Gigapixel 8 Review - Tested, Timed, and Compared

[@eddienilsson9309]

Your video is very helpfull. I have always been a fan of Gigapixel, and not of Photoshop or Lightroom, i prefer Gigapixel. BUT - I actually think Gigapixel remove details, when I see your comparison here, it seems that Ligtroom keep details better than Gigapixel, even Lightroom also makes artifacts and some area is blurry. In your examples it´s difficult to say witch is better then the other. I always wanted the pic to be as close to the original as possible, it seems still to be to difficult to make. Especially on birds feathers Gigapils have some problems. It often just make lines and noot niice feathers. I have Gigapixels 6.33 on my pc now. I tried 7 but didn´t like it, to many problems. So, I was very curious at 8.0 I never work online, so without recover, online etc etc - is there any differenses between Gigapixel 7 and 8. Actually it seems like they have the same features on off-line pc´s or did I miss something ???

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Good question. So, in terms of up-scaling, I've not seen much improvement over Gigapixel 6.3 (6.3 is excellent). Gigapixel 7 was a bit of a slow mess and was even missing the 4-way comparison view. Gigapixel 7.1 restored the comparison view and was nicer/faster to use than 6.3. Gigapixel 8 is pretty much 7.1 but with Redefine and Recover. Note, these features work without the Cloud. However, you'll have to wait much longer for the render.

[@Gta_Selection]

Is this a big difference between the older version?

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hi Gta. Gigapixel 6.3 - 8 all offer similarly excellent upscaling. The big difference with 8 is the introduction of Recover and Redefine.

[@librarycollection3795]

I suspect you may have made mistakes in your image labeling. The image represented by the app you considered the "lesser app" looked better in several examples.

[@Eigil_Skovgaard]

Does Gigapixel 8 have features that makes it worth using it along with Topaz Photo AI?

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Only if you want Redefine and Recover as Topaz Photo AI currently lacks both. In terms of upscaling, Gigapixel and Topaz Photo AI produce near identical results unless the image is blurred or noisy - in which case, Topaz Photo AI has the advantage.

[@craigcohen3682]

Very good vide. What computer equipment are you using. I am using a Macbook pro m4 max 14 cpu 34 gpu 36GB ram. Will it be faster , slower, or the same for me?

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks Craig. A comparison between our configs would be very difficult as they are so different. I recommend you run the free trial (see description) and see how you go and perhaps - comment back on your experience. I'm on a Ryzen 9 3900x 12-core/24 thread cpu, 32GB DDR4, NMVE M2 SSD, AMD R7800XT 16GB GPU. Note, it's the GPU that's hit hardest so this could be your weak point. Note, Gigapixel 8 is very fast. Only refine and recover are slow.

[@koinegreekbible]

Very helpful! Thank you very much!

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

You're welcome!

[@revocolor]

Thanks, the best review I've watched so far 👍

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks Revo - comments like this make my day.

[@MillisecondFalcon]

Thanks for this review. Can I suggest you use a low-res photo with jpeg artefacts as an additional comparison in future? There seems to be much more of an overlap in features and performance between Gigapixel and Photo AI in this update. I bought the Gigapixel, Sharpen and Noise bundle before Photo AI was announced and wasn't incredibly impressed with them at the time. So I bought a 1 year plan for Photo AI when it launched. I have a particular cherished low-res group photo I'm in that I don't have a hard copy of, as it was taken with an early digital camera, that I've been using to assess these applications. I was very impressed with the face recovery of the initial release of Photo AI, but it made a mess of people's hands and that didn't improve with updates, so I didn't renew. I have updated Gigapixel to version 8 and it does a much better job with faces and doesn't mess up hands. This is only from an initial few minutes using it as I haven't had time yet to try different settings or AI models to get the best result. I wonder if they will continue to update both applications or if Photo AI will become their main upscale and enhancement tool. As I haven't kept up to date with Photo AI, I'm not sure how its latest feature set compares with Gigapixel 8. I assume there's really no need for anyone to have both, is there?

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Indeed - I need to expand my samples to take measure of these new technologies. Gigapixel 8 muddies the waters a bit. At one time, Gigapixel served those looking to save money and upscale only. But now, it does things Photo AI does not. However, I expect Topaz Photo AI will gain these features in later releases and Gigapixel will continue to cater for those primary interested in up-scaling. I would still prefer to use Topaz Photo AI to correct noise and blur. Gigapixel's generative AI tech is less reliable and much slower.

[@lorrainem1288]

Thanks for this review. I upgraded, found that local export is just not gonna happen. I didn't know about this cloud credit option, but, it seems to me that I paid for software that is unusable for for the AI features, so why should I then pay more money to generate in the cloud. Bad move on the part of Topaz. I have a lot of their products but this feels a bit like a move to get more money out of people. At least I know the processing issue is across the board and not just me.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

No worries Lorrainem! I think these are features our hardware needs to grow into. I can see your perspective, especially if these features lured you into your purchase. Despite their flaws - I'm happy with the new features because Gigapixel 8 costs no more than Gigapixel 7 - which lacked both Refine and Recover. So, I sort of see them as added value. If it makes you feel better, Gigapixels regular and fast AI-upscaling is still the best out there.

[@BubbleGendut]

Great review.

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Thanks Bubble. I hope it helped you with your decision.

[@MrCatoblepa]

8 is steal. There is plenty of far better, much faster and a lot cheaper upscaler out there. Moreover, 8 non generative modes tend to oversharpen details and not to resolve problems such as color banding, on the contrary: it stresses them further making images look fake. Completely disapponted, downgraded back to 7

[@silentpeakphoto1845]

Hi Catoblepa. My testing has found 7 and 8 to be almost identical, thus 8's differentiator is Refine and Recover. What other upscalers do you recommend. Perhaps I'll find time to run them through the test images. Thanks for dropping by.

[@BabylonBaller]

@@silentpeakphoto1845 Supir is by far the best totally transparent upscaler out there, but its incredible slow and there is no simple gui. It works in ComfyUI and theres a Gradio stand alone for it as well but installation is not for the faint of heart. I do find that the High fidelity feature of Gigapixel comes somewhat close at a fraction of the time.