Is it typical for DK to use so many resources?
I’m looking for a DAM instead of using DT. The RAW file (image) which opens in DK was richer.
L. to R. - XnView MP / DK 8.3 / DT 4.8
All 3 DAMs use minimal CPU for their task.
However, DK increases the System task dramatically.
Thanks and God bless,
Genesius 
Could it be that Darktable is creating thumbnails in background?
It’s something new(or more or less new).
Try to disable it temporarily to validate my guess. It should be on preferences, I can’t give you more details from my phone, sorry .
Regards
@rgo
Did you mean DigiKam and not DarkTable? In my post I said DK is being a CPU hog with the System task.
Thanks and God bless.
As noted in comment 2 sometimes thumbs are being generated… to test equivalence you might want to use a separate folder with a certain number of images and let each software generate the thumbs…if you change the number of thumb the software might have to create those if it doesn’t have them to display so things could go on initially that will taper over time.
As for the image display you would need to walk through DK and xnview and make sure that you have set up equivalent preview conditions… most software allows the jpg preview, a half or full size raw preview which wont be developed in a viewer and finally you need to do the same for all the color management settings and make sure all software is using the same display profile… having done this then revisit what you see… some software also handles rendering differently if BPC is used… if active the render will look a bit lighter and washed out in the shadows a bit like a perceptual render and if not the blacks will be more crushed… giving that strong contrast that some initially like…so there are nuances to cover when making comparisions to be sure that its apples to apples as best as it can be…
Smething else:
in the first two screenshots, you show PID’s being high. Those have nothing to do with resource utilisation: “PID” stands for “Process ID”, it’s a numeric handle for the process, more or less assigned in order of process start.
“System” is started very soon after boot (and it is a system process), so will always have a very low PID.
As for DK increasing System’s resource utilisation: file operations are handled by the OS, not by the individual program, that only reads or writes memory buffers. And a lot of what digikam does implies file operations (e.g. reading embedded jpegs, dealing with the database, …).
I notice you don’t show darktable’s resource use under similar conditions. It can also grab quite a lot of resources.
(And, you have other programs active, like Chrome, which can also use system calls)
@rvietor
Thank you for your comments.
I know what a PID is. LOL
The CPU is to the left of the PID. The reason for the different views used is take a screenshot of the System task with the task for the app in question in a single screen shot. In the screenshot for DK and XN, the CPU does not include the decimal portion of the percents figures.
Chrome is open for ALL 3 apps. See above for why the screen shots are different.
If you, and others, will accept a split screenshot for all 3 app (System task in one and app tasks in another) I will repost with those new screenshots (6 in total).
Thanks and God bless.
@priort
Thanks for continuing our FB convo here.
I’ll setup a separate folder with 5 images and rerun the tests. As I mentioned in my response to rvietor, I will reshoot the images as separate for each of the apps showing the system and app-specific tasks.
BPC? Is that Black Point Compensation? I’ll have to read up on it. Again, I’m a newbie.
Is 5 minutes after I start each program before taking the screenshots?
As each program is different and developed by a different set developers, how do I compare apples to apples with the setups for rendering jpeg preview images from the RAW files? Or, would a better test be to load the JPEGs (I shoot in both) and make sure each app is using my camera’s profile(?) when previewing the images?
Thanks and God bless.
Without massive amounts of details that might just be confusing…for example in xnview… this setting is key
I have it set to my calibrated profile and I have this set in my OS which is WIndows and any color managed program I use. I have heard instances with some software that set it to use the system profile of the OS but for some reason they don’t color manage unless you specify it… that is a side thing… Then you could have other settings
Here several things could impact what you see when you first open the image in xnview… so you need to be sure that at least for comparisons you are viewing the same preview source ie raw or embedded jpg and what quality of raw and then any other settings that might be applied…
drop box out of the way…
And so likely to compare you want to apply as little to the image as possible to know the real base look of the image… so to summarize you have the color management to be sure of and then the in program settings…
Now you have to go through this with every program that you are using to make sure as best you can that you are comparing the same thing… It might be as simple as one tick box in a viewer or software that makes the difference…
Ouch sorry! I don’t know what I was thinking 
@priort
Here is what I was able to do on DK and XN, but unable to find how to on DT.
