I would not tolerate 2-3 minutes for any image processing other than a length of video. 2-3 minutes for a single frame often indicates lack of graphics acceleration.
DXO takes 1-2 seconds from RAW to denoised TIFF in a modern computer.
jwpstl wrote:
I thought you could use the Standard denoise option with tiff files. Pretty sure that’s how it worked with PL8.
Yes, you can use the regular denoise on any file type, but DXO's magic is in prime and deep prime that only work on raw files. I found their regular noise reduction is similar enough to LR noise reduction that it's not really worth the extra steps.
Nik Dfine, I do feel, is better than LR regular noise reduction and DXO regular noise reduction. But Topaz is better than Define.
This is how I would rate the various noise reduction tools I have used enough to have an opinion on:
Level 1:
DXO Deep Prime
LR AI Denoise
Topaz Denoise AI
Level 2:
DXO Prime
Topaz Photo AI
Level 3:
Nik Dfine
Level 4:
DXO regular noise reduction
LR regular noise reduction
RoamingScott wrote:
That’s your computer being under powered. Denoise takes about 10 to 15 seconds on my files.
I don't think so, Scott, my PC is new with 128 GB RAM, dedicated NVIDIA graphic card, and top of the line Intel Core Ultra 9 285K 3.7 GHz 24-Core LGA 1851 Processor.
Douglas L wrote:
I don't think so, Scott, my PC is new with 128 GB RAM, dedicated NVIDIA graphic card, and top of the line Intel Core Ultra 9 285K 3.7 GHz 24-Core LGA 1851 Processor.
It's all about the GPU, none of the other fluff. Which specific nvidia card do you have?
Douglas L wrote:
I kept the NVIDIA GPU from my old PC, the model is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 KO 6GB GDDR6. It's about 5 years old.
It's all about the bottleneck... once you eliminate the GPU bottleneck, then the next weakest link in the chain will show, but for now, it's mainly that older Nvidia card. That's not really a horrid video card, there are lots worse out there (see chart), but it is not up to the latest standards.
This is an older chart I am linking from an old thread (credit to mcbroomf for his hard work), and the software has since changed, but it still gives a general idea what's going on, card wise. The good news is, the latest gen 5xxx series Nvidia cards are pretty reasonable compared to the constrained time during Covid when vendors were scalping with ridiculous prices because they were hard to get stock.
Douglas L wrote:
I kept the NVIDIA GPU from my old PC, the model is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 KO 6GB GDDR6. It's about 5 years old.
Double check that you have the correct drivers and settings to utilize your GPU fully in LR, but it's most likely your GPU holding you back. My 2019 Mac Book Pro that has an AMD mobile from 2019 with 8GB DDR6 takes about 2min to denoise a photo in LR. You definitely have a very powerful CPU and more than enough RAM.
Since it sounds like you built your computer, if you want to go down the overall performance rabbit hole a bit, check your RAM clock speed and make sure the files you're editing off of are on an SSD. But AI denoise is mostly GPU driven.
Douglas L wrote:
I don't think so, Scott, my PC is new with 128 GB RAM, dedicated NVIDIA graphic card, and top of the line Intel Core Ultra 9 285K 3.7 GHz 24-Core LGA 1851 Processor.
I kept the NVIDIA GPU from my old PC, the model is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 KO 6GB GDDR6. It's about 5 years old.
I suggest the RTX 5080. Prices are finally down a bit, many cards fit 3 slot spaces, and you can OC easily to get even more performance. I'm using a Ryzen 9 9950X since it's better for my purposes than Intel, but any of the latest high grade CPUs are not going to be the bottleneck that the GPU is. I don't use LR, but as an example it will convert a 45MP RAW file to 16-bit TIFF using DeepPrime 3 NR in 1.1 seconds average. DP XD/XD2 is roughly twice as long, but that is still plenty fast. I'm sure the 5080 would be a huge improvement in the Abode.
