How to Speed up Luminar Neo on Windows & Mac

Discovering how to speed up Luminar Neo can further streamline the user experience, saving valuable processing time when editing large image files.

I’ve used Luminar Neo as a means to enhance my landscape photographs by making the most of its powerful AI-based editing tools and impressive selection of presets.

In this tutorial, I’ll break down how you can tweak your computer’s settings to speed up the performance of Luminar Neo and ensure the software runs as quickly and smoothly as possible.

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How to Speed up Luminar Neo’s Performance

Luminar Neo is one of the most popular image processing programs on the market, using an impressive combination of powerful presets and image editing tools to help photographers produce truly creative results.

Its AI-based algorithms allow users to make an incredible range of changes to their images at the touch of a button, but if your computer isn’t optimised, these changes can take some time to process.

By following these simple steps, you can make sure your computer is running at its very best, enabling Luminar Neo to process edits and filters without the need for long waits.

Clear the cache and temporary files from your computer

Accessing your computer’s temp folder is easy to do

The first thing you should check when speeding up Luminar Neo is your computer’s cache and temporary files.

These may be slowing down the overall performance of Luminar Neo and any other software you’re using.

Accessing these files is easy, with Windows users able to bring up the folders containing these files by pressing the Windows key + R on the keyboard, then typing “temp” and pressing Enter.

Temporary files can be easily deleted from your computer

Once you’ve brought up your computer’s temporary files folder, you can select those files you no longer need and delete them from your computer.

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Check the task manager and close any unnecessary programs

Opening the task manager allows you to close unused programs quickly

Running additional programs in the background while simultaneously trying to edit images in Luminar Neo can cause Luminar Neo’s performance to lag behind.

Windows users can bring up the programs currently in use by clicking Ctrl + Alt + Delete, which will bring up a small window displaying everything currently in operation.

From here, you can right-click on each of the programs you wish to close, selecting End Task to shut them down and free up processing power for Luminar Neo.

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Optimise your graphics settings

Altering your graphic display settings can further optimise performance

Upgrade your hardware for optimised performance

Fine-tuning your graphics card settings is another method that can be used to enhance the overall speed and performance of Luminar Neo and reduce lag and loading times.

Accessing these settings can be done on Windows computers by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Display Settings to bring up the various options for adjusting the display.

You can change the resolution to a lower setting to speed up Luminar Neo, as well as head into the Advanced Settings to alter the refresh rate for additional speed enhancements.

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How to speed up Luminar Neo – FAQs

I’ve covered the main settings you can check on your computer to speed up Luminar Neo and the optimal hardware; here are the answers to some of the popular questions people have about Luminar Neo’s speed and performance:

Is Luminar Neo faster than Luminar AI?

The predecessor to Luminar Neo, Luminar AI earned a strong reputation among photographers for its rapid image processing a broad selection of tools and features.

With Luminar Neo, overall speed and performance has been much improved when using the same tools as AI, provided you have optimised your computer for graphical performance.

Luminar Neo works at its best with as much RAM as possible, although it will function correctly when installed on a computer with as little as 8GB RAM.

Skylum’s official recommendation for RAM is a minimum of 16GB RAM, with at least 10GB of free hard disk space and using an SSD with Windows 10 or higher.

As well as recommending a minimal amount of RAM for optimal performance, Skylum recommends processor specifications that should be met or exceeded in order for Luminar Neo to run quickly and smoothly.

Their recommendations suggest using an Intel® Core™ i7 7th generation or better, or an AMD Ryzen™ 7 2nd generation or better, in order to get the best experience with Luminar Neo.

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