Some Observations on Mac vs windows in Topaz Video AI
This is not meant to be some Phd University thesis lol but I have noticed some differences in Mac and Windows which I would like to share along with some screenshots which are attached above so you can scroll through them. The key observation was that in 4 of the Enhancement models (1. Proteus 2. Iris 3. Artemis 4. Theia ) the Gpu utilization was much lower on windows. The same video file was tested on a bunch of macs including m4 mac mini base model, m5 base macbook pro, m5 max macbook pro, and m4 max studio desktop.
On windows only 3 of the models utlized a 90% + gpu usage ( 1. Nyx 2. Rhea 3. Gaia). I have a 4090 desktop and this was also confirmed to me by a couple other redditors that have a 4090 laptop and 5070 desktop, so for all of us the GPU was only using its full potential in these 3 above models, so hence in the actual tests when the Rhea 2x model is selected my 4090 desktop beat the m5 max as seen in the pics, m5 max got estimated render times of 18 hour 43 mins while 4090 got 11 hour 23 mins, but when the test model was changed to proteus 2x the m5 max got 4 hour 15 mins while 4090 got 5 hour 37 mins so a win for the m5 max, but the key difference was in rhea 2x both mac and windows had 99% gpu usage but in proteus only the m5 max had 99% usage while the 4090 had 50% gpu usage and hence my observation is that this is the reason it looses out in the proteus model and would also similarly lose out in Iris, Artemis and Theia due to low gpu utilization. I also compared a 5070 desktop with a m4 max studio desktop and it showed the m4 max winning in proteus 2x by a small margin but the 5070 winning in rhea 2x again by a significant margin because the 5070 used 99% gpu usage in rhea but only around 56% in Proteus.
So really the only question is if there is any way to increase the Gpu utilization for windows computers in these 4 specific models(1. Proteus 2. Iris 3. Artemis 4. Theia ) Some of you could try testing any video file using these 4 models on your windows Pc and you will notice the same lack of Gpu usage on task manager or by holding Alt+R to get the Nvidia stats, I have attached a pic on how to check gpu usage on task manager. I have tried switching from game drivers to Studio drivers but no change.
In Conclusion based on my tests its showing Mac computers using 90% plus for all 7 enhancement models while Windows uses 90% Gpu usage only in (Nyx,Rhea Gaia) Just did not test starlight as it was not available locally on Mac.