What plan is that?
Agreed import is slow especially if building 1:1 previews in the cache with a lot of files. My cache and catalogs are on a Samsung M2/PCI-E card (1.162 GBps sequential write, 2.068GBps sequential read) and it's still slow. Limiting speed factor here seems to be the disk the photograph files are actually on.
To speed things up you could try holding photos on an SSD. Either permanently or just while they are being edited and then move them to another (slower) disk when finished.
Something like this might do the trick https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MBQPQ62/ref=psdc_430505031_t4_B078WST5RKsequential read/write speeds up to 3,500/3,300 MB/s
I don't find develop to be slow on 30MB raw files and I'm only using the HD4600 graphics in my now long in the tooth i7 4790K. As with you I've also got 32GB ram. How many adjustment brushes/grad etc filters are you using at a time?
Just a single brush, no other filters or anything applied to the image, that’s why I switched graphic cards, even turned gpu acceleration off. The files are 24MB raw files which I’ve tried copying from sd card via explorer to the ssd and then importing from the ssd to another ssd and it’s quicker but not much and of course you still get the masking issue. The other parts of the develop process work ok strangely enough. On the iMac it’s exactly the same and it has the RX 580 8GB GPU!
I’m just a bit loathe to spend more money on speeding up something for what I feel is lazy coding on Adobe’s part.
Odd.
I can't understand why you're getting a slow develop problem using your 8GB GPU when I'm fine with my onboard HD4600 graphics (gpu acceleration off).Are you using smart previews or original files in Lightroom for develop editing? Do you find using the camera raw filter in Photoshop to do adjustments faster than doing them in Lightroom?, the same? or slower?
I'm using ACDsee a lot now. Hopefully won't renew subscription when it comes around for Adobe
One alternative that I don't see mentioned is Darktable darktable - the photo workflow software . It started as a Linux project, though you can now install on Windows. Very powerful and I personally find the RAW converter gives truer colours. That said, I still use LR primarily because as an overall package it is excellent, especially with regards to tagging and cataloging photos. I've not seen another package that rivals that aspect.
Best of the rest in my view:
Capture One (CO), very good, especially if you are a Fuji or Sony owner and get the free Express option. Produces high contrast/ saturated images if left to it's own devices. Good skin tone options for Portrait photographers. Good tethering options.
DXO Photolab - stunningly good at reducing noise and getting the best sharpness from high ISO images with the Elite version. Great option is you are happy to let the software make all your choices.
Luminar - More of a Lightroom/ Photoshop cross.
ON1 - I did not like the noise reduction, but many swear by this software.
Best value - Darktable (free) or CO, which is also free if you are a Fuji or Sony owner