Topaz AI products showing Text Menus properly - Windows PC - Kensington USB Dock

Topaz Labs post processing software were one of the first to implement AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI software for photo editing is quite the buzz these days, so I tried out Gigapixel, then Denoise (or was it the other way around). I found various products unstable, slow or just didn't work on my Acer Aspire 5 laptop then backed off for a while.  That laptop was a Core i5 with dual graphic card (Intel and nVidia), originally with a magnetic hard disk, with a touch screen but pretty poor colour rendition (not IPS), I attached it to a Belkin USB Dock and external IPS monitors.

Then, gaming laptops became more common (read, less expensive) and I purchased an Acer Nitro 5

Core i7, again dual graphic card (Intel and nVidia), with SSD - so a higher performance machine. This time it would be attached to a Kensington USB dock (which allowed me to connecto to an IPS UHD (near 4K) screen. I tried Topaz Gigapixel, Denoise again and eventually I bought the whole suite.

Sometime later, I upgraded the SSD  in the Nitro 5 to bigger one and one thing led to another, I had to start fresh with a Windows 10 install, fresh installs of the Topaz products. Then, I noticed with disappointment two issues:

• If I nominated the nVidia as the GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) for the Topaz Products, they would with no text in the menu or user interface and after a few seconds, the program would exit.
• If I nominated Intel as the GPU, the Topaz Products would take display menus but processing of the images was very slooooow.

I filed a Support Request with Topaz, there was to and fro, and in the end of that case, we could not arrive at a cure.

A few weeks later, I changed one thing and Hey Presto, it worked. If I nominated the nVidia GPU, the Topaz products would show text in the menus and user interface, the program processed images much quicker. The change?

When you use multiple displays with Microsoft Windows, you can invoke the Display options dialog in the Settings hiearchy. Here, you can nominate which display you want to be the Default Display. This is the one that will host the Windows Task Bar, the System Tray icons and the Clock.

Set the Default Display to the built-in screen of the notebook, not one of the external monitors. If you do this, the Topaz products will work properly. If you set the Default Display to be one of the external monitors, the Topaz products will fail to display user interface text when the nVidia GPU is assigned or be very slow when the Intel GPU is assigned.

Whether the additional DisplayLink driver muddies the diagnosis of the issue, I am not sure. But this is what works for me.