A new implementation of linear-response time-dependent density functional theory (LR-TDDFT) for core level near-edge absorption spectroscopy is discussed. The method is based on established LR-TDDFT approaches to X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) with additional accurate approximations for increased efficiency. We validate our implementation by reproducing benchmark results at the K-edge and showing that spin–orbit coupling effects at the L2,3-edge are well described. We also demonstrate that the method is suitable for extended systems in periodic boundary conditions and measure a favorable sub-cubic scaling of the calculation cost with system size. We finally show that GPUs can be efficiently exploited and report speedups of up to a factor 2.