Starlight Precise 2.6 and Topaz Video 1.7 Update
Shocked no one has posted about the update here. I had been using Starlight Precise 2.5 but there was always a layer of digital noise that was just too noticeable for me.
Starlight Precise 2.6 has finally got rid of this and 2.6 with level 3 sharpness legit looks incredible. And there is no sign of AI artifacting whatsoever. My source was of decent quality tho just very blurry/compressed.
I only tested a few clips. But im extremely happy with the update. However, one thing to note is that the level 3 sharpness takes longer to process. level 1 feels like 2.5 in terms of processing time.
My 5 minute, 1080p30 clip on level 1 took about 2 hours 40 minutes. On level 3 about 4 hours 45 minutes. There is noticeable difference in sharpness 1 through 3. I suppose if you plan to do post processing, or two-pass, you can stick to level 1 for faster results. But all levels look better than previous Precise 2.5.
BTW my setup includes: CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 GPU: Nvidia 5080