2013 Mac Pro: Sigma Photo Pro X3F Raw-to-TIF

A big thanks to Other World Computing for loaning MPG the upgraded 2013 Mac Pro! Ditto for B&H Photo for loaning the 6-core Mac Pro. 64GB memory kit for 2013 Mac Pro provided by OWC.

Introduction

Sigma Photo Pro is the Sigma software for processing X3F files from the Sigma DP Merrill cameras. SPP version 5.5.3 is still a 32-bit program.

Results

See the test machine configurations.

Convert thirty DP Merrill X3F files to 16-bit TIF with Sigma Photo Pro 5.5.3.

Version 5.5.3 of Sigma Photo Pro is a 32-bit program, and runs like molasses on all machines, taking 7.9 seconds per file on the fastest Mac Pro.

The 2013 Mac Pros help only a little, and the 12-core model fares particularly poorly, showing that the CPU efficiency of the Sigma Photo Pro software is not good. The SPP software apparently cannot use more than 4 CPU cores without a lot of threading overhead, because the 4-core laptop beats both 12 core systems.

The 8-core 3.3 GHz 2013 Mac Pro fares scarcely better than the 6-core 3.5 GHz, offering a barely noticeable 4.4% reduction in runtime.

2013 Mac Pro performance: convert 30 Nikon Sigma DP Merrill X3F files to 16-bit TIF