Niklon Loc: Athens, Ga

I am exceedingly frustrated by the length of time it takes Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen AI to run. In both cases it now takes about 5 minutes each. This is on a computer with 32 gigs of Ram and a Crucial SSD.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

CliffMcKenzie Loc: Lake Athens Texas

Like you, despite a robust system, Sharpen AI is running just under 5 minutes and DeNoise under 2 minutes. If I may expand your question, how many images at a time can you "round trip" from LRC to Topaz? I have no problem allowing the software to run through the night. I did try to reach out to Topaz as well as research through the internet without success. Is Topaz products worth it...very much so.

Traveller_Jeff

If you’re working on a 50 meg raw image, it takes a long time for Topaz to process since it addresses each and every byte. If you’re processing a jpg, which is often a far smaller file, the process takes a much shorter time. However, my understanding is that given the rich source of data in RAW, the final jpg will very likely be of superior quality if Topaz treats the raw file before it is converted to its final jpg form.

Dickwood33 Loc: Alberta, Canada

I have run 3-4 24mp files through in seconds and back to LR, not minutes.

Traveller_Jeff

I’ve found that to process a small sampling of a file takes a relatively short time. I inspect the output and make changes in the sliders and then check again. Only after I’m completely satisfied with the noise reduction and the focus sharpening, do I then process the entire file. It can take 1-2 minutes to complete that process. I then continue in LR, then convert to jpg and make final size and quality adjustments. If your computer completes the topaz process as fast as you say, please post its make and model as well as the platform you’re using. Thanks.

Niklon Loc: Athens, Ga

Thanks for your observations. I am using PSE 2020 and the images are usually 36mp cropped to one extent or another. I typically make whatever adjustments in Raw I'm going to before then processing them as JPEGs with Topaz.

If nothing else, it sounds like LR may have significant speed advantages over PSE

Traveller_Jeff

Ahh. So you're using Topaz to process a smaller jpg file. That quick result would be expected. The thinking is that processing the RAW file preserves more of the original data than processing the JPG. Thanks for clarifying your process.

Dickwood33 Loc: Alberta, Canada

Cyberpower R7 3070 purchased this past January. Windows 10, LR latest subscription version. Topaz Denoise puts finished TIFF back into LR.
Graphics card designated by 3070 is fast. Best Buy Geek told me I could have sold the card on ebay, replaced it with a cheaper one, covered the cost of the computer and put money in my pocket! I didn't. Couldn't be happier with my purchase.

Niklon Loc: Athens, Ga

Jeff,

Sorry, I missed the end of your question. The computer is an Optiplex 9010 with an I7 processor.

As for your new system, that is indeed a beast!

A follow up if I may, and perhaps I should post this as a new thread, what are the advantages of LR over PSE?

Thanks,

Klon

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

The issue is most likely your graphic card's GPU. What graphics card do you have? How many gigs of memory? Chances are good you may have an older or lower end card and its GPU is not supported by Topaz. I run Windows 10. I have 24GB of ram, an i7 6700 processor, an SDD, and an nVidia 1050Ti graphics card with 4 GB of memory. Running Topaz Denoise AI version 3 on my 25 megabyte raw files takes around 10-15 seconds.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

I too have the NVIDIA 1050TI with 4 gigs of DDR5 [faster than DDR4] and it is still considered a good photo graphics card, tho not a modern gaming card... but the price is right at about $150.

My CPU is an AMD 3600 on a MSI Gaming Plus MOBO. The newer CPUs add graphics and !! charge $$ for it.

SSD drives indeed are many times faster than the old mechanical clunkers, I presently use an Intel 660p Series M.2 2280 1TB PCIe NVMe. The NVMe is 25x faster than a 7200 RPM mechanical and 5x [?] faster than SSD or M2. Be sure when updating that your new motherboard supports NVMe [non volitile memory express].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express

Many UHH people spend a lot on that great glass, but really need to upgrade their computers. Using last year's gaming components is economical... companies discount last year's parts.
https://photographylife.com/the-ultimate-pc-build-for-photography-needs

RAM is best tuned/optimized in the BIOS because it is normal for the BIOS to set to a slow default speed.
https://www.techadvisor.com/how-to/pc-components/optimise-your-ram-3680497/

AI programs in general take a lot of processing and I found that out 2 yeas ago with my then 5-year-old mud-slow computer. With my now 2-year-old computer, ... fast is the word, it deals with AI quite well... no, I have not timed the DeNoise speed.

In my post on Dynamic Auto Painter, two days ago, a fellow UHH guy complained about the program, but he was using a 2020 iMac with 4 gig of RAM... OUCH. Modern programs take healthy RAM size and speed. furthermore, background programs unseen consume a lot of RAM.

Ron 717 Loc: Pennsylvania

Make sure your graphics card is adequate for the Topaz AI programs, also make sure in Topaz specs the check box for using the graphics card is checked. I had the same issue with my old computer that had only a 1 gob graphics card, I now have an 8 gigabit card and my photos process in a matter of seconds.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I run these programs on an iMac, and depending on the amount of work the program has to do, many run in a minute or less. The blurrier the photo, the longer it takes. I have had some run as long as three and a half minutes.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

OK, found that SSD is 5x faster than 7200 Mechanical, M2 NVMe is 5x faster than SSD. So switching to NVMe is 25x faster than that old clunker mechanical... "push pull click click its just that quick" [old Shick injector razor blade ad]
https://photographylife.com/nvme-vs-ssd-vs-hdd-performance
https://www.old-time.com/commercials/1940%27s/Push%20Pull%20Click%20Click.htm

There is always a "however"... "The most dramatic difference was with Photoshop 2020. That program took an average of 18 seconds to load [not edit] on a fresh boot after Windows had fully loaded on the SATA SSD and took about 11 on the NVMe drive.
Unless you’re doing really heavy work or want a cleaner build, it’s not really worth the money. An M.2 SATA or traditional SATA drive is going to be noticeably cheaper, but not noticeably slower in all but a few cases."
https://techreport.com/blog/3467943/nvme-vs-ssd-test/

NVMe drives are very expensive compared to regular M2 which are equal in speed to SSD drives. Like many things, can you see the difference in 20mp vs 25mp images once they are printed, and how much is it worth to have the Nth degree of newness? For normal use is the extra cost of M2-NVMe vs regular M2 worth it... depends on how fast you blink your eye.
-------------------------
I did a quick look at Amazon and Ebay and regular M.2 and M.2-NVMe 1Tb drives are equal in Price... Am I seeing wrong? Confirmation or Correction, Welcome. Also, the speed of M.2 is about 600MB/s and the M.2-NVMe to be 3500-5000 MB/s. Things are changing fast in this technology and prices are dropping.
https://www.velocitymicro.com/blog/nvme-vs-m-2-vs-sata-whats-the-difference/

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

How much memory are you running on your iMac?... not all iMac are created equal, nor are all PCs.