chaiNNer looks fascinating.
Sadly, I did not make it fully work on my system. When I get to the point of specifying the output file, it freezes. Or, at least, becomes unresponsive. It appears not to have completely crashed, because, although I cannot click on anything else, I can close the program and get an “unsaved” dialogue.
Hope to do better with it in the future.
I like nodel systems, but for resizing, I prefer using lazy man methods. lololol
Having to fine tune for every possible image you input is for commercial folk for sure, but for a hobbyist like myself, I pass. Do want more AIs than Upscayl offers, though and believe Upscayl will soon be offering more AI upscale models so I can wait.
To recap, KISS (and for those that cannot stand acronyms, it stands for keep it simple, stupid). 
In g’mic if you have community filters enabled, there’s also “Upscale [Recursive2x]” for another non-AI approach (it uses self similarity instead). Set kernel = 0 for bigger input images. I’m still working on updates for it and planning to add soon. Obviously not AI sharpness, but here’s what I get at the moment:
Excellent software! As the rest of FOSS I often use too (RT&digikam). The Upscayl team has done a great job and still does!
I have tried it on an image from Athens Flying Week 2022 and the results are astonishing! Cropped image as the original and just with x2 had great results. Tried it on two same separated by one gen laptops. One on linux with vulcan drivers with managed to use GPU drivers and had somewhat fast results and one on Windows 10 that only works by renaming a .dll file to vulcan so to be able to work and it takes ages (still do not know if it outputs something yet but the process goes on without any initial errors)
Here is the sample I used and its resulting image:
I use Win10; what dll did you rename?
Thanks for the link; my system must have vulcan capability since I never ran into any issue. Just uprezzing from 1k to 4k takes around a minute. lol
Wish there was a way to make it take 10 seconds; oh well.
@s7habo I did not notice your mention to chaiNNer in the first place. Lots of customization on this program indeed! Thank you for the guidance and the model page. Nmkd as a model publisher has done a good job on the models yet his/her’s examples on Comparisson5.jpg in the “NMKD Siax” model directory gave me the chills. 
I am now running it on the windows laptop to compare results on the same sample I have posted earlier.
I have noticed though that the Upscayl app just above the pilots position on the picture far back on the trees did not make it well.
