Skip to content

Main Navigation

Puget Systems Logo
  • Solutions
    • Recommended Systems For:
    • Content Creation
      • Photo Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe Lightroom Classic
        • Adobe Photoshop
      • Video Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe After Effects
        • Adobe Premiere Pro
        • DaVinci Resolve
        • Foundry Nuke
      • 3D Design and Animation
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk 3ds Max
        • Autodesk Maya
        • Blender
        • Cinema 4D
        • Houdini
        • ZBrush
      • Real-Time Engines
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Game Development
        • Unity
        • Unreal Engine
        • Virtual Production
      • Rendering
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • OctaneRender
        • Redshift
        • V-Ray
      • Digital Audio
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Ableton Live
        • FL Studio
        • Pro Tools
    • Engineering
      • CAD
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk AutoCAD
        • Autodesk Inventor
        • Autodesk Revit
        • SOLIDWORKS
      • Photogrammetry
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • ArcGIS Pro
        • Agisoft Metashape
        • Pix4D
        • RealityCapture
    • Scientific Computing
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Data Science
      • Machine Learning / AI
      • Scientific Computing
    • More
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Compact Size
      • Live Streaming
      • NVIDIA RTX Studio
      • Quiet Operation
      • Virtual Reality
  • Products
    • Intel Core i7 & i9
      Workstations with 13th Gen Intel Core i7 & i9 processors on Z690 and Z790 chipsets
    • AMD Ryzen 7 & 9
      Workstations with AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors on B650 and X670 chipsets
    • AMD Threadripper PRO
      Workstations with AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX processors on the WRX80 chipset
    • Intel Xeon W
      Workstations with Intel Xeon W 3300 processors on the C621E chipset
    • Rackmount & Server
      Servers and workstations in rackmount chassis
    • Custom Computers
      Customize a desktop workstation from scratch
    • Custom Servers
      Customize a rackmount server from scratch
    • QNAP Network Attached Storage
      Check out our external storage options as an authorized reseller for QNAP
    • Recommended Third Party Peripherals
      View our list of recommended peripherals to use with your new PC
  • Publications
    • Articles
    • HPC Blog
    • Blog Posts
    • Case Studies
    • Podcasts
    • Press
  • Support
    • Contact Support
    • Support Articles
    • Warranty Details
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Press Kit
    • Testimonials
    • Careers
  • Talk to an Expert
  • My Account
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Hardware Articles
  4. /
  5. Lightroom Classic CPU performance: AMD Threadripper 3990X 64 Core

Lightroom Classic CPU performance: AMD Threadripper 3990X 64 Core

Posted on February 7, 2020 by Matt Bach
Always look at the date when you read an article. Some of the content in this article is most likely out of date, as it was written on February 7, 2020. For newer information, see our more recent articles.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Test Setup
  • Benchmark Results
  • Lightroom Classic Benchmark Analysis
  • Is the AMD Threadripper 3990X good for Lightroom Classic?

Introduction

In many ways, Lightroom Classic has a split personality when it comes to processors. Most of the "active" tasks like scrolling through images, switching modules, or using brushes are only able to effectively utilize a handful of CPU cores which makes the consumer CPUs from Intel or AMD an ideal choice. On the other hand, many of the "passive" tasks like exporting or generating smart previews are fairly well optimized for multi-threading, making the higher core count CPUs like those found in Intel and AMD's HEDT (High-End Desktop) product lines a viable option.

With AMD's launch of the Threadripper 3990X 64 Core CPU, however, it is very likely that we are well past the point where more cores will be able to give us better performance. If you want to get into the math of it, you can read up on a mathematical formula called Amdahl's Law, but the crux of the issue is that very few tasks are perfect at scaling across multiple CPU cores, and even a tiny .01% drop in parallel efficiency can make a CPU like the 3990X 64 Core give only marginal performance gains over a CPU with half the number of cores.

In fact, some applications can actually see a decrease in performance with more CPU cores, which can be very disappointing if you expect to always get more performance from a more expensive CPU. Given the cost of the 3990X (which has a very easy to remember MSRP price of $3,990), it is very unlikely to be a "must buy" CPU for Lightroom Classic users, but the question is whether or not there are any niche users who will benefit from this extremely powerful CPU.

