# Lightroom slow on second external monitor



## thegios (Feb 18, 2021)

I have a laptop with 4K monitor, i7, 32GB RAM, SSD and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti dsicrete graphics card.
I connected an external 2K monitor via HDMI (only option I have on laptop).
I have configured LR to use the second monitor in loupe view.
When I zoom in on the second monitor or when I change the sliders on the first monitor, the changes on the second monitor take a few seconds to take effect.


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## thegios (Feb 19, 2021)

No One who can help me here?


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## Hal P Anderson (Feb 19, 2021)

Having LRC open on a second monitor has always been slow. I don't think there's much you can do other than getting a more powerful video card.


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## Adrian Malloch (Feb 21, 2021)

There will always be a little delay but that does seem a bit much for a reasonably specced setup. Have  you defined the second monitor as such, in the Lightroom preferences Display tab?  Just choose the monitor you want to be the secondary window and then restart Lightroom. 
Also, if you are connecting with HDMI, check that the cable is the highest spec you  can find. Shorter cables are better if it is an older spec.


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## Gnits (Feb 21, 2021)

What brand is the laptop. 

I bought a top spec xps dell for travel and to experiment if a top spec laptop might be a good enough replacement for my ageing workstation. I ran into lots of problems with this laptop, but after more detailed investigation I discovered that neither Lightroom or Photoshop were using the Nvidia graphics card. On challenging Dell, I was informed that the machine was performing as per spec. I challenged this again and escalated as high as I could within Dell support, looking for a definitive answer as to why the graphics card was not used. The answer was that the card was designed for high performance applications and that Lr or Ps were not deemed high performance.
I returned the laptop, got my money back and built a new workstation.

There might be a laptop out there which might act as a travel and main workstation device, but I did not have the time or resources to find it. Buying into the Mac ecosystem was not an option for me.


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## thegios (Feb 21, 2021)

Here's a video for all tojudge: VID_20210221_154846.mp4


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## thegios (Feb 21, 2021)

Gnits said:


> What brand is the laptop.
> 
> I bought a top spec xps dell for travel and to experiment if a top spec laptop might be a good enough replacement for my ageing workstation. I ran into lots of problems with this laptop, but after more detailed investigation I discovered that neither Lightroom or Photoshop were using the Nvidia graphics card. On challenging Dell, I was informed that the machine was performing as per spec. I challenged this again and escalated as high as I could within Dell support, looking for a definitive answer as to why the graphics card was not used. The answer was that the card was designed for high performance applications and that Lr or Ps were not deemed high performance.
> I returned the laptop, got my money back and built a new workstation.
> ...



my laptops is more a desktop replacemnet laptop: it's a gaming Dell laptop, with an i7 HQ processor so a desktop processor and not a U laptop procesor, the graphis card is a 1050Ti whch is a better than a typical mobile discrete graphic card and LR from settings is using it in full accelleration, I have real laptop fans to avoid processor going into thrmal problems... And my SSD is a PCIe and I have 32GB of RAM... Yet LR sometimes is struggling. I could sort of cope with that, but now with second monitor things are getting annoying, since ddelay between laptop monitor and external one is visible.


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## Gnits (Feb 21, 2021)

Install the Nvidia app and check how the graphics card is configured. This is how I discovered my Dell laptop was not using the discrete graphic card for Lr and Ps.  These apps were using the  motherboard graphics.


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## thegios (Feb 22, 2021)

NVIDI app is installed, LR is configured to use accellerated card and this is confirmed by bot LR (full acceleration is confirmed in settings).
Have you seen my video above?


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## Gnits (Feb 22, 2021)

That is promising.  Nvidia showed me that Lr was using motherboard and could not change. However , Lr still allowed me to turn on gpu processing, so not sure how reliable that is. Will check your ref to video when I get home in an hour or so.


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## Gnits (Feb 22, 2021)

The only thing I can think of is check if the laptop has a thunderbolt port and  use a certified thunderbolt cable to the monitor (or try to improve somehow the connection between the laptop and the monitor).   Hdmi cables are terribly prone to damage, as they are often bent close to where the port goes into the screen (the cable gets tugged or kicked, etc)..

