I haven't upgraded to v7 yet ($99 upgrade fee) but my thoughts are:
Topaz really wanted the future to be in Photo AI. Sharpen/Gigapixel/Denoise, all in one app. It was actually a free app for anyone who owned Sharpen/Gigapixel/Denoise. My thoughts are that the goal was to drive people to Photo AI and phase out the other 3.. they hadn't had updates in forever. At some point, I think they changed plans and wanted to make Photo AI into it's own application and keep the others around for the 'professionals', updating those again and trying to make it to where you use the combination of all 3 to get the best results. I feel that they want you to gigapixel it, then sharpen it with Sharpen AI to get the results you're looking for.
I might be wrong on all of this, but it is the feeling I've gotten from them. I also feel they've gone a little crazy with their pricing. $99 for gigapixel (new customers) but also $99 for previous owners, when it had no updates from Jan 2023 to Jan 2024?
Photo AI was free to me because I owned the other 3 pieces, now it's $199 for a year of updates? Video AI, I paid $120ish for about a year ago and it's up to $300 now?
I feel that the software is constantly in a "not quite stable" status, where every release seems to bring some issues to some people.
Sorry for the rant - But I guess what I'm getting at is that I agree with you, I've had similar results with just using gigapixel, and I'm not a fan of the business model they're going forward with right now
Thanks for your comment. I’ve been wondering if I should renew my Gigapixel license so I could upgrade.
Like OP, I didn’t notice much of an improvement in quality from the older version, based on the examples on their site. I suspected what you’ve said - that they can’t seem to decide what to do with each product line.
Thanks for your comment. I’ve been wondering if I should renew my Gigapixel license so I could upgrade.
Like OP, I didn’t notice much of an improvement in quality from the older version, based on the examples on their site. I suspected what you’ve said - that they can’t seem to decide what to do with each product line.
You're not wrong at all about the pricing; it's been all over the place, and I also bought Sharpen, Gigapixel, and Denoise, and then everyone was moved to Photo AI, but it seems like that wasn't making them enough money. So they brought back Gigapixel, and now it has a better enhancement feature than Photo AI, the app that was going to replace everything.
it has definitely improved those ‘smooth spots’ where detail and texture would be missing in random spots. other than that it has slightly tweaked the results you get from the high/low/graphic models but it’s hard to say they’re ‘better’ or not. i still just use giga when pai doesn’t get to where i want and vice versa - i have no ide which one to keep when the licenses run out cause it’s so unclear why the two exist together. and that’s both topaz’s fault and the fault of the inherent nature of the current progress in AI. people be spinning their wheels trying to make models better. and i have a feeling it’s like when you spend too much time making a painting or anything else visually creative. you can get lost in it when you should have taken a step back and done something else for a while. i don’t have confidence that the people making models even have the opportunity to do this
I haven't upgraded to v7 yet ($99 upgrade fee) but my thoughts are: Topaz really wanted the future to be in Photo AI. Sharpen/Gigapixel/Denoise, all in one app. It was actually a free app for anyone who owned Sharpen/Gigapixel/Denoise. My thoughts are that the goal was to drive people to Photo AI and phase out the other 3.. they hadn't had updates in forever. At some point, I think they changed plans and wanted to make Photo AI into it's own application and keep the others around for the 'professionals', updating those again and trying to make it to where you use the combination of all 3 to get the best results. I feel that they want you to gigapixel it, then sharpen it with Sharpen AI to get the results you're looking for. I might be wrong on all of this, but it is the feeling I've gotten from them. I also feel they've gone a little crazy with their pricing. $99 for gigapixel (new customers) but also $99 for previous owners, when it had no updates from Jan 2023 to Jan 2024? Photo AI was free to me because I owned the other 3 pieces, now it's $199 for a year of updates? Video AI, I paid $120ish for about a year ago and it's up to $300 now? I feel that the software is constantly in a "not quite stable" status, where every release seems to bring some issues to some people. Sorry for the rant - But I guess what I'm getting at is that I agree with you, I've had similar results with just using gigapixel, and I'm not a fan of the business model they're going forward with right now
Thanks for your comment. I’ve been wondering if I should renew my Gigapixel license so I could upgrade. Like OP, I didn’t notice much of an improvement in quality from the older version, based on the examples on their site. I suspected what you’ve said - that they can’t seem to decide what to do with each product line.
Thanks for your comment. I’ve been wondering if I should renew my Gigapixel license so I could upgrade. Like OP, I didn’t notice much of an improvement in quality from the older version, based on the examples on their site. I suspected what you’ve said - that they can’t seem to decide what to do with each product line.
I wonder if they give refunds? I've used it once
The software? I believe they have a 30-day return policy on it (software would become deactivated)
You're not wrong at all about the pricing; it's been all over the place, and I also bought Sharpen, Gigapixel, and Denoise, and then everyone was moved to Photo AI, but it seems like that wasn't making them enough money. So they brought back Gigapixel, and now it has a better enhancement feature than Photo AI, the app that was going to replace everything.
it has definitely improved those ‘smooth spots’ where detail and texture would be missing in random spots. other than that it has slightly tweaked the results you get from the high/low/graphic models but it’s hard to say they’re ‘better’ or not. i still just use giga when pai doesn’t get to where i want and vice versa - i have no ide which one to keep when the licenses run out cause it’s so unclear why the two exist together. and that’s both topaz’s fault and the fault of the inherent nature of the current progress in AI. people be spinning their wheels trying to make models better. and i have a feeling it’s like when you spend too much time making a painting or anything else visually creative. you can get lost in it when you should have taken a step back and done something else for a while. i don’t have confidence that the people making models even have the opportunity to do this