Aperture painfully slow

Two quick observations from someone who runs Aperture on a 2006 MacBookPro with 3 GB of RAM as well as a 2007 MacPro with 21 GB of RAM.

-- 3 GB is going to be slow for anything but the most basic operations.

-- If your library is on a USB drive, then things will be VERY slow. Move the Library to your fastest, internal drive, not more than 75% full.

-- Your master images, however can reside quite happily on an external drive, even a USB drive as they are not read all that much and are never rewritten. (Look in the manual under "Referenced Library" and "Relocate Masters."

-- 8 - 16 GB of RAM seems to be the sweet spot and a faster video card helps. You don't need a gamer's state-of-tomorrow card, but the 2007 and older are a bit slow. (I base this on the very acceptable performance that I got with a 2009 Mac Mini with 4 GB of RAM.)

Hope this helps. (And if it is any consolation, the Lightroom fora are full of wails about Lightroom getting slower with each new release.)
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DiploStrat