Douglas L wrote:
Usually I don't have the patience to wait 2 or 3 minutes for LR's denoise to complete the job, it's like watching grass grow. Hope they can improve. I remember Topaz denoise was very slow a couple years ago.
Yeah, LR Denoise is all GPU dependent so its speed varies a lot. My system takes 25s for a full frame A1II image and 10s if I shot in crop mode.
If I had to wait 2-3mins I'd either be updating my GPU or using a different NR program. Even 25s is painful sometimes. It was better in the old version where you could work on another image while it ran the NR. Now I'm locked out from doing anything in LR while it runs.
The whole situation with Topaz moving to a subscription model is really frustrating. I’ve been a customer for many years, owning all of their products – even the old standalone ones and the video tools. Some of these I don’t use that often, and in many cases the yearly updates didn’t offer enough improvements to justify upgrading every time. So I usually bought an update only when something truly groundbreaking came along. That was perfectly fine for me.
But now I’m supposed to pay monthly and permanently just to keep using the software? And on top of that, the prices have gone up significantly? Honestly, it’s not worth it. I’ll continue to use Photo AI for another year or two and see what the market has to offer and where the technology stands by then. But I will definitely not just sign up for a subscription.
Today I also tested Luminar Neo. I don’t normally use it – for me it was a bad purchase. But when I heard they had recently added “Supersharp AI,” I gave it a try. The results are surprisingly close to Topaz. Sometimes Luminar is better, sometimes Topaz. Luminar does create more artifacts, especially in the sky, which you have to mask out, but apart from that it does a great job. Topaz is still slightly sharper in some areas, but overall they’re like brother and sister. For me, Luminar is definitely a strong alternative. I’ll be running both side by side in the coming months to gather more experience. And it’s convenient that Luminar, just like Topaz, integrates directly into Lightroom and Photoshop.
I also came across VanceAI and AVCLabs Photo Enhancer AI. These tools seem to deliver results similar to Topaz as well. Has anyone here tried them? There’s barely any feedback on forums or Reddit. Maybe they’re worth testing too.
Topaz with a subscription? Never ever – especially not at these prices. They’re now more expensive than Lightroom, while offering only a fraction of the functionality. It’s about time they came back down to earth. Making money is one thing, ripping people off is another. Why can’t companies treat their customers fairly and respectfully anymore? We’re all in the same boat.
If this continues, soon you’ll only be able to buy bread at the bakery if you have a subscription. Is that really the direction humanity wants to go? How many houses and boats does one person need? Where did solidarity go? Nothing against fair pay for good work – that’s absolutely deserved. But subscriptions are a cancer.
RoamingScott wrote:
And that’s why it’s taking three minutes per file. before you replace it, ensure that you have GPU acceleration hard enabled in your settings.
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Erictator wrote:
It's all about the bottleneck... once you eliminate the GPU bottleneck, then the next weakest link in the chain will show, but for now, it's mainly that older Nvidia card. That's not really a horrid video card, there are lots worse out there (see chart), but it is not up to the latest standards.
This is an older chart I am linking from an old thread (credit to mcbroomf for his hard work), and the software has since changed, but it still gives a general idea what's going on, card wise. The good news is, the latest gen 5xxx series Nvidia cards are pretty reasonable compared to the constrained time during Covid when vendors were scalping with ridiculous prices because they were hard to get stock.
DWOfPaul wrote:
Double check that you have the correct drivers and settings to utilize your GPU fully in LR, but it's most likely your GPU holding you back. My 2019 Mac Book Pro that has an AMD mobile from 2019 with 8GB DDR6 takes about 2min to denoise a photo in LR. You definitely have a very powerful CPU and more than enough RAM.
