Topaz Gigapixel AI 4 released (free upgrade/discount)

[plugsnpixels]

Topaz Gigapixel AI 4 is now available, with both interface and under-the-hood improvements.

A 15% discount is available on top of any special Topaz might offer.

More info and examples are here.

 

[Growltiger]

Your examples are very impressive. It is an amazing product.

 

[Allan]

Is there a page which lists the product for sale and the code for discount? I get confused by your links.

 

[plugsnpixels]

Thanks Richard! I have so much fun playing with Gigapixel.

Allan, you can always enter Topaz' site through my Discounts page and use the coupon code listed there when you reach the desired checkout page.

Let me know how I could make the links easier for you and others and I'll revise them.

Be aware that whenever Topaz offers their own discount (usually upon a product launch or seasonally), my ongoing coupon code can be applied on top of it for an additional 15% off!

 

[Allan]

I figured it out.

 

[plugsnpixels]

Very good, but i'd like suggestions for making it easier/more obvious if you have any.

 

[Allan]

Well, I could not see how to get a discount code on your page so I went straight to the Topaz page. Instead of paying $99, I paid $84 but it seems with your discount I could have gotten it cheaper. But I did not see how.
Hope that helps. Perhaps I am just dense.

 

[plugsnpixels]

On my Discounts page there is a link and an ongoing coupon code to use when you get to the Topaz store. Through 4/1, Topaz is offering $20 off Gigapixel PLUS my code gets you a further 15% ;-)

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I will redesign my link shortly.

 

[plugsnpixels]

Allan, let me know if this is any better.

 

[Allan]

Definitely.

 

[plugsnpixels]

Thank you! Let me know if you have any other suggestions.

 

[Growltiger]

If you try version 4 and part way through processing it hangs/crashes, then read this page:
Troubleshooting: Crashing after Gigapixel AI v4.0.0 update - GPU Usage & Performance
The default setting for GPU memory is High, which is the setting most likely to crash. You should have 8GB of memory on your video card if you use High. If you have less then try Medium or Low. I found a 4GB card worked OK with Medium.
It might be more sensible of them to make the initial setting Low or Medium, and tell people to set it to High only if they have an 8GB card.

PS. I have just read that page properly and they seem to have got completely muddled, confusing video card memory with virtual memory. Perhaps the person writing the page didn't understand it.

 

[plugsnpixels]

Thanks Richard. As we speak, I have 2 different computers running batches in Gigapixel 4: A 2013 Fusion iMac and my Hackintosh (running Windows), both with 1GB GPUs (the Hack has a dedicated card).

I chose the High setting on both to (assumedly) maximize performance, since I am letting both computers sit and run without doing anything else on them. Neither has crashed in the space of a couple of hours of continuous processing, and the Hack even went to sleep (fans off) for a bit and resumed no problem.

 

[Growltiger]

I tried an AMD R7 370 with 4GB, with the default High setting. The computer has 32GB. It crashed about 75% of the way through. The crash resulted in the AMD Radeon software notifying me it had recovered automatically. I had to forcibly terminate Gigapixel.
Changing the setting to Medium made it work perfectly. (Or of course using CPU mode also works perfectly, but more slowly.)

Their comments about virtual memory seem to be completely confused, the setting is about Video RAM (=GPU RAM) not VRAM. You can see how the confusion arose, the names are similar. If you speak to them you might point this out, Video RAM is RAM on the GPU, this is not the same as VRAM! The page needs rewriting.

 

[plugsnpixels]

Reading the page, I wonder how I am getting away with what I am doing ;-)

I don't recall hearing virtual memory (seemingly scratch disk space) called VRAM before.

 

[Growltiger]

Reading the page, I wonder how I am getting away with what I am doing ;-)

I don't recall hearing virtual memory (seemingly scratch disk space) called VRAM before.

It is normally and correctly called Virtual Memory. The author of that page has got it all wrong.

I suspect you are getting away with it because of whatever video card you have. It may have driver software which is more resilient than the AMD Radeon software. What is your video card?

 

[plugsnpixels]

The iMac has a NVIDIA GForce GT750M (1 gig), the Hack a Zotec 400-series or similar).

 

[Butlerkid]

I just purchased the latest Gigapixel version and downloaded it. So I checked: My GPU preference was set to Medium by default. I have not yet used the s/w.

 

[plugsnpixels]

Karen, did you get your discount?

PS: I am now using a 2017 i5 SSD iMac with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 1536 MB card and it's a bit more aggressive than the other two computers ;-)

 

[Growltiger]

The iMac has a NVIDIA GForce GT750M (1 gig), the Hack a Zotec 400-series or similar).

So we have very different GPUs.

My other main machine which I will have access to next weekend, has the more recent and more powerful AMD RX 580 with 8GB, so I will try that with the High setting.