Aiarty Image Enhancer Review: Tested on Real Photos

What Is Aiarty Image Enhancer?

It’s a program you install on your own computer, on Windows or Mac. You drop in a photo, pick an AI model and a size, and it rebuilds the picture at a higher resolution, filling in detail as it goes.

Aiarty says all the processing happens on your machine, so your photos are never uploaded anywhere. That’s reassuring if you’re working on family pictures or client work. The company also says it can go up to 32K on Windows and 16K on a Mac, which is far bigger than most of us will ever print.

Who is Aiarty Image Enhancer for?

Aiarty pitches it at a wide crowd: photographers with heavily cropped wildlife shots, designers, people making AI art and families who want to revive old photos. For most photographers, I’d say the two best uses are cropped photos you want to print bigger and old or small pictures you thought were too poor to use.

How I Tested It

I kept the test realistic. My PC has an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, which is an older mid-range graphics card rather than a top-end gaming machine.

My main test photo is a sunset behind a cable bridge, shot at F/7.1, 1/200th and ISO 125 at 11.5mm. I saved it at just 600 by 406 pixels, which is far too small to print, and asked Aiarty to double it to 1200 by 812.

The settings I used

• Drag the photo into the window, or click Add.
• Choose More-Detail GAN v3 as the AI model.
• Set Upscale to x2.
• Tick 2-Pass processing and leave More-Detail GAN v3 as the second model.
• Pull the Strength slider down from 1.00 to around 0.6.
• Click Single Export.

Each photo took around one to two seconds on my PC. Speed depends on your computer, but I’d expect most people to see something similar.

Aiarty vs Topaz Gigapixel vs Adobe Firefly

To give it a fair test, I put the same bridge photo through two other upscalers at the same 2x size: Topaz Gigapixel and the Adobe Firefly Upscaler.

Aiarty came out best of the three to my eye. Look closely at the bridge cables and the ripples on the water in the comparison, because that’s where the differences show.

At normal viewing size the gap is small. It matters when you zoom in or print big, which is exactly when you’d reach for an upscaler.

Which Aiarty AI Model Should You Use?

The model menu gives you five choices: More-Detail GAN v3, AIGCsmooth v3, More-Detail GAN v2, Smooth Diff v2 and Real-Photo v3. That’s a lot of choice, and the names don’t tell a beginner much.

More-Detail GAN v3 was my favourite for real photos. The software describes it as the model for more detail, clarity and sharpness, with better skin and hair. AIGCsmooth v3 is built for AI-generated images, anime and line art, so I’d keep that one for illustrations. Real-Photo is the model Aiarty recommends for a faithful, natural look.

Strength and 2-Pass processing

The Strength slider controls how hard the AI works, and 2-Pass runs your photo through a second model. On the bridge I used both, with Strength around 0.6. My advice is to start low and push up until it looks right, because an over-sharpened photo is easy to spot.

Face Restoration, HDR and the Other Tools

Beyond upscaling, there’s a panel of extras: Edit, Color, Face Restoration, HDR, an AI Eraser (marked experimental) and a Text tool.

Face Restoration was good: Aiarty says it’s mainly for old and low-resolution portraits, and in my tests it was more than adequate for most images.

HDR did an OK job. It has its own models, including Bright and Graded, with a strength slider for each, and the software suggests using it alongside the Color panel.

Download every model first

Not every AI model downloads when you first install the software. Some only arrive the first time you use them, which means waiting halfway through an edit. Go to the File menu and download all the models before you start. It’s an easy step to miss.

Where Aiarty Image Enhancer Falls Short

The results are good, but getting there is less smooth.

The interface looks a little flat and dated next to modern editing software. The tools are easy enough once you know them, but someone new to AI upscaling will take a while to work out which model and settings suit their photo. Blend modes called Alpha Overlay and Gradient Overlay won’t mean much to a newcomer either.

The local AI models also failed a few times while rendering for me. The fix was trial and error, ticking and unticking options until it produced a result, and that’s frustrating when you just want your photo back.

Do you need separate software at all?

This is my bigger question. Photoshop already handles editing, upscaling and much more in one place, so I’m not sure every photographer needs a separate program for one job. Most of us want something simple and fast that gives high-quality results. Aiarty gets the quality right, but I think it misses a chance to be more than an upscaler.

Aiarty Image Enhancer FAQ

Is Aiarty Image Enhancer free?

There’s a free trial so you can test it on your own photos. The full version is a one-off lifetime licence rather than a subscription.

Does Aiarty Image Enhancer work offline?

Yes, Aiarty says everything is processed on your own computer, so your photos aren’t uploaded.

Do I need a powerful computer?

It ran well on my older GTX 1660 graphics card, at one to two seconds per photo at 2x. Aiarty says it also supports AMD, Intel and Apple graphics, and can run on the processor alone.

Which AI model is best for photographs?

I got the best results from More-Detail GAN v3. Real-Photo v3 is worth a try if you want a more natural look.

Can it rescue old family photos?

That’s one of the jobs Aiarty built it for, and Face Restoration helps with soft faces. Scan the photo at the highest quality you can first, because a better starting file gives a better result.

Final Thoughts

Aiarty Image Enhancer earns an 8 out of 10 from me. On my bridge photo it beat both Topaz Gigapixel and the Adobe Firefly Upscaler, and it took a second or two on a modest graphics card.

What holds it back is the learning curve. The settings, the model names and the odd failed render mean a beginner needs some patience. If you have a folder of small, cropped or old photos you’d love to print bigger, it’s well worth trying the free version first.

Aiarty Image Enhancer: try it free

Limited-time offer – save 49% on the Lifetime License, with unlimited free updates: get the discount.

Disclaimer: This is a paid software review by iPhotography for Aiarty without mandate.