Sharpen AI: Very severe crashes on Mac Pro

Topaz Products Product Technical Support
1

I use the latest update of Sharpen AI (v 1.2.1) my Mac Pro with Photoshop. When I choose the ‘focus’ setting and click apply, my Mac Pro 5,1 turns off completely and immediately after a few seconds. (So without the normal shutdown routine.) The crash is so severe that pushing the power button has no result. I have to remove the power cord to reset the power management to be able to start up the Mac again.

2

Hi, raise a technical support request at the Topaz Labs website and don’t forget to give full details of your operating environment. You can go to Help-> Graphics info in Sharpen AI and copy the details from there.

Also include wether you are using as a standalone or plugin, and what type of input image with the pixel dimensions.

3

I just ran into this same shut-down, and believe it is a hardware issue with two easy remedies, not a Topaz AI bug. First, a few data points:

  1. Running Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6 on a Mac Pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1 firmware.

  2. Using Topaz Sharpen AI 1.4.4 as a plugin.

  3. I had just started using a Radeon RX 580 GPU, replacing my Nvidia GTX 970.

  4. In Sharpen AI prefs, I set to enable discrete GPU with “Medium” memory consumption.

  5. The sudden shutdown occurred when I had the GPU card in the bottom 16x PCI slot (a.k.a. slot 1). It doesn’t happen when the GPU is installed in the upper 16x slot (slot 2). So remedy #1 is temporary — move the Radeon card to PCI slot 2.

  6. I did some more research and realized that I was not supplying my GPU with enough power. Instead of the leftover power cable I was using with my GTX 970 (it splits one single mini 6-pin connection from the motherboard into a full 8-pin plug), the GPU requires a power cable that combines the two mini 6-pins that are on the motherboard into the one full 8-pin plug. The GPU needs this full amount of power, or else the computer will automatically shut off it the GPU tries to draw too much power.

So, remedy #2 is the permanent fix and consists of a $10 cable: I was able to move the card back to the bottom PCIe slot and not have my computer shut down on Sharpen AI when I installed the proper cable. I think part of the extra power draw was from trying to spin up the fans which might be necessary in the lower slot because of less air flow in that spot. So it’s just safer to use the right cable.

If you use all your PCIe slots, you will need to put your double-width GPU in the bottom slot, otherwise it will physically block the use of slot 3.

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4

Hi Greg,

You have solved my problem and I’m so happy!
I have the Radeon RX 580 too and applied remedy #2 and now I can finally use Sharpen AI and Denoise AI without any problems. (I had only one of the two power cables connected.)

Thank you very much for taking the time to post the detailed solution here!

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