AMD Threadripper 3990X 64 Core Lightroom Classic Review
Image
AMD Threadripper 3990X 64 Core Lightroom Classic Review

In this article, we will be examining the performance of the AMD Threadripper 3990X 64 Core CPU in Lightroom Classic as compared to the latest AMD Threadripper, AMD Ryzen, Intel X-series, and Intel 9th Gen processors. If you are interested in how this CPU performs in other applications, we also have several other articles for Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, and more available on our article listing page.

If you would like to skip over our test setup and benchmark sections, feel free to jump right to the Conclusion.

CTA Image
Looking for a Lightroom Classic Workstation?

Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.

Configure a System!
CTA Image
Labs Consultation Service

Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.

Find Out More!

Test Setup

Listed below are the specifications of the systems we will be using for our testing:

AMD Ryzen Test Platform
CPU

AMD Ryzen 9 3950X ($749)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X ($499)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X ($399)​​​​​​​

CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 AORUS ULTRA
RAM 4x DDR4-2933 16GB (64GB total)
Intel 9th Gen Test Platform
CPU

Intel Core i9 9900K ($499)​​​​​​​
Intel Core i7 9700K ($385)​​​​​​​

CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S
Motherboard Gigabyte Z390 Designare
RAM 4x DDR4-2666 16GB (64GB total)
AMD Threadripper 3rd Gen Test Platform
CPU AMD TR 3990X ($3,990)
AMD TR 3970X ($1,999)
AMD TR 3960X ($1,399)
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S TR4-SP3
Motherboard Gigabyte TRX40 AORUS PRO WIFI
RAM 4x DDR4-2933 16GB (64GB total)
Intel X-10000 Series Test Platform
CPU Intel Core i9 10980XE ($979)
Intel Core i9 10940X ($784)
Intel Core i9 10920X ($689)
Intel Core i9 10900X ($590)​​​​​​​
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12DX i4
Motherboard Gigabyte X299 Designare EX
RAM 4x DDR4-2933 16GB (64GB total)
Shared Hardware/Software
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
Hard Drive Samsung 960 Pro 1TB
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (version 1909)
Adobe Lightroom Classic 2020 (Ver. 9.1)
PugetBench for Lightroom Classic V0.85 BETA

*All the latest drivers, OS updates, BIOS, and firmware applied as of January 20th, 2019

A few notes regarding the hardware and software used in our testing:

First, since many of the platforms we are testing support different RAM speeds depending on how many sticks you use and even whether those sticks are single or dual rank, we have decided to standardize on using four 16GB sticks of whatever the "middle" supported RAM speed is (rounding up when applicable). This means that the latest Ryzen, Threadripper, and X-series platforms are using DDR4-2933 while the Intel 9th Gen is using DDR4-2666.

The second thing to note is that we are using Noctua air coolers on all of our test platforms. We are not certain yet if this cooler will have enough capacity to keep the 3990X cool when installed in our workstations (our product qualification team is still investigating that), but in our air-conditioned Labs environment on open-air testbeds, we did not encounter any significant performance degradation with this cooler versus a beefier liquid cooler.

Lastly, there are reported issues with this processor using Windows 10 Pro due to how Windows behaves after you have 64 threads. This likely won't affect Lightroom Classic performance since it can't effectively utilize anywhere near this many cores, but we have further testing using Windows 10 Pro for Workstations planned. If you want to learn more about this, Anandtech has a terrific writeup going over the issue and the problems it causes when doing head-to-head CPU performance comparisons like this.

Benchmark Results

While our benchmark presents various scores based on the performance of each test, we also like to provide the individual results for you to examine. If there is a specific task that is a hindrance to your workflow, examining the raw results for that task is going to be much more applicable than the scores that our benchmark calculated.

Feel free to skip to the next section for our analysis of these results to get a wider view of how each CPU performs in Lightroom Classic.

AMD Threadripper 3990X Lightroom Classic Benchmark Results
Image
AMD Threadripper 3990X Lightroom Classic Benchmark Results

Lightroom Classic Benchmark Analysis

A lot is going on in the chart below, so before getting into it we wanted to provide a key regarding the color scheme.

  • Light blue = Intel 9th Gen
  • Dark blue = Intel X-10000 series
  • Light red = AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen
  • Dark red = AMD Threadripper 3rd Gen
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next
System Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next

From an overall perspective, the AMD Threadripper 3990X 64 core is technically the fastest CPU we have tested for Lightroom Classic, although it only scored about 3% higher than the much more affordable Threadripper 3960X 24 Core. Even if we only look at the "passive tasks" score where higher core count CPUs tend to do better, the difference between the 3990X 64 Core and the 3960X 24 Core is just a small 4%, which is right at the edge of the margin of error for this kind of real-world testing.

