help please with existing computer set up

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Ian
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hi all
please bear with me as my experience of all things computer related is limited to say the least
my current computer is used for work, windows 8.1
and photo editing , lightroom ,photoshop.
up untill now this has served its purpose with no real problems
having purchased luminar ai and luminar 4, my computer has gone into snail mode on this software[ 4 and ai ]
computer is acer aspire xc-605
runs windows 8.1
has 8gb ram
has intel i5 4440 cpu
graphics card 4600
64 bit
i have looked at the minimum running for this software and it just covers it, but is the graphics card the problem
what would be causing this , and how to overcome it
thanks
 
Minimum requirements are kind misleading, it doesn't mean it will run well on those specs it just means it will run, as a PC gamer I've been honey dicked many times by minimum requirements, load the game up and get 7 FPS.

Personally I would just buy or build a new PC. If you can't do that then I would up the RAM to 16GB, install a SSD, you could upgrade the GPU however you will probably need to buy a new PSU, at this point you might as well build a new PC.

I would also guess that Acer use a proprietary PSU which will be hard to upgrade.
 
thanks for your reply
as with off the shelf basic computers theres very little room for anything else in there
 
It's going to come down to how much you want to use Luminar. There are lots of things you can do to speed it up right up to a brand new machine but it's almost certainly going to cost you >£200. If everything else is working fine and you don't especially want to upgrade then you need to ask yourself how much you want to run Luminar.

I just took a look at the system reqs and according to the manufacturers, you're going to need to start by upgrading to Windows 10.
 
I have a feeling if you start throwing money at this PC you may end up both disappointed and out of pocket. If you can afford try and get a whole new system even if it is fairly low end. CPU and GPU will be miles better, only make an effort to get 16GB RAM.

Of course you could buy a new GPU and NVME SSD now if you intend to self build and transfer that when time comes. I wish you good luck of finding anything in stock now as I'm still awaiting my lucky hour 2 months later.
 
thanks for your input
ive recently bought a new monitor as well , which wont help
ive knocked resolution down , which defeats the object really, and it seems to run a little better , but sliders still taking ages to render , to a point where i just close it down.
i really like the software , it just doesnt run smoothly with what i have.
what would be a good starting point to reasearch , and if anyone has any links to off the shelf builds , that would help a bunch
building my own , i just dont have the time at the minute or knowledge of the parts needed
all suggestions greatly appreciated
 
@Tekagudun

Do you realise that just like with cars, you can buy a brand new car and drive it as much as you can, but if you don't bother with basic maintenance such as checking oil levels, top up coolant, have it serviced every year, etc., then the car won't run well in a few years time. But if you do actually make an effort to take good care of the car, then the car can last many years to come.

Computers are the same.

The inside of the computer can get dusty, there will be lot of dust inside the hardware, which tend to cog down the running of the computer.

And not only that, but also the software can get messy, installing and uninstalling so many software, moving files around, failing to keep your anti-virus updated, and stuff like that, can bog down the running of the computer.

Far too many people toss away their computer as soon as it started to feel slow and sluggish, yet there is just two basic things they need to do to their computers to improve the performance. You need to try them both first before thinking about buying a new computer. Those are...

Switch off your computer, open it, and clean out the dust.

Use the software diagnosis tools, perform the removal of junk files (such as temporary files that the computer tend to leave on the hard drive), fully uninstall any of the half-uninstalled software, defragment the hard drive, and all that.

I once had a 15 years old computer with Windows XP and it was doing fine, the reason it was doing fine was because every year (or every two years), I always open it and clean out the dust, plus every 6 or 12 months, I often use software diagnosis tools.

If you want to throw away your old computer and buy a new one, that's your rights. But you should consider thinking about giving your old computer a major spring cleaning, and maybe upgrade a few parts, to help improve it.
 
