I am a new Sharpen AI user and I really like the results. The very well known issue of the software, as far as I have learnt, is speed. On my 8 year old desktop machine, processing and saving a 24MP JPEG in modes “stabilize” or “focus” takes about 6 minutes.
It would even take 18 minutes per JPEG, hadn’t I been able to activate the “OpenVino”-option over GPU usage. “OpenVino” was originally greyed out on my machine but made accessible after using the “calibrate” button and is the option I used since then, yielding the fastest results.
However, I cannot get OpenVino to run on my much newer laptop. As with my older machine, it gets available on hitting “calibrate” But, sadly, if I turn OpenVino on on my laptop copy of Sharpen AI, the next calibration will revert the settings to GPU usage on/OpenVino off, making everything much, much slower. I even tried to edit the settings directly in the registry but as soon as I preview a picture GPU usage is reverted to “on” whereas OpenVino is “off” again. This way, my old desktop which retains the “OpenVino on”-setting processes faster than my brand new laptop.
Is there any way to force SharpenAI to leave OpenVino “on” and GPU usage “off”? Or circumvent the “calibrate” procedure that constantly reverts to GPU if I chose OpenVino? I’d love to use Sharpen AI on my laptop but I’d hate to use settings that add 12 minutes to each Image it processes and saves.
Application & Version: Topaz Sharpen AI Version 2.2.2
Operating System: Windows 8 Version 6.2 (Build 18363)
Graphics Hardware: Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
OpenGL Driver: 3.3.0 - Build 27.20.100.8189
CPU RAM: 16264 MB
Video RAM: 1500 MB
Preview Limit: 3466 Pixels
The full story is somewhat longer. OpenVino worked when I first installed it on the laptop. I could switch to OpenVino instead of GPU usage and it worked well this way. After processing two image, Sharpen AI suddenly closed - and never opened again. There was a second of the initial program screen after which the software closed again.
I fixed this by setting the executable to Windows 8 (or 7) compatibility mode but neither of them gave me the option to turn on OpenVino, more precisely, the option is reverted to GPU (3 times slower) as soon as the software calibrates. I have tried several reinstalls, each time manually deleting the TopazLLC key in the registry to go for a “fresh” install. But the effect is always the same - set to Windows 10, the splash screen will appear and immediately close, so I cannot even check if OpenVino can be used in that environment. Windows 8 mode starts the software but leaves me with being unable to freeze the software setting in OpenVino mode.
