Slow to error on Auto White Balance

Siger · **Joined:** Nov 16, 2025 **Posts:** 2

GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

Since upgrading to GIMP 3.0.6 (revision 1) my AUTO White Balance is taking an age to function whereas formerly it was pretty well instantaneous. By ages, I mean, as an example, 36s for an image of average complexity. I can't think it is anything I am doing but perhaps someone has some helpful information?

Wallace · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2025 4:31 pm **(#2)**

I’m not aware of a specific bug causing slow Auto White Balance in GIMP 3.0.6,
but some users report that GIMP 3’s filters run slower than in GIMP 2.
Given your ~36-second processing time,
it’s likely that Auto White Balance is now using a more computationally heavy GEGL method,
and your system or image size is making that extra cost noticeable.

One possible option is to increase Tile Cache (memory allocated to GIMP).
If GIMP is starved for RAM,
GEGL operations crawl.

Go to:

Edit → Preferences → System Resources → Tile Cache Size
Set it to half of your system RAM (e.g., 8–12 GB on a 16-GB machine).

sallyanne · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2025 8:05 pm **(#3)**

I have noticed it taking longer than before too but I think it is because they have added another feature to it that hasn't been shown before. That is the histogram feature has to do it's work first.

Siger · **Joined:** Nov 16, 2025 **Posts:** 2

Thank you for that advice. I have 12MB RAM & increased it from 6 to 7.5 but it has made no difference in processing time. I think I'll try to find the previous GIMP version & restore that, as I use Auto White Balance frequently & have found it a very useful tool.