Topaz Gigapixel: Wonder 3 and Face Recovery comparison

Dave Kelly demonstrates the May 2026 Topaz Gigapixel update with Wonder 3, High Fidelity 3 and Face Recovery 3. The tutorial covers model selection, strength controls, before-and-after previews and export settings for local AI image upscaling.

For a 1920 by 1280 landscape, Kelly selects Wonder 3 at medium strength and enlarges it 4x to 7680 by 5120. He reports a processing time of 4 minutes and 7 seconds on his Mac Studio M2 Ultra. He describes NeuroStream 2 as accelerating supported models on the user's computer, while noting that speed depends on hardware and image size. Cloud rendering remains an option. His inspection also finds potentially incorrect lettering on a tent.

Kelly then applies Wonder 3 at low strength to a family portrait. Its separate Face Recovery control is unavailable. For a cropped bee photograph with existing detail, he chooses High Fidelity 3 at strength 70 and a 2x upscale, rather than generative reconstruction. He says he sharpened this image in Topaz Photo first.

The final example uses the Low Resolution model with Face Recovery 3 and compares it with Face Recovery 2. Kelly finds version 2 softer and reports that version 3 processed locally in under a minute for this portrait. He explains that version 3 analyzes faces individually and that changing its strength requires another processing wait. These timings and quality judgments describe his examples.