I am expecting delivery of a 32 inch Benq monitor shortly and will report back on my experience of using the 32inch Benq as a second monitor on a new Lenova 4k AdobeRGB laptop (10th Gen processor) with latest version of Lr.

Have you tried the monitor as a second screen in Photoshop.


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## thegios (Feb 22, 2021)

Only video output is hdmi.
Thing is that only Lightroom in dual monitor is slow. If I run LR on second monitor is fast enough


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## Gnits (Feb 24, 2021)

I have no idea when my new monitor will arrive (now overdue).  It should be coming from Germany, but suspect it may actually come from the UK, with all the hassle that Brexit brings.
My intention is to use the monitor with my newly built, high spec, workstation, and will not use with my laptop,  but when I get the monitor I will test it with my (also new) laptop, which has full spec, latest processor  and a discrete gpu, to see if I can observe single /dual monitor behaviour.


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## AlanF (Mar 5, 2021)

Try disabling GPU acceleration. It does not necessarily boost graphic performance as you might expect, and i don't think it applies to the second monitor anyway. Also, there are some unintended slowdowns in LrC 10 at present.

I probably cannot help further because it has been far too long since I used dual monitors.


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## thegios (Mar 21, 2021)

Gnits said:


> I have no idea when my new monitor will arrive (now overdue).  It should be coming from Germany, but suspect it may actually come from the UK, with all the hassle that Brexit brings.
> My intention is to use the monitor with my newly built, high spec, workstation, and will not use with my laptop,  but when I get the monitor I will test it with my (also new) laptop, which has full spec, latest processor  and a discrete gpu, to see if I can observe single /dual monitor behaviour.


Hi, u had a chance to try?
Thanks


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## Gnits (Mar 22, 2021)

My 32 inch 4k Benq monitor has arrived, but I have not even had the time to calibrate it yet.   I will do the test with the laptop and use the monitor as the second screen in the next few days. Will treat this as a priority and will do asap... but I have a few family priorities to attend to first.

Ps. I was afraid the 32inch would be too big, but I am very happy with the size.


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## thegios (Mar 22, 2021)

I regret not the 27" size but the 2K res, Imbut there's no 27" 4K only 32"


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## Gnits (Mar 22, 2021)

I now only have the Benq 32 inch 4k AdobeRgb, which I use with a Windows workstation.  

I am happy to test this as a second screen with a Lenovo latest cpu/discrete gpu 4k adobergb laptop.    I will report back on any performance issues  that are noticeable.... 

I had a 27inch 1k screen, but donated that to someone on the frontline.

I was disappointed with the range of sizes available that were 4k and AdobeRGB. I would have preferred 2 x 24 inch rather than 1 x 32inch. 2 x 27 inch was too big a combo for my desk.


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## Gnits (Mar 23, 2021)

I have connected my Thinkpad i7 10750H 16GB to an external 4k Benq 32 inch AdobeRGB display.

I can see that there are loads and loads of possible configuration options.  I can see, for various combinations of screen 1 and screen 2 (ie grid, full screen, loupe), for both the develop loupe and grid modes a delay between refresh on both screens of less than a second.  Maybe half a second.... definitely not multiple seconds.  

My Thinkpad has hardly been used since I bought it, has none of my usual settings configured or apps installed. 

With Covid lockdown and no travel plans possible anytime soon I have no immediate plans to spend time configuring my laptop. I have not even had time to calibrate the 32 inch Benq as I have a heap of personal/family tasks to deal with over the next few weeks  of much higher priority.

I have connected the laptop to the screen with a high quality USB C cable.

I will try and source a display port cable with the correct end points for my laptop and screen and see if that makes any difference. That might take a few days.


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## thegios (Mar 23, 2021)

I came to the conclusion that the problem is LR in dealing with a second screen.
If I run LR from the external monitor and have loupe view on the laptop, LR is still slow on the loupe view, even if it's the laptop monitor...


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