mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

DXO Labs released Photolab 4 today. It has a number of new and upgraded features, but the most important one for many people may be the new version of their PRIME noise reduction. Deep PRIME AI does not replace their already stellar PRIME noise reduction, but is in addition to it. As a result, Photolab 4 now has three different ways of reducing image noise, HQ, PRIME, and Deep PRIME

Deep PRIME takes the noise reduction quality of PRIME to a whole new level. It's only available for raw files so it doesn't have the flexibility of a standalone program like Topaz's Denoise AI which will work on JPEGs. However, I have been beta testing Deep PRIME for more than 7 months and also have a license for the latest version of Topaz Denoise AI. As a result, in my personal experience over a long period of time and on a wide variety of images, DXO's Deep PRIME has set a new noise reduction standard.

Deep PRIME takes far longer to process images than PRIME unless you have a supported graphics card. Generally speaking, supported graphics card GPUs will process Deep PRIME images 3 to 5 times faster then a computers CPU alone. Since PRIME NR still does not make use of a graphics card's GPU, the new Deep PRIME wiill actually run much faster than PRIME if you have supported card.

There are several other worthwhile enhancements as well such as a history file with image settings, new usability design features, a color picker for the color wheel, a watermark feature, a new batch rename feature, and some additional design refresh changes as well as several more minor feature updates and tweaks.

CO

I have DxO PhotoLab 3 and ViewPoint 3. I will look into PhotoLab 4.

photoman43

I have DxO pl 3 Elite version and just got the email from DxO about DxO 4.

I do not recall any info about supported graphics cards. Could you share a link about that or tell us in general terms what video cards are needed?

I will definitely check out the color picker too as that could be a huge beef it for some users.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I see also that the demosaicing process has been improved. I haven't read anywhere any results of this.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

There is no current link that I'm aware of that lists which video cards are supported. I'll see if I can find information on the general specs for a card that meets the requirements.

Generally speaking though, most lower end cards, especially those that are built directly into the motherboard and which have have very little built in memory or share the computers memory will not meet the requirements. What graphics card are you using? I may know offhand, or might be able to find out if it's supported.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

There are only a few reviews so far from respected reviewers. And those reviews were based on pre-release versions that were sent out to reviewers a few weeks ago. Two reviews that come to mind are from Camera Jabber which indicated that DeepPRIME works incredibly well, and Fstoppers indicated the DeepPRIME does its work impressively. I'll see if I can provide some links to them and others

photoman43

My video card is a Gigabyte GEFORCE GTX 1660 Ti Windforce OC 6G. I think that means it has 6 GB RAM on it.

I hope that is enough horsepower for DXO PL 4

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Absolutely. The GTX 1660ti will work very well with DeepPRIME. DXO recommends a GTX 1060 as the minimum NVidia card, but even my lower level GTX 1050Ti works well.

Here is a link to DXOs recommendations for DeepPRIME

https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050525632-DeepPRIME-hardware-acceleration

photoman43

Thank you for this link.

At the bottom it provides an important piece of info. Deep PRIME only works with the Elite edition of DXO PL. If you are using Essential edition you will likely have to do some sort of upgrade to Elite.

I am now using Elite mainly to access Prime denoising.

lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

Thanks for the post, mwsilvers.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

It is unfortunate that the Essential starter version even exists. I never recommend it to anyone. I also strongly recommend the purchase of Viewpoint 3 and FilmPack 5 Elite to get a more full featured product. FilmPack 5 Elite adds a lot of functionality to PhotoLab that goes beyond just film type processing, and Viewpoint 3 adds the perspective corrections that should have been built into PhotoLab Elite in the first place. The three products together are pricey but in my opinion they are well worth the cost. I don't even install the standalone versions of FilmPack and Viewpoint. Purchasing the licenses for them unhides their features which are already built into PhotoLab.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

You are welcome. If you are unfamiliar with PhotoLab you can download and install the full version trial for 30 days. Its not for everyone but it maybe worth a look for you.

lorvey Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

No, I've got PL3 Elite. Just trying to determine whether it is worth an upgrade to PL4.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I guess it would depend on what is important to you. That's a personal decision. I’m using all of the upgrades in PL4 listed below…

New - DeepPRIME with GPU support
New - History palette
New - HSL Color picker
New - DNG input/output support
New - Paste Selected Corrections
New - Clone/Repair toolbar Expand/Collapse
New - Batch rename
New - Watermark editor
New -Filter tool bar
Improved Keyword support
First phase of the interface refresh