Testing stacking speed with a PCIe SSD

[JH]

I had to fix my computer and used the opportunity to upgrade the motherboard, processor and hard drive. I decided on the quite new AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Processor with 8 cores / 16 threads and a 1 TB Kingston’s A2000 NVMe PCIe SSD. I am quite pleased with the performance, tested with Zerene Stacker and Helicon Focus 7. I usually have my photos on an external USB 3 hard drive. But have measured the stacking speed with photos on both the internal and the external drive. For Helicon I also measured speed with and without hardware acceleration.

The test stack consists of 849 TIFF photos 114MB each.

Helicon Focus 7 – method C
It took 4 minutes and 43 seconds with the pictures on the PCIe SSD internal drive. This is approximately 3 pictures per second. When the pictures were on a USB 3 external drive it took 10 minutes and 47 seconds. This is approximately 1,3 pictured per second. With hardware acceleration and having the 849 photos on the PCIe SSD internal hard drive I measured 1 minute and 43 seconds. This is approximately 8 pictures per second. Having the photos on the USB 3 external drive did not increase the stacking speed.

Zerene Stacker – PMax
It took 21 minutes and 10 seconds with the pictures on the internal drive. This is a little more than 0.7 pictures per second With the external drive I measured 21 minutes and 31 seconds, this could be due to some normal variation or be a small but not significant increase in speed using the internal hard drive.

I use both Helicon Focus and Zerene Stacker and intend to continue to do so. When speed is important, I tend to use Helicon. In other cases, such as making a stereo picture of a transparent subject or a subject with reflections I use Zerene Stacker.

This cross eyed stereo picture of a pyrite with a reflections in the prisms could not have been done in Helicon and was well worth the time it took stacking in Zerene Stacker.



Best regards
Jörgen Hellberg