Rendering Time & Processing Power

I am using a MacBook Pro 2.54GHz (4GB memory) Laptop for my X3 version of Chief (I am running Parallels to get windows 7). My company is looking to purchase a desktop Mac. My question is will the rendering speed up if I get a faster computer? If so, would it be significant enough to purchase a faster computer? Currently it takes me 18 hours to render an 11x17. I am sure the setting will change speed as well. But just wondering if it is worth investing in a better computer? Thank you.

Michael Benson

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Originally Posted by michaelbenson

I am using a MacBook Pro 2.54GHz (4GB memory) Laptop for my X3 version of Chief (I am running Parallels to get windows 7). My company is looking to purchase a desktop Mac. My question is will the rendering speed up if I get a faster computer? If so, would it be significant enough to purchase a faster computer? Currently it takes me 18 hours to render an 11x17. I am sure the setting will change speed as well. But just wondering if it is worth investing in a better computer? Thank you.

Michael Benson

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18 Hours? are you kidding me? ..... do a search for a "crappy rendering" and see if that might meet your needs.

I am not sure how to take your reply. Are you saying that 18hrs is a very short period of time? Do you have any advice for me other than the quip to search for "crappy rendering". I really don't know much about this product. I am trying to see if a faster processor would change anything. Thanks for your time!

Michael

Michael,
18 hours is a very long time. Many things affect rendering time - number of lights, complexity of model, computer hardware, rendering quality settings.
Scott's quip refers to a thread where he posted some images rendered very quickly - times under one minute if I remember. Do the search and compare the renderings to what you're producing. I recently did the rendering below. There are a bunch of lights and pretty high image quality settings. It took about 2 hours.

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Originally Posted by michaelbenson

I am not sure how to take your reply. Are you saying that 18hrs is a very short period of time? Do you have any advice for me other than the quip to search for "crappy rendering". I really don't know much about this product. I am trying to see if a faster processor would change anything. Thanks for your time!

Michael

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I think 18 hours is a huge amount of time. I don't know what hardware you have but I limit my ray traces to 3 minutes.... are they the best? Of course not but they meet my needs. I suggested you do a search for "crappy renderings", here it is...

http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread....appy+ray+trace

check out the thread and it might help you....... if your are asking if a faster processor will increase the speed, of course it will, it you look at my specs in my signature, I think that is about as fast as it gets..... I think, at least that is what my goal is, my time is much more valuable than saving 500.00 on a slower processor .... just about anything you want to know has probably been discussed, so a search is what you need to do.

Great. Thank you for the replies kevin and D. Scott. I honestly thought you were kidding about the "crappy renderings" search. I usually wouldn't render it at 11x17 but we were framing the rendering. I will agree that it is better to invest than waste time. Thanks!

Nice rendering Kevin. What are you using?

Thanks Bryce.
That's a Chief Ray Trace. Attached are the settings

Thanks, have saved those for future reference. This is definitely one of the better Chief ray traces I have seen to date. Any guess as to setup time?

Michael,

Most of the responders to your thread use Chief Architect X4 (not X3) and they do not use a Mac (which adds a "via" to the process, I have nothing against Mac's, just pointing out there is added hardware-software that PC users do not have to go through).

X4 is by default much faster at rendering than X3, period, so it is not just hardware we are talking about in present time.

DJP

Kevin

Was your raytrace done from your desktop or laptop?