What does Gaia 2 offer compared to the previous version?

Topaz Video General
1

Hello,

I currently have an older version of Topaz with a perpetual license, and I haven’t found an answer to my question: what does Gaia 2 offer compared to the previous version?

For someone who only uses this model, is it really worth paying a monthly subscription?

I’d really like to see the difference between the two versions of the model.

For your information, my current version of Topaz is 3.5.4.

Thanks.

2

I have not used it on a proper cartoon yet, so my findings might not be relevant to you.

It runs much faster than the other Gaia models. Here are the results from running the same 30 second clip doing 2X upscale on Gaia HQ, Gaia CG and Gaia 2:

image
image383×229 13 KB

This clip was part of a very grainy popular 80 film DVD. Gaia 2 removed a lot more grain than the older models. It does not do as much sharpening.

3

Gaia 2 will run faster in most situations than the previous release but that is dependent on the source file, settings and hardware.

You can learn more about the specifics of this model here on the docs page.

4

I ran it on some high quality DVD cartoons, and it does a pretty good job. Compared to Proteus 4 though, it did not do as good of a job at anti-aliasing lines.
Gaia 2 on the left, and Proteus 4 on the right:
image

I decided to go with Proteus 4 Manual settings all at 0 except Fix compression at 40, Improve Details at 12, and Sharpen at 18, for those cartoons. I am only upscaling to FHD. Going to 4K might give totally different results.