x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop,
    xrandr
...

Did you do firmware-updates?

I have:

~# fwupdmgr get-devices | grep "Aktuelle Version"
Bereit …: 0%
│ │   Aktuelle Version:   21.1182
│ │     Aktuelle Version: 203.1
│ │     Aktuelle Version: 23.1066.0.0
│       Aktuelle Version: 23.1051.0.0

DT 5.4.1 vs 5.6.1 on AMD - ROCm


1 Like