Denoise AI causes dark box artifacts throughout the image

[NeriiJ]

I'm using the AI Denoise feature in Lightroom Classic on an M1 Macbook Air with 16GB RAM. The resulting image has dark squares spread throughout the image. Here's a screenshot of what I'm seeing - I raised the exposure a few stops to make the boxes more obvious: 

Things I've tried so far: 

- Rebooted system

- Tried all possible permutations of graphics acceleration, from fully disabled to fully enabled

- Downgraded Lightroom Classic to n-1 and n-2 versions

- Tried using Lightroom Cloud instead

At this point, I'm at a loss, and can't process these photos. 

[John R Ellis]

Please do the LR menu command Help > System Info and copy/paste the entire contents here so we can see exactly which versions of hardware and software LR thinks you're running and important LR options that are set.   

[NeriiJ]

Here is the system info: 

Lightroom Classic version: 13.5 [ 202408062022-6258095b ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-US
Operating system: Mac OS 14
Version: 14.6.1 [23G93]
Application architecture: arm64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: NA
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Power Source: Battery, 94%
Built-in memory: 16,384.0 MB
Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 1,391.2MB / 10,922.6MB (12%)
Real memory available to Lightroom: 16,384.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1,591.2 MB (9.7%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 405,855.7 MB
Memory cache size: 33.8MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 16.5 [ 1953 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 540MB / 8191MB (6%)
Camera Raw real memory: 559MB / 16384MB (3%)

Cache1: 
Final1- RAM:266.0MB, VRAM:663.0MB, DSCF4632-Edit.tif
Preview2- RAM:35.0MB, VRAM:0.0MB, DSCF4632.dng
NT- RAM:301.0MB, VRAM:663.0MB, Combined:964.0MB

Cache2: 
m:33.8MB, n:292.6MB

U-main: 80.0MB

Standard Preview Size: 2880 pixels
Displays: 1) 2880x1800

Graphics Processor Info: 
Metal: Apple M1
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto
Enable HDR in Library: OFF

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Users/j/SynologyDrive/Lightroom Catalog/Summer 2024/Summer 2024.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/j/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins: 
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr
4) Nikon Tether Plugin
5) Topaz Photo AI

Config.lua flags: 

[Jao vdL]

What camera is this? The denoise feature has longstanding problems with certain pentax and Fuji files. It doesn't cause these blocks that I can remember but causes it to simply not do any denoising at all.

[NeriiJ]

This is on a Fujifilm X-T5. I've used this denoise feature quite a few times before with the files from this camera, so I'm not sure what changed. 

No recent firmware updates either. 

[John R Ellis]

Upload a problem Fujifilm raw to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar, and post the sharing link here. We can see if the issue is inherent in the photo or specific to your LR installation.

[John R Ellis]

@Rikk Flohr: Photography, please consider merging with this bug describing similar symptoms with raws from a Fujifilm X-H2S (the camera here is a Fujifilm X-T5):

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-thick-red-blue-banding-in-brightened-shadows...

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I prefer to leave this separate for now.  The failure modes are dissimilar enough to wait.