VEAI Models + Performance Guide

Topaz Video AI General
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UPDATED: New upscaling method
Before you read this article, I have to note that this guide is for v2.2.0 only (I’ve updated this post). The newer versions could be better or worse, depends on how you judge it. Sometimes, it depends on the sources. If you have a newer version, please go to the main discussion and you will see a lot of people comparing different results. Still, VEAI is just an “never-ending” beta product due to its nature. You judge the quality by your own eyes. Some models might be good to you, but might be bad to other people. But if you have no clue or don’t have time for the comparison, then you can go ahead and use the models guide below. I can’t guarantee that this guide will work for you. I wrote it based on my trials.

It took me over a month from VEAI 1.8.0 to 2.1.1 with hundreds of blu-ray/DVD discs and torrent contents to help me write this guide. Including models and VEAI performance guide. If the devs upgrade or update anything related to models and performance in general that impact the quality and speed of the models, I will update here as well. I write this guide based on my usage and experience only as a normal user. So if I make mistake, please feel free to give me your opinions to help the devs improve this software. I like this software, so I use it everyday to upscale everything to 4K only. So if you use for 1080p or else, it might not work as intended. Let’s begin:

Artemis HQ v11: fast + more detail enhanced

  • Good for: Blu-ray/1080p/High bitrate (6000kbps+) => extreme quality boost => Even better than 4K Blu-ray => minor to none artifacts if source is blu-ray or super high bitrate.
  • Bad for: DVD/Low bitrate/Under 720p => artifacts everywhere => strange and weird faces if they don’t have enough bitrate. Trees and grass will be completely smoothouted if your footage has too much noise.
  • Progressive sources only.

Artemis MQ + LQ: fast + more detail enhanced

  • Good for: detail boost at any resolution, no matter what you throw in. But low bitrate source will give your more artifacts. Also please, add more grain (amount=2.0/size=2.5). I personally don’t like grain, but I will use it if I have to. In this case, you need to use grain. If LQ gives you too much artifacts, choose MQ. MQ + grain = almost perfect for me (except some weird faces and shinny eyes).
  • Bad for: low bitrate sources => you have to add grain to eliminate artifacts. Not entirely, but it will make the video look good. Trust me. Also, avoid trees and grass footages.
  • Progressive sources only.

Artemis AA: medium fast + less detail enhanced. It’s kinda as same as Gaia CG, but now a little bit better than Gaia CG with noise cleaning. (updated)

  • Good for: cleaning + AA adjustments (like Gaia CG). Usually when you want to clean before upscaling with Gaia models. Works great now and I can now recommend it over Gaia CG.
  • Bad for: None.
  • Progressive sources only. Artifacts if source is interlaced.

Gaia CG: medium fast + less detail enhanced + keep original details

  • Good for: upscaling with low bitrate/low resolution sources, usually movies => less detail boost, just anti-aliasing, less to none weird faces, minor to none artifacts => anime, movies, general films works great.
  • Bad for: major detail enhancing => use these models when Artemis MQ + LQ create visible monster faces, or when you’re using it on movies, films,… with no details enhancement required.
  • Even with less or no artifacts, there are still quite a bit artifacts (rare), usually happen with sources have high compression. So, you have to add grain (Amount 2.0, Size 2.5) to eliminate artifacts.
  • Progressive sources only. Interlaced works okay, but it will produce a bit of artifacts. (less artifacts than Artemis AA)

Deinterlaced DV/TV: slow + medium detail enhanced

  • I’m impressed with what it does, but sorry, it does not meet my demands. It works great, but only 70%.
  • Bad for: any source with trees, grass amd human faces.
  • Interlaced sources only.

Gaia HQ v5: slow + less detail enhanced than Artemis HQ, but more natural than Artemis.

  • Good for: any sources if you don’t like oversharpness that Artemis offers. It does have artifacts if the source has low bitrate. But less visual than Artemis => I mainly use it for 720p and below.
  • Bad for: high bitrate sources with minor detail enhanced compared to Artemis HQ => if you want more details, use Artemis => in version 2.1.1, it seems that Artemis HQ v11 is BETTER than Gaia HQ v5 most of the time. And faster… (Artemis v12 is worse than v11). Gaia models will keep the film grain/noise mostly. If you want to clean, don’t use this model.
  • Progressive sources only.