XN
DK
DT
Coudn’t find where to configure the Color Profile.
I checked here in the DT 4.6 manual, but it talks about Linux.
https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/4.6/en/special-topics/color-management/display-profile
I also checked here on Pixls.Us and followed the recommended solution.
I could not find my laptop’s profile, Q534UXK… under either the input color profile or the output color profile.
What am I doing wrong? 
Thanks and God bless,
Genesius
Darktable will also use the profile configured on Windows, or you can set the display profile manually, by copying it to the color\out directory inside the configuration directory, and selecting it e.g. here after a right-click:
In rare cases you may need to manually select the display profile. This is possible from within the soft proof and gamut check option dialogs in the darkroom view and the display profile dialog in the lighttable view.
(darktable 4.6 user manual - display profile)
If you have further darktable questions, please open a new thread under Software → darktable, let’s not discuss them in a digikam topic.
You should be using that for the display profile not the input profile… normally DT will automatically set the input profile correctly unless you have a calibrated profile that you want to specify. If you right click on the gamut warning and/or the softproofing icon you can set it there if you have copied it to the color/out file in the DT configuration folder…
As for DK I don’t think you want to use that scanner profile… If you calibrated your camera then you could put an icc file there but I think DK will handle it or perhaps there are more settings for how to handle raw photo’s I don’t use DK …if I get a chance I will look…
DT has several profiles… input output display working and histogram are the main ones…
Input can generally be left alone
Working is a wide gamut… lin rec2020 or lin prophoto
Output is usually something like sRGB for jpg exports and the same as the working space if you are exporting for further editing
Display is your device specific.icc or if you calibrate that one
Histogram is usually rec2020 to show roughly workflow pixel date within the working space but you can change it to sRGB if you want to see that …it impact the values you get in the colorpicker…it uses the histogram profile…
There are quite a few nuances but that is the basic’s of it…
@kofa
I am mentioning it here in DK because the responses from my original question made suggestions to make sure all 3 apps were configured the same way.
Thanks and God bless.
My initial post was about the System task being much, much higher in DK than in either DT or XN. It was suggested that I need to have all 3 on an equal playing field. Which is what I am trying to do.
The color management in DK and XN seem to be a lot easier to configure than in DT.
Having followed, what I believe was the configuring for DT, here are the results of all three when opening my folder containing only 3 RAW files.
Baseline, no open DAMs, or Google Chrome as a member chimed in about.
For the DAMs, first I made sure the default when opening the app was the folder with the 3 test RAW files. Except for DT, I waited approx 2-3 minutes after opening before taking the screenshot.
XnView MP v1.6.3
darktable v4.8
This is immediately during loading, building of the XMP files, I deleted the ones previously so that I could set the default folder.
This is after 2 -3 minutes.
digiKam v8.3
After 2 - 3 minutes.
Ten minutes plus after that.
Second benchmark, no running DAMs and my 37 Chrome tabs running.
While not a perfect test with a clean PC, I tried to control the environment as much as a I could. This shows that DK is heavily using the System task. Why?
Thanks and God bless.
BTW,
Here is a new screenshot for all 3 DAMs (DK/XN/DT) with the settings suggested, color management, from members of this forum.
Thanks and God bless.
To me that looks like you are showing or getting the jpg in DK or its applying some default adjustments
From here this sounds a lot like something close to the jpg preview,ie an 8 bit preview with auto lightness applied by default…
@priort
I’ll check that out.
But this doesn’t explain is using much more resources on the System task than the other two DAMs.
Thanks and God bless.
If you read the DigiKam startup guide, it explains that it scans your disk for images. I assume that it is still scanning.
I was just about to say that…in fact doesn’t it scan for faces potentially and likely much more in depth than what DT and can XNview do … You might have to wait for some time until it catches up. I’m not sure that it is known for speed or performance from what I recall…
There might be some potential tips here
Some of this confusion I think comes from your post in FB and showing screen shots asking what looks better… The comments around color management are related to output or preview not performance. The programs are different. Each will have performance tweaks. WRT your issue it seems like there are several settings in DK that could affect performance and resources. There was some progress near the end of the thread I shared. Basically all you can do is investigate optimizing performance in whatever app you choose.