This means that while the Threadripper 3990X does just fine in Lightroom Classic, the Threadripper 3960X is almost always going to be a much better choice as it will free up a significant amount of your budget to get more RAM, faster storage, or other system upgrades that will make much more of an impact than a tiny bump in performance.

We do also want to point out that for most users, we have found that the AMD Ryzen processors like the 3900X and 3950X offer more than adequate performance for passive tasks, while being ~20% faster than Threadripper for active tasks like scrolling through images, switching modules and using brushes. Unless your workflow involves exporting huge numbers of images, you likely will be better off with on of AMD's Ryzen processors as most users tend to prefer a snappier editing experience over faster export times.

Is the AMD Threadripper 3990X good for Lightroom Classic?

Overall, the AMD Threadripper 3990X 64 Core is the fastest CPU we tested for Lightroom Classic, although it is only a few percent faster than the much more affordable AMD Threadripper 3960X 24 Core. Even in passive tasks like exporting which can utilize a decent number of CPU cores, the 3990X has such an absurd number of cores that the performance gain is relatively minor.

For those that want the fastest export times possible, you will likely get better overall system performance with an AMD Threadripper 3960X, and spending the cost savings on other aspects of your system like more RAM or faster storage. The 3990X would certainly get the job done, but just like the majority of other applications, Lightroom Classic simply is not able to effectively leverage such a crazy high number of CPU cores.

For the more "typical" user that is more concerned about performance in active tasks like scrolling through images, switching modules, and using brushes, the AMD Ryzen 3900X or 3950X are likely an even better choice as they can be up to 20% faster than Threadripper in that type of workload.

Keep in mind that the benchmark results in this article are strictly for Lightroom Classic and that performance will vary widely in different applications. If your workflow includes other software packages (we have similar articles for Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, and many others), you need to consider how the processor will perform in all those applications. Be sure to check our list of Hardware Articles to keep up to date on how all of these software packages perform with the latest CPUs.

CTA Image
Looking for a Lightroom Classic Workstation?

Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.

Configure a System!
CTA Image
Labs Consultation Service

Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.

Find Out More!

Related Content

  • Intel Xeon W-3400 Content Creation Preview
  • Intel NUC 13 Extreme Content Creation Review
  • Intel Core i9 13900KS Content Creation Review
  • What H.264 and H.265 Hardware Decoding is Supported in DaVinci Resolve Studio?
View All Related Content

Latest Content

  • Guide To Removing Instapak Foam
  • Basic Guide to Identify and Remove Malware
  • Should I Upgrade My Gpu
  • Case Study with Lost Boys Interactive
View All
Tags: AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen, AMD Threadripper 2nd Gen, Intel 9th Gen, Intel vs AMD, Intel X-10000, Intel X-series, Lightroom CLassic, Threadripper 3990X

Who is Puget Systems?

Puget Systems builds custom PCs tailored for your workflow

Extensive in-house testing
making you more productive and giving you more performance for your dollar

Reliable workstations
with fewer crashes and blue screens means more time working, less time waiting on your computer

Support that understands
your complex workflows and can get you back up and running ASAP

Proven track record
check out our customer testimonials and Reseller Ratings

Get Started

Browse Our Workstations

Fractal Design Define 7 Chassis with Puget Systems Logo

Select your workflow:

Content Creation
Engineering
Scientific Computing
More

Latest Articles

  • Guide To Removing Instapak Foam
  • Basic Guide to Identify and Remove Malware
  • Should I Upgrade My Gpu
  • Case Study with Lost Boys Interactive
  • Samsung 990 Pro Critical Firmware Update
View All

Post navigation

 What is the Best CPU for Rendering (2019)DaVinci Resolve CPU performance: AMD Threadripper 3990X 64 Core 
Puget Systems Logo
Build Your Own PC Site Map FAQ
facebook instagram linkedin rss twitter youtube

Optimized Solutions

  • Adobe Premiere
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Solidworks
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Machine Learning

Workstations

  • Content Creation
  • Engineering
  • Scientific PCs
  • More

Support

  • Online Guides
  • Request Support
  • Remote Help

Publications

  • All News
  • Puget Blog
  • HPC Blog
  • Hardware Articles
  • Case Studies

Policies

  • Warranty & Return
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Delivery Times
  • Accessibility

About Us

  • Testimonials
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

© Copyright 2023 - Puget Systems, All Rights Reserved.