Since it sounds like you built your computer, if you want to go down the overall performance rabbit hole a bit, check your RAM clock speed and make sure the files you're editing off of are on an SSD. But AI denoise is mostly GPU driven....Show more →
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EB-1 wrote:
I suggest the RTX 5080. Prices are finally down a bit, many cards fit 3 slot spaces, and you can OC easily to get even more performance. I'm using a Ryzen 9 9950X since it's better for my purposes than Intel, but any of the latest high grade CPUs are not going to be the bottleneck that the GPU is. I don't use LR, but as an example it will convert a 45MP RAW file to 16-bit TIFF using DeepPrime 3 NR in 1.1 seconds average. DP XD/XD2 is roughly twice as long, but that is still plenty fast. I'm sure the 5080 would be a huge improvement in the Abode.
arbitrage wrote:
Yeah, LR Denoise is all GPU dependent so its speed varies a lot. My system takes 25s for a full frame A1II image and 10s if I shot in crop mode.
If I had to wait 2-3mins I'd either be updating my GPU or using a different NR program. Even 25s is painful sometimes. It was better in the old version where you could work on another image while it ran the NR. Now I'm locked out from doing anything in LR while it runs.
Thank you guys for the info about the GPU. I will take a look at it.
I just ran some tests with animals and animal hair. In this area, every tool fails except Topaz – VanceAI in particular performs very poorly. For landscapes, Topaz and Luminar deliver similarly good results, but when it comes to animal hair, Luminar becomes practically unusable.
Another thing I noticed: Luminar ignores calibrated monitor profiles, which the support team actually confirmed. It only supports sRGB, making it the only program on my PC that displays colors incorrectly. In browsers, Windows Photo Viewer, Photoshop, Topaz, or Lightroom I have no such issues. Luminar even suggests disabling the calibrated profile while using the software. Sorry, but no – it’s 2025 after all.
So Luminar is off the table as an alternative. At the moment, it’s fair to say that when it comes to sharpening, there really isn’t any true competitor to Topaz. For now, I’ll stick with Photo AI and see how the field develops in the coming years.
I saw this coming over a year ago when they started selling the cloud credits. They are priced for a commercial user not a retired old guy like me. They are not getting any more money from me. I will occasionally use the old versions, but I really don't need them much anymore. Plus the random crunchy artifacts are annoying.
I was a bit late to the Topaz train and hopped on maybe 18months ago. Whatever the exact timing, it was just before they really started pushing PhotoAI as their one-stop shop for noise, sharpening, and upscaling. I think I paid $99 total for all 3 individual programs (sharpen, noise, upscaling), and this also included the first version of PhotoAI and VideoAI. It gave me 1yr of updates but I haven't renewed and probably won't until there is some significant change/improvement.
PhotoAI does not seem to work as well as any of the individual Topaz apps. The individual apps are great if you have a very specific use case, but only in rare, extreme cases do they do a better job with noise and/or sharpening than Lightroom. I'm also convinced they nerfed the individual apps over the last 6months in an effort to get users to upgrade.
With that said, if you need to upscale I think Gigapixel is one of the best options. This remains my most used Topaz product, but for the niche purpose of upscaling AI generated images from Midjourney. The AI images come in at around 2500px on the long end (depending on the desired aspect ratio), but Gigapixel will upscale to 4k with no issues, and even up to 8k with just some simple tweaks to the sliders.
Just my luck...I bought Topaz Photo AI a couple of months ago and haven’t received a single update since. I do like how the app works right now, but I just hope they continue supporting it so it stays compatible with future Adobe updates.
I found Topaz Denoise would often stop working after MacOS upgrades, so effectively was a "slow" type of subscription anyway. Just with a slower more expensive repeat cycle.
Adding my "2" cents as to how fast Denoise works for me:
LR Denoise takes around 44 seconds for an A1 II FF image on average. Not great, but not too bad for an 8-year-old 1080Ti. Will likely upgrade next year to a 5090 (overkill? Yes, but I do most of my gaming on PC, and I tend to buy the highest-end card I can afford and run it for as long as I can)
. Hope they can improve. I remember Topaz denoise was very slow a couple years ago.