DPP4 Batch Speed

[shadowdancer36]

I would love to use this program over using Lightroom, but the speed of this software is the worst! No matter how fast my system(s) have been over the years, the batch convert for Raw files is painfully slow. Right at this very moment I'm trying to convert 108 images and it has been 40mins so far and it isn't done. 

Here is my system specs:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Home
Version 10.0.22000 Build 22000
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU ASUS_MB_KBLX
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7800X CPU @ 3.50GHz, 3504 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 96.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 95.7 GB
Available Physical Memory 78.3 GB
Total Virtual Memory 110 GB
Available Virtual Memory 85.8 GB
Page File Space 14.0 GB

Name AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

With the above graphics card and the amt of memory I have on board, it should not be taking this long. I'm shooting using a Canon R6. Can someone tell me a way to speed this up? Is it some hardware tweaks I need to make or something within the software I need to change to make the converts faster?

[jrhoffman75]

DPP speed (or lack) is a frequent complaint. If Rodger sees this post he can describe the system he has, yet still has slow performance. 

[wq9nsc]

Actually, I have found batch processing with DPP to be pretty fast. 

I just ran a quick test with the stopwatch in my phone using a mixture of 1DX III and 1DX II files batch converted to high resolution JPG.  I let it run 5 minutes and it converted 71 files in that time period.  The 1DX III conversion is noticeably slower, around 4 to 5 seconds while the 1DX II files are about 2 seconds per file. 

I am using a HP Z-840 workstation with two 8 core Xeon processors, each processor has 256 GB of memory.  It has a pair of Nvidia workstation graphics cards with their own video memory. DPP and the files being edited run from a HP Z drive which is a solid state drive on the processor bus and the batch output is saved to a solid state drive that is part of the internal RAID system.

During processing, CPU loading never exceeded 35% and it was below 20% pretty much all of the time so DPP isn't able to load the system heavily.  Each of the Nvidia Quadra cards has 1,600 Cuda processors but according to the system monitor, DPP isn't using the GPU and GPU utilization stays under 2% and that is what is being used by other applications.

When I use Corel to render video, it heavily loads both CPUs and they stay in the 80%+ range but DPP doesn't seem to make good use of available resources and no use of the GPU.

The annoying slowness with DPP for me is when you are using the clone/stamp tool when sometimes a 1DX III file will take 5 to 10 seconds before you can do anything with that tool.

Rodger

[FloridaDrafter]

I use DPP 4 exclusively, but speed isn't a concern, so the fact that it is slow doesn't bother me that much. Yes, it is a bit annoying, but it's still my editor of choice.

I don't normally do batch processing because even though I'll shoot in basically the same conditions for 15-20 shots, lighting changes slightly and I end up slightly adjusting each shot, so I just edit and convert one at a time. For the heck of it, I just batch converted 100 full size Raw files from my wife's R6 to see how long it would take on my system. My system is a Dell XPS 17 (9700) laptop with just 16GB of RAM, but the same CPU as you (i7 10th gen) 6 core (12 log. proc.), but only clocked at 2.6ghz to keep the fan noise down. Not sure if it makes any difference, but I went low on RAM to get the PCIe NVMe 2TB SSD, which is very fast.

Anyway, I batched the 100 files in 16' 23" and that was including DLC for the RF 100-400mm lens and NR, plus an applied recipe.

Newton

[wq9nsc]

My primary reason for using batch processing is because even though I edit files individually, I will go through several hundred files after a sports event.  I edit the files and put a 1 star rating on the files I want to process and once I am through editing I select all of the 1 star files and batch process them.  That way I am not waiting for the conversion to JPG routine and splash screen to get out of the way while I am rapidly editing a large number of event files.

Rodger

[FloridaDrafter]

Rodger, do you think the NVMe SSD would make that much difference, 40 minutes for the OP vs 16 minutes for me? The OP didn't mention drives, but it's a thought.

When I had dell build the system, I intended to eventually upgrade RAM from the 16GB ordered to 32 or 64, but so far it's been fine at 16 for my needs, plus the XPS is a bear to break in to, LOL, so at this point 16 is ok.

Newton

[wq9nsc]

Newton,

I think the OP has more going on with the system beyond just the drive.  Task manager might help in showing if any of the key resources are near 100% utilization.

And I think whoever designed the DPP algorithms is also behind the new forum software.  It seems painfully slow!  Hopefully just growing pains that will get resolved.

Rodger

[FloridaDrafter]

I'm thinking you are correct, I just didn't want to say anything. You never know what people are using their systems for or how much overhead they have. My systems are always clean and pretty much dedicated to whatever task I use them for. The Dell is all about graphics editing (graphic art, photos, and movies). I'm sure RAM would speed me up a bit, but I just don't want to pop the case. Now that I'm processing R5 files, I wish I had of sprung for more RAM when I had the Dell built 🙂

[wq9nsc]

I think the R5 is like the 1DX III, it is more demanding of the computer.  My older HP Z 820 is also a dual CPU system but with slightly less capable processors and the difference between 1DX III files and all of my other Canon camera RAW files is very noticeable during editing. 

One thing that has been true of almost every DPP release is that it tends to gobble and not release memory.  With my system, it is never close to using all of the memory but it gets very sluggish and the only cure is to exit and restart.  When editing a lot of files, I will do that about once per hour.

Rodger

[wq9nsc]

For another data point, I shot two HS girls' basketball games last night and kept 336 images between the JV and varsity contests.  Total batch processing time was 24 minutes to convert them to quality 10 JPG files varying from 7 to 18 Mb depending upon the amount of cropping.  DLO was used for most of the images. 

Images were taken with two 1DX II and one 1DX III bodies, well over half of those save were from the 1DX III because it was used with an EF 70-200 f2.8 lens which is my primary lens for most sports.  I used an EF 24-70 f2.8 on one 1DX II body and an EF 300 f2.8 on the other to get extremely close action/large groupings and action at the far end of the court respectively.  If the 1DX II bodies accounted for a larger percentage of the images, batch time would have been significantly reduced.

The only thing dreadfully slow with DPP is the clone/stamp tool.

Rodger