darktable takes more to show 100% image

Hello,

I am using DT 4.2
As part of ‘culling’, DT takes rather more time to show the image at 100%. I have the files on an internal HDD. I am thinking that HDD is leading to slow speed. Files being opened are Sony Compressed RAW (.ARW) . File size is 25mb. Let me know if you encountered this problem and how you resolved.

I am exploring the option of using PCIe 4.0 1TB SSD drive for storing the images. On paper this is 10times faster than SATA HDD which I am currently using.

I shoot at 20FPS and it produces heap of pictures. Going through every image at 100% is taking long time.

Thanks

Even HDDs have high enough transfer rates. I also store my photos on an HDD.

Run darktable with -d perf to see which processing step takes long. If you have a GPU, make sure it is properly utilised. -d opencl may help troubleshooting.

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I think the normal view in the lighttable is derived from the embedded JPEG preview, whereas the zoomed view is calculated from the raw, and hence slower.

That is no longer the case for non-edited images.

See use embedded preview even if only auto history applied by AlicVB · Pull Request #7178 · darktable-org/darktable · GitHub, or, if you have too much time on your hands, Why aren't we utilizing embedded previews more in Darktable?.

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Good to know, thank you!

I think there’s still an exception for when the embedded jpg preview is too small - as is the case with my early Sony mirrorless cameras. At least, that’s what happens with me.

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After importing images, I normally close Dt and run darktable-generate-cache -m5 from cli (see manual for params). That speeds up culling significantly, because previews are generated at once and stored in cache.

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Interesting approach. I will try that too.

Thanks everyone.

I did upgrade and was busy setting Ubuntu, so could not respond. Installation was not straight forward and had to disable TPM etc. Finally everything is ready. Last night I tried culling and it was fast compared to past.

Laptop Details
Dedicated video card (NVidia GM107GLM [Quadro M2000M])
OS: Ubuntu 22.04
RAM: DDR4 32gb

I am attaching the screen shot of the processing-setting in DT. Please let me know if I need to change anything. I guess enabling “full preview cache” may help, provided that I am able to generate full-preview using CLI, before I open the UI.

Thanks