03 / NewsJune 2026Announced
Chroma Beta 2 Benchmarks Overview
We recently completed our internal performance testing for Chroma Beta 2 on Apple Silicon. Here is an overview of our key performance metrics.
We recently completed our internal performance testing for Chroma Beta 2 on Apple Silicon. Our goal with this release is to provide a highly responsive and efficient editing experience without compromising on image quality. Below is an overview of our key performance metrics and how they sit within the current editing landscape.
Performance Metrics
When working with high-resolution images, export speed is critical. We ran our tests using a variety of 14 to 33 megapixel synthetic RAW files through our new Metal rendering pipeline.
Export Processing Speed
2.4x faster exports
24MP RAW · Lower is better
RAW Decode & GPU Upload
2.7x faster loading
33MP RAW · Lower is better
Memory Footprint (RAM)
3.1x lower memory footprint
Peak memory load · Lower is better
Hard Saturation Clipping
4.2x less color loss
Clipping at +100 sat · Lower is better
Smart Grade Alignment Consistency
Measures how reliably the scene-analysis engine aligns with target professional color grades across our test library without requiring manual adjustment. Warm is highly optimized at 74% consistency, with the remaining styles placing between 55% and 72%.
Here are the key takeaways from our Beta 2 benchmark data:
- Export Speed: Processing and exporting a full 24MP image takes just 0.47 seconds. For context, the leading photo editor typically averages around 1.1 to 1.2 seconds per image on comparable hardware (such as an M3 Max chip). This makes Chroma's export pipeline up to 2.5x faster.
- Memory Efficiency: The engine maintains a stable memory footprint of 1.7GB per image processed.
- Image Load Time: Decoding and uploading large RAW files straight to the GPU takes approximately 418 milliseconds.
- Color Integrity: We have refined our rendering pipeline to reduce hard color clipping. At maximum saturation (+100), hard clipping has been reduced to just 2.0 percent, preserving accurate colors even during heavy edits.
- Smart Grade Consistency: Algorithmic grading consistency is led by the 'Warm' style at 74% alignment, with other styles ranging between 55% and 72% consistency across our test database, reducing the need for post-grade adjustments.
Workflow Comparisons
It is helpful to understand how Chroma fits into your broader workflow. For example, a popular all-in-one color editor excels at rapidly analyzing batches of photos, processing them at roughly 0.25 seconds per image. However, those tools are generally writing metadata parameters rather than performing full-resolution pixel exports.
While we are currently building our Phase 11 metadata cache system to support similar high-speed batch culling, Chroma's core focus right now remains on providing the fastest actual pixel rendering engine possible for full-resolution exports.
Areas for Improvement
While the new engine is highly performant, there are still areas we are actively tuning. Specifically, when pushing exposure adjustments to extreme levels (such as +3 EV), we are observing highlight clipping that we plan to smooth out in upcoming updates.
Additionally, the Color Clipper isn't fully ready as of yet and is currently in a beta state. However, it is pushing far enough to create reasonable results which is why it is currently included. A future version of Beta 2 may include the full Color Clipper, or it may be withheld until the release version.
Overall, the Chroma Beta 2 engine is exceptionally fast and responsive. We look forward to sharing more updates as we approach the final release.