X4 Ray Tracing - Optimal CPU

[Ian Pellant]

Attached is a test plan for ray trace benchmarking.

It's an exterior frontal view of a simple house with plants to test textures, reflectivity and shadows.

In the plan file is a camera named: "Benchmark Camera" - Open the view (don't move within it) then hit the Ray Trace button and Ray Trace with the set "Benchmark" configuration.

Also in the file is the ray traced image.

When finished, Chief will display the ray trace elapsed time in the view title bar.

My results have been intriguing:
Intel P4 660 3.60 GHz - timed: 18:09 minutes
AMD Sempron 3400+ - timed: 25:19 minutes

The Sempron only has 1GB RAM and it hit the pagefile a little... slowing it a mite. All synthetic CPU benchmarks have always rated the Sempron as being a lot slower than the Intel than it really is.

Atempts to obtain a meaningful comparison by exporting to POV Ray were foiled by Chief not exporting the configuration settings. Dismissed the results (after re-running at 640x480 NoAA) of 24:00 minutes and 29:48 minutes respectively... but the relative times seem consistent.

These are 2006 vintage computers.... how much faster are the current breed?

Take the challenge and gain bragging rights for your computer.

Cheers.