Theia Models: medium fast + customizations

  • Only use if you prefer less/no sharpness, more deblock => use Theia Fidelity 0-90-0 for low bitrate source (360p/480p/DVD/VCD). Recommend for low bitrate sources only. Don’t try to boost details with DVD or 480p, just deblock it then. Max upscaling resolution for 480p should be 225%. Too high resolution will make artifacts more visible.
  • Progressive sources only.

**What I can’t fix: Artemis upscaled unreadable texts. The texts are blury, but now are “alien texts”. What?!! Trees, grass and human faces are so annoying

**Presets:
Blu-ray:

  • Artemis HQ, Gaia CG (depends on your taste)

DVD/VCD to 4K:

  • Gaia CQ/Artemis AA + no grain + 100% denoise and deblock => use Adobe Premiere Pro to upscale to 4K (use Noise HLS Auto (Grain) + Unsharp Mask in Premiere also if you prefer more sharpness) + Use Maximum Render Quality + high bitrate (50+ mbps for 4K).

DVD Enhanced (not as good as the method above)

  • Artemis AA or Gaia HQ, grain 2.0/0.5 (optional but recommend).

Low Bitrate (use DVD/VCD to 4K method is recommended)

  • Theia Fidelity (0-90-0) or Gaia CG (might have a bit artifacts, add grain to fix) => not always work, judge it yourself then.

High Bitrate:

  • Artemis HQ (for more/less accurate detail enhancement)
  • Gaia HQ (for less/accurate detail enhancement)
  • Artemis AA (if above models create artifacts or smoothout details)

High Bitrate but medium to low compression:

  • Artemis AA, grain 2.0/2.5 (optional)

High Bitrate but high compression:

  • Gaia HQ, grain 2/2.5 (optional)

Medium Bitrate with medium compression:

  • Gaia CG (mediocre) or Artemis AA (better). Might consider using grain if artifacts are visible.

For optimal result, use CRF 15 or 16 if MP4.
For best result, use TIF (only if you have around 800GB hard drive available). Use ProRes HQ if you have no space.

***SYSTEM PERFORMANCE:

  • Artemis/Theia: 20% CPU, 80% GPU
  • Gaia/Deinterlace: 100% GPU (10-20% CPU if output is MP4/MOV/JPG/PNG/ProRes)
  • Any compression method will use more CPU which reduces the performance of VEAI. I recommend using TIF and TIFF only to maximize VEAI performance and avoid bottlenecks. (In this case, CPU and SSD are the ones which bottleneck your GPU the most)
    PC system explanation:
  • GPU is more important for Gaia, CPU more is important for Artemis
  • Faster RAM speed (OC or X.M.P) = faster Artemis
  • Lower RAM latency = faster Artemis (3733mhz cl14 is 80% faster than 2133mhz cl15)
  • Faster FP16 performance (GPU) = faster Gaia (more) / Artemis (less)
  • Faster CPU single core performance = faster Artemis (more) / Gaia (less)
  • All CPU cores OC might improve 5-10% render speed. But also increase your power consumption.
  • Running 2 instances don’t reduce your time for each video, I recommend 1 video at the time with multi batches one by one. (tested with 2080Ti and 3090) The timing is not always accurate.
  • FP16 perf is important, buy GPU that has high FP16 perf. More tensor cores are also very important. Quadro is recommended.
  • Multiple GPU works great. But needs some improvements.
  • Intel and AMD CPUs are the same, high core count CPUs are recommended for multiple instances. At least 8 cores for stabilization. Over 16 cores are wasted and unnecessary.
  • Only buy 2x8gb, 2x16gb, 4x8gb, 4x16gb RAM bundles, DO NOT buy 2x8gb and another 2x8gb bundle even they are the same. They will be unstable when overclocking or using X.M.P.
  • Best AMD CPU recommend for best perf: 5950X
  • Best AMD CPU for low usage users: 5800X
  • Best Intel CPU recommend: 10900K or 11900K (less core, not always faster)
  • Best GPU for price/perf: RTX 3070
  • Best GPU for max perf: RTX A6000

My system:
CPU: AMD 5800X + 5950X
GPU: RTX 2080 Ti + 2x RTX 3090
RAM: HyperX 64GB 3600Mhz

RTX 2080 Ti + 5800X: mp4
*1080p => 4K
Artemis HQ => 0.40
Gaia HQ => 0.69
Deinterlace DV => may vary, but no matter what it shows, it takes the same amount of time as Gaia HQ.