Luminar is very intensive due to the ai.. clean your pc all you want, if the cpu or some other aspect isn’t fast enough to keep up, it’ll make no difference whatsoever how much you clean it.
A good test is to open task manager and then click on performance
This will bring up a graph of the cpu. You can also click on resource manager and get graphs of cpu, disk and memory.
Open those and then open luminar and try and do an edit. Keep watching the graphs and see which one starts to max out. That will be your issue.
 
cheers for that
it seems there a lot of issues with luminar on windows
the plot thickens
 
My previous laptop was an Intel i3 with 8GB ram.
When I first got it, it was fine for processing photos.
However, over the years and after several software upgrades it started running very slowly with Lightroom.
A clean install of Win 10 also proved that it was showing it's age.
I have always run a decent spec desktop but these days I tend to use it mainly as a torrent box but upgraded to an SSD.
I never thought I would pay what I considered for a laptop to be a lot of money but I bit the bullet earlier this year and I haven't regreted it at all.
Intel i7 2 x 1TB SSDs, 32GB Ram and Nvidia graphics card.
It was classed as budget gaming latop (although I don't consider a grands worth to be budget as such) and the specs made it a very good deal.
If was looking for a similar spec desktop PC I would buidl it myself but there are companies like pcspecialist who have a very good reputation, if you ask on here I am sure you would get some good feedback.
Companies like these tend to use industry standard parts such as ATX power supplies rather than custom parts some manufacturers use (I use to repair computers for a living but I no longer do this, for all I know the likes for Dell, Acer etc may have changed).
Upgrades for your desktop would be like throwing good money away, as an example I very much you'll doubt you'll be able to upgrade the CPU unless you are happy to purchased a used one.
Even though I'm Intel fan, their rate for changing the chipsets and CPU sizes got to become a complete joke at one point.
A very good friend of mine who out geeks me by miles tells me the lastest Generation of AMD CPUs have vastly improved.
Yes an SSD, memory upgrade and a fresh windows install would add improvements but for me personally once I know it's not worth upgrading an old PC, I just build a new one.
 
@Tekagudun

Do you realise that just like with cars, you can buy a brand new car and drive it as much as you can, but if you don't bother with basic maintenance such as checking oil levels, top up coolant, have it serviced every year, etc., then the car won't run well in a few years time. But if you do actually make an effort to take good care of the car, then the car can last many years to come.

Computers are the same.

The inside of the computer can get dusty, there will be lot of dust inside the hardware, which tend to cog down the running of the computer.

And not only that, but also the software can get messy, installing and uninstalling so many software, moving files around, failing to keep your anti-virus updated, and stuff like that, can bog down the running of the computer.

Far too many people toss away their computer as soon as it started to feel slow and sluggish, yet there is just two basic things they need to do to their computers to improve the performance. You need to try them both first before thinking about buying a new computer. Those are...

Switch off your computer, open it, and clean out the dust.

Use the software diagnosis tools, perform the removal of junk files (such as temporary files that the computer tend to leave on the hard drive), fully uninstall any of the half-uninstalled software, defragment the hard drive, and all that.

I once had a 15 years old computer with Windows XP and it was doing fine, the reason it was doing fine was because every year (or every two years), I always open it and clean out the dust, plus every 6 or 12 months, I often use software diagnosis tools.

If you want to throw away your old computer and buy a new one, that's your rights. But you should consider thinking about giving your old computer a major spring cleaning, and maybe upgrade a few parts, to help improve it.

Whilst I would agree with you his upgrade options are limited for components, especially the CPU and based on how old it must be to still be running Win 8.1 (sounds like it never met performance for an upgrade to Win 10), regular things like removing the dust, especially on fans is always good housekeeping,
 
it seems there a lot of options to choose from, its knowing what to get thats the problem,
what would be a good starting point , as far as hardware.
used just for editing, lightroom, photshop, luminar
thanks
 
There's a real shortage of good stuff right now, and prices are higher than normal as LLP says. If you could hold off a few weeks it *may* get better.
 
just been on skylums community page
it seems im not the only one experiencing problems
people who have all the top specs in place having the same problems
be cheaper to ditch luminar , which is a shame
lots asking for money back, dissapointing
 
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thanks for taking the time for that, very much appreciated
im just going to sit tight , see how things pan out, good thing is im not in a great rush
thanks again
 
Have a look here: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/
You can choose the components you want used in the build although I believe that due to covid-19, some parts in UK can be hard to find / supply.
As a rough guide I have put this spec together for you: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-home-office-pc-III/
It works out at £950 inc VAT although the option for a car reader is external only.
Another big thumbs up for pcspecialist who have sold us 3 laptops over the years. It's worth calling or emailing them to discuss if you have any questions - they pointed me towards a cheaper one last time..
Excellent customer service and the machines have only had problems when dropped or drowned....
 
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