X4 Ray Tracing - Optimal CPU

[Ian Pellant]

marty,

Same type of result that we got on an i7...

It is very good to see that late model machines are showing speed improvements.

Except for ray tracing my old P4 is fast enough with Chief X4 for any normal production purpose. (I'm modeling single storey houses, not commercial buildings with Chief.) Ray tracing bogs it down.

We bought the i7 only 3 months ago and it tests at around 1:40. That's a "professional business" computer from TechBuy.

The Xeon takes more like 13 minutes (it's a 3 year old HP workstation). It contains two sessions of the ray tracer, one within each core and does not cross-thread.

The difference between the Xeon and the consumer i7 series is a surprise. The CPU core is believed to be from the same design series.... but obviously the core to thread design is very different. The Xeon I am sitting in front of reports that it has 2 cores, 2 threads... and according to the latest (aka downloaded today) Intel CPU ID Utility, the Xeon does NOT support HyperThreading Technology. Ummmm... the threading model is what lets the i7 down in a consumer CPU. (Xeons are marketed for server and high performance workstations.)

Which still leaves me with the big unknown:
Does the AMD FX8xxx series handle cores and threads more like the Intel Xeon or the Intel i7 ?

I am beginning to suspect that the AMD FX8xxx is more like the Xeon... but I'l never know until it's tested in two session mode.

Cheers.