*480p => 1080p
Theia Fidelity => 0.11
Gaia HQ => 0.12

RTX 2080 Ti + 5800X: TIF 8bit uncompressed
*1080p => 4K
Artemis HQ => 0.40
Gaia HQ + CG => 0.62

RTX 3090 + 5800X: TIF 8bit uncompressed
*1080p => 4K
Artemis HQ => 0.34
Gaia HQ + CG => 0.50

*480p => 4K
Gaia HQ + CG => 0.18

***Please note that my RTX 2080 Ti has a major cooling mod, so it’s much cooler than 3090 FE stock cooler.
RTX 2080 Ti temp (mod + OC): 68°C
RTX 3090 temp (stock): 72°C
Both are not overclocked. If OC, 5-10% performance gained.

4/24/2021: Today, I upgraded 5800X to 5950X and 5% performance gained just from that. So based on the testing, upgrade from 5800X + RTX 2080 Ti => 5950X + RTX 3090 gave me 25% performance boost in total. Cost me a lot but it’s worth it for 30% time + electricity saving. Huge deal. Also I changed my PC case to another one, replace AIO with Noctua NH-D15 air cooler and 7 noctua fans. My GPU and CPU temp dropped to 67°C both, and VEAI gained another 5% from that. In total 10%. So 30% after upgraded with more airflow helped a lot for long term using. I use VEAI 24/7, so that’s awesome. With OC, I can achieve 5% more from RTX 3090, a total 35% performance gained at 62°C. What a monster.

  • RTX 3090 compared to RTX 2080Ti after upgrading

RTX 3090 + 5950X
*1080p => 4K
Gaia HQ + CG (TIF) => from 0.50 to 0.43
Artemis HQ (TIF) => from 0.40 to 0.33

RTX 3090 + 5950X (after GPU OC)
*1080p => 4K
Gaia HQ + CG (TIF) => from 0.43 to 0.4
Artemis HQ (TIF) => from 0.33 to 0.31

*480p => 4K
Gaia HQ + CG (TIF) => 0.16

RTX 3090 x2 (no NVLink) + 5950X + VEAI v2.1.1
Gaia HQ + CG (TIF) => 1080p to 4K => from 0.43 to 0.31
Gaia HQ + CG (TIF) => 1080p denoise/deblock => 0.18
Gaia HQ + CG (TIF) => 480p (4:3) to 4K (4:3) => 0.12

RTX 3090 x2 (no NVLink) + 5950X + VEAI v2.2.0
Gaia HQ + CG (TIF) => 480p (4:3) to 4K (4:3) => 0.19
Gaia HQ + CG (TIF) => 1080p to 4K => 0.37
Gaia HQ + CG (MP4) => 480p (4:3) to 4K (4:3) => 0.22 - 0.25
Gaia HQ + CG (ProRes) => 480p (4:3) to 4K (4:3) => 0.22 - 0.27

*Note: I notice a 5-10% perf difference between Gaia CG and Gaia HQ depends on the source (above tests are Gaia CG, Gaia HQ + 5-10% perf). So you might not notice this delta. Don’t worry much about it.

Have fun with VEAI.

33 Likes
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Highest Respect for such a high amount of work.

6 Likes
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This is so useful. Thanks for your contribution.

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My preferences are colored by my latest project.

My latest project is taking my “Blackadder” DVDs and sharpening and upscaling to 1080p.

Video this bad needs two passes. I use Gaia Computer Graphics to clean up the 480p, then use Artemis HQ to upscale it to 1080p.

AHQ is definitely best as a finishing pass for deblocked/denoised video.

