Optimizing Apple Aperture
Apple Aperture ships with its Enable Faces feature turned on, an automatic performance hit.
When importing images, the Enable Faces feature results in a 28% performance hit, as shown below. If you work is anything bug people, this default setting is slowing you down every time you Import.
On the 2010 3.33GHz Mac Pro hexacore, I observed a 28% performance hit for Enable Faces.
Disabling face detection
Uncheck the box. Instant speed boost for Import.