Feedback | Super Focus ETA Time Calculation

[kevin_baldwin]

I’m a new Topaz Photo AI user, currently playing around with the software to familarise myself with the UI and functionality of the various options.
I’m currently playing the Super Focus option.

I’m running Topaz Photo AI 3.4.1 on a Windows 11 desktop.
I’ve updated my 32gb RAM / Intel i7 12700 desktop machine to a more powerful 850 watt PSU and ASUS RTX 3060 OC Edition 12gb GPU

I have a picture of my grand-daughter that I believe should be perfect for checking how well Super Focus does at making this a picture worth keeping.

Canon 90D
jpeg
6960 x 4640 pixels
72 dpi
f/4
1/200 sec
ISO-2000
Focal Length: 18mm (18-400mm zoom)
Uploaded: The original image I’m using. (IMG_9308.JPG)

My 1st test was a great success.
After using custom/object selection, selecting just the face and hair, and clicking “Render”, ETA was 5 minutes, and the result was better than expected.
Even in this crude comparison using before and after screen shots of the images, you can see how good the result is.
Uploaded: Face_Hair_Original_SuperFocus.png

I then continued to use the same original image, trying other areas of the picture to include for “Super Focus” to do it’s magic, but was shocked to see ETA increase to 27-28 minutes.
I’ve tried multiple methods to select an area for “Super Focus”, including the selection of the “hair & face”, “face only” and “hair” only. I’m unable to see a repeat of the initial 5 minute ETA I experienced, in subsequent attempts, ETA never gets better than 27 minutes.
In search of an improvement, I’m restarting Topaz for each test, and even tried rebooting my box.

I’m now beginning to doubt my own sanity.
Perhaps I’m just imagining the initial 5 minute ETA?
Is it right that I see little or no difference in ETA when changing the amount of the picture that I’m trying to “Super Focus”.

After each test I make sure the image is closed and “Recent” entries are cleared
I drag & drop my image to the UI, “zoom to fit” and run the test with Sharpen strength set to Low and 100% Feathering
FYI… I have to select “Zoom to fit” again after clicking on the “Super Focus” option

These are the ETA values I see for each area I select to be Super Focus(ed)

1. Face Only - ETA of 27 minutes displayed after a 1 min 20 secs wait for calculating to complete
2. Hair only - ETA of 28 minutes displayed after 1 min 20 secs wait for calculating to complete
3. Face & hair - ETA of 28 minutes displayed after 1 min 20 secs wait for calculating to complete
4. Face, hair and upper body - ETA of 28 minutes displayed after 1 min 20 secs wait for calculating to complete
5. Full image - ETA of 28 minutes displayed after 1 min 20 secs wait for calculating to complete

So, my questions are:

1. Was I just lucky to get the 5 minute ETA the first time I tried Super Focus?
2. Is 28 minutes a reasonable ETA for my image and machine spec?
3. Is it right that changing the area masked for Super Focus doesn’t have any impact on the ETA

I’ve uploaded a compressed copy of the logs directory. (logs.zip)
Rather annoyingly, I don’t see a log that corresponds to the time when I saw the 5 minute estimate.
The time range of logs is: 2024-12-21-21-04-10.tzlog to 2024-12-22-00-28-35.tzlog
I exported the “5 minute” ETA image at 21 December 2024, 18:43:58 (GMT/UTC)
So, no luck there trying to convince myself I’m not going mad.

I’ve also uploaded:
And a screen show from NVIDIA System > Performance for my GPU when rendering was running (Card_Performance_Low_Sharpening.png & Card_Performance_High_Sharpening.png)

logs.zip (353.5 KB)

FYI… When I was checking if ETA was affected by masking selections, I always selected “Low Sharpening”, and didn’t have the patience to wait for 28 minutes for it to finish.
I did eventually let it run to completion using “High sharpening”. See log: 2024-12-21-23-30-18.tzlog

[rayinsanmiguel (Ray)]

Windows machines are all so different from each other that I doubt whether anyone will be able to give you a like-for-like comparison. However, let’s wait and see.
I have an M4 Mac (not high-end). I am seeing similar ETAs of around 27 minutes, although sometimes much quicker. I can never understand why it’s sometimes faster. Also, in practice the image usually renders in about two thirds the time given by the ETA!
Quite frankly, I think SuperFocus is a gimmick and I have yet to achieve rests that are significantly better than the older models, let alone what can still be achieved in Topaz’s now-defunct Sharpen AI. But it is still in beta they say and I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer a paid-for Cloud version, which would speed things up considerably.

[rayinsanmiguel (Ray)]

By the way, you have not uploaded the original file, although you think you may have done. If you want others to test it, you can only do that via a file transfer service like WeTransfer, since RAW files are too large to post here I believe. You are welcome to do so.

[kevin_baldwin]

Thanks for your feedback, which prompted me to do some more investigation.

I’ve now discovered that the consistently long 27-28 minute ETA on my test image is greatly reduced when I use “Focus Boost” in my test.

When I opened this topic, I was only selecting a “Sharpen Strength” settings of Low or High. “Focus boost” was always set to None.

I’ve now run a number of tests using a variety of different jpeg images, with “Focus boost” set to Minor.
ETA on my original test jpeg image is now consistently 10 minutes or less. Some of my other images show an ETA as low as 3 minutes.

I haven’t tried Major “Focus boost” yet, but so far, I haven’t found the need to.

As soon as I leave “Focus boost” set to None, ETA goes through the roof.

And… as you pointed out, the real render time is always less than the ETA. In my original test when ETA was 28 minutes, rendering usually completed in approximately 20 minutes.

[alexandre.topazlabs (alexandre.topazlabs@gmail.com)]

Hello,

The experience you described seems accurate to what is supposed to happen. No matter the selection you make in Super Focus, the entire image will be processed the first time. Then, after the processing is done, you can click on Super Focus again and change the selection. This time the processing should be very quick because it’s only changing the mask. If you change the settings in Super Focus, for example the strength, the processing will be again 27 minutes. We improved the processing time in version 3.4.3, so give it a try if you want to see if it’s faster

I believe the 5 minutes was not real the first time if it’s consistently 27 minutes after.

[bmollet50]

I have been using and learning how to use Photo AI 3.3 It is very good and I use it as a final step, after upscaling. The problem I have is that it takes forever to do the job. I am sitting, waiting for an image which is taking 47 Minutes. On other images, it has taken up to 3 hrs to work. That is way too long. Can a fix be created to speed up the Super Focus. With it taking so long, I can only work with 3-4 images a day.

[alexandre.topazlabs (alexandre.topazlabs@gmail.com)]

The rendering time will be highly dependent on the graphics card you have on your computer. For example, I have an NVIDIA RTX 4050 with 6GB of VRAM, and Super Focus takes between 2 and 20 minutes to render. If you don’t have a dedicated graphics card, it will take a long time. Keep in mind that the Super Focus is not meant to be used on all images, and normally Sharpen will do a great job and render in under one minute.

Sharpen | Topaz Photo AI