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You did it correctly. Nice job.

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Pictures of my latest: Original First Pass Second Pass

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsAY7ry6dk9NgYESiSKk80XxRRydRg?e=R8VyLM

1 Like
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How much more bandwidth does the RAM OC give?

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At least double I believe

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That means, if i have a cpu with more bandwidth, like Epyc Zen 2 190GB/s , Threadripper 95GB/s, Xeon-W 131GB/s will have higher performance in the Bandwidth limited models.

Ryzen 5800X @ 3200 mhz dual channel = 47,68GB/s

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Because VEAI only optimizes for 4-8 core CPUs, higher core count CPUs don’t help much or have the same performance as 4 core CPUs. I would say buy Ryzen AM4 instead of Threadripper or Epyc.

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But you still have more bw and could deactivate the other cores, and you have ecc.

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But the core clock is low, unless it’s Threadripper 5000 series. At the moment, Ryzen 5000 series CPU lineup is the best.

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Please consider another location for the permanent home of this document. Mods here often lock threads or remove topics entirely. It’s not a safe place for a “living document.” A Google doc or other option would be more logical.

1 Like
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Then I will create another one with new updates and opinions for other users. Usually the locked topics related to small questions only. But this is more like a guide topic which I update frequently when I found something useful. I believe this will help new users to make a choice without working on each model to find the best one. Luckily, the devs announced the next update with multiple model previews to let user decide which is best. But still, someone has to do a post like this. Because the models only work perfectly with the right video input. And we really have millions kinds of video inputs out there. What I know is only a small portion of that. I hope my humble guide will help at least someone struggling with the models. I have good hardware and time, so it’s like a free-time hobby to me. But I hope developers will have a same guide like this on their perspective. Each update, I always have to update this guide. Still, AI needs human after all, lol.

2 Likes
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I updated the guide for Artemis MQ and LQ which will tell you how to eliminate artifacts in low bitrate videos. Hope it helps.

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Wonderful guide. One suggestion, maybe tell us more about bitrate, what do you consider by moderate / low bitrate (at 720p/1080p) ?

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For 480p, low is under 2000, high is about 6000

For 720p, low is under 4000, high is about 8000

For 1080p, low is under 8000, high is about 15000

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**Tips for 480p (low bitrate/DVD/high compression) upscaling WITHOUT artifacts:

  • Use a video converter (I personally use VideoProc).
  • Software upscaling from 480p to 720p (if final video is 4K or keep same resolution if you plan the final video is 1080p).
  • In VideoProc or Adobe Premiere Pro or else, increase the saturation and lower the gamma a bit, just a bit (10%).
  • Then use Gaia HQ to upscale to the resolution you want. For 480p, max upscaling should be 1080p. 4K is horrible for 480p upscaling. CRF should be around 10. Grain required (2.0/2.5).
  • Some artifacts might apppear if you don’t add grain, but unless you watch frame by frame or zoom a lot in, otherwise, most artifacts are unoticeable on the final video, but might visible in the preview. So don’t worry.
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By software upscaling, do you mean bicubic upscaling?
If so, is the following thought process correct for 480p to 1080p?

  1. From 480p interlaced NTSC dvd source, use Dione Robust v3 at 100% deblock/denoise to get a progressive 480p video.
  2. Use bicubic upscaling (software upscaling) to upscale to 720p.
  3. Use Theia Fidelity => 0.09 ~ 0.11 (for denoise/deblocking)
  4. Use Gaia HQ => 0.10 ~ 0.12 to upscale to the final 1080p
    Would that be correct?
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The tips for 480p upscaling with another software is recommended. But in my main guide, I’m just trying to avoid using other software because it should be around VEAI anyway. And yes, bicubic upscaling will help VEAI not to try to upscale unreadable texts or faces or unnecessary things in the background. Also help reduce artifacts significantly. But this is just a “more” correct way to upscale.
However, if you want to go straight from 480p to 1080p or even 4K with VEAI only, then I included it in the guide also. So tips are what I recommend to correctly upscale. And for people who just want to use VEAI only, it may not produce a good result, but acceptable with minor artifacts.