X4 Ray Tracing - Optimal CPU

[Ian Pellant]

cbdllc,

Great - at last the sub 60 second "barrier" is broken.

The i7 3770 series processors are nominally 10% faster at most calculations and produce only about 60% of the thermal heat load of the previous i7 2600 series. Faster and cooler.

My components are on order - they have about 2000 miles of road transport to endure... the waiting game begins.

The i7 3770K has the top performance Intel integrated graphics. I found a web benchmark that indicated the integrated graphics could easily outperform many top end add-in gaming cards. Apparently it has blazing DirectX acceleration... but no indication of how it handles OpenGL (needed for Chief).

I have ordered the standard i7 3770 since I'm adding a video card and not relying on the Intel integrated graphics... so I won't be able to test how good the i7 3777K is at every day Chief Architect 2D and 3D camera viewing.... is it possible for you to try the integrated graphics and report back? (Use the perspective camera and then try a "final render" with shadows turned on - that should give a graphics processing time test as opposed to ray tracing.)

Cheers.