{"id":942,"date":"2018-09-27T09:56:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T16:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/?p=942"},"modified":"2018-10-23T13:01:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T20:01:55","slug":"released-today-topaz-a-i-gigapixel-2-0-5x-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/released-today-topaz-a-i-gigapixel-2-0-5x-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"RELEASED TODAY: Topaz A.I. Gigapixel 2.0 (5x faster!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As expected, Topaz is continuing to improve\u00a0A.I. Gigapixel<\/strong><\/a> with the new version (2.0.0)<\/strong> making a huge breakthrough in performance!<\/p>\n

Topaz says,<\/strong> “Using GPU mode is now 5x faster! With some optimizations to the GPU processing in A.I. Gigapixel, we’ve improved the speed of processing by around 5x on full-size images (it scales based on the size of your image, so a small image might be 3x) with the same 1-2 million calculations per pixel and the same amazing results.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Bug Fixes:<\/strong>\u00a0Made Cancel terminate processing immediate and clears the image list<\/p>\n

People who have tried earlier versions of A.I. Gigapixel have mentioned the unsurpassed quality of the results, but also the loooooong time it took to get them. So this new speed boost in 2.0.0 is welcome news.<\/p>\n

\u2022Note:<\/strong> Topaz is not promoting a coupon code or discount for A.I. Gigapixel<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>but we are! Use coupon “plugsnpixels” here to save 15%<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>off the retail price (this discount also applies to ALL Topaz products).\u00a0The latest update is FREE for existing users, as per Topaz’s longstanding policy for all of its software.<\/p>\n

OK then, let’s have a race: Gigapixel 1.1.2 vs. 2.0.0 (beta).<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started off conservatively and loaded up an uncropped 2008 Sony DSC-H2 6MP non-DSLR JPEG<\/strong> in both versions of Gigapixel at the same time on a late 2013 i7 fusion iMac, with the image residing on the Desktop.\u00a0Here is the original image (reduced in size, for reference):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The settings in both versions of Gigapixel were the same (400% enlargement, moderate quality, TIFF output, etc. I clicked Start in 1.1.2 first and as fast as I could, did the same in 2.0.0. Here’s how the progress bars looked as the simultaneous test progressed (1.1.2 at top, 2.0.0 beta version at bottom). Version 2.0.0 “smoked” version 1.1.2 the whole way:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The very instant 2.0.0 finished its output, I took this screenshot (below). 2.0.0 finished 7 minutes<\/em> before 1.1.2, which had only progressed about 55-60% by that point!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So is 2.0.0 really THIS much faster? Maybe it’s because I had 2.0.0 running as the foreground app here? Perhaps that gave it a priority in terms of RAM and\/or processor time? So I did the test again and swapped the apps, using the same settings and image (I had changed its name in the Finder in the meantime), but kept 1.1.2 in front this time:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nope, same results! Version 2 finished once again in what appears to be almost half the time as 1.1.2!<\/p>\n

The quality of the results has not been compromised to achieve the speed gain! Here is the test image at 400% output (viewed in Photoshop at 100%) with 1.1.2 at left, 2.0.0 at right:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2022Note:<\/strong> Topaz is not promoting a coupon code or discount for A.I. Gigapixel<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>but we are! Use coupon “plugsnpixels” here to save 15%<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>off the retail price (this discount also applies to ALL Topaz products).\u00a0The latest update is FREE for existing users, as per Topaz’s longstanding policy for all of its software.<\/p>\n

Gigapixel can handle RAW images, TIFFs or JPEGs<\/strong> as input and any of these at full-frame are handled quite well in terms of speed. Prior to getting ahold of the beta of 2.0.0 I had been doing crops from larger images<\/em> to show the results of the upsampling in 1.1.2 (to save processing time and also to show how smaller sections of images could be enlarged on their own), but now with any image format or size, cropping to save time is pretty much unnecessary due to the increased processing speed. Even the full-size RAW images I tested today finished processing in a shorter time than some of the JPEG crops used to!<\/p>\n

Now that I determined 2.0.0 wasn’t going to take forever to do its thing (in fact, just the opposite), I felt confident\u00a0enough\u00a0to do an uncropped RAW upsize at 600%<\/strong> (original Canon T3 image shown here full frame, reduced for reference):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once again I dragged the original image from the Desktop directly into both versions of Gigapixel. Here is the simultaneous 600% uprez RAW race in progress<\/strong>, with 1.1.2 in front to give it any possible speed advantage (turns out it didn’t matter, 2.0.0 is just faster no matter what):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here is how things looked at the 2.0.0 finish line, with 1.1.2 perhaps only 65% completed:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once again, quality is not compromised for speed in 2.0.0, as the results are at least as good as before (the 600% enlargement of\u00a0two different areas of the mailbox image are shown below at 50% in Photoshop, with 1.1.2 at left and 2.0.0 at right. No post-sharpening was applied):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you were already amazed at Topaz Gigapixel<\/strong><\/a>, you will really enjoy version 2! And it’s only going to get better, plus your upgrades will be free<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2022Note:<\/strong> Topaz is not promoting a coupon code or discount for A.I. Gigapixel<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>but we are! Use coupon “plugsnpixels” here to save 15%<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>off the retail price (this discount also applies to ALL Topaz products).\u00a0The latest update is FREE for existing users, as per Topaz’s longstanding policy for all of its software.<\/p>\n

Your purchase of any software through the\u00a0<\/i>Plugs \u2018n Pixels website<\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/i>or this blog gets you the best deal available and also helps generate a small commission to help keep these resources online. Thanks again!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As expected, Topaz is continuing to improve\u00a0A.I. Gigapixel with the new version (2.0.0) making a huge breakthrough in performance! Topaz says, “Using GPU mode is now 5x faster! With some optimizations to the GPU processing in A.I. Gigapixel, we’ve improved the speed of processing by around 5x on full-size images (it scales based on the Read more about RELEASED TODAY: Topaz A.I. Gigapixel 2.0 (5x faster!)<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,25,31,4,7,1],"tags":[281,313,14,168,385,66,8,9,38,153,173,174,318],"class_list":["post-942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discounts","category-general","category-photography","category-post-processing","category-reviews","category-software","category-uncategorized","tag-ai","tag-blow-up","tag-digital-imaging","tag-discount","tag-gigapixel","tag-image-enhancement","tag-photoshop","tag-plug-ins","tag-post-processing","tag-topaz","tag-topaz-labs","tag-topaz-studio","tag-upsize"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1016,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions\/1016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}