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There’s always the same problem here. With every new version, I’ll come back to that: But looking at your rendering times, it’s likely that you have some other probem. A slowdown like six times is not usual. Check your task manager to see if you can find something there.
Anyway, I have a test file with a thousand glass balls. Rendering using mental ray.
It takes about 2.00 mins on Max 2010, 2.17 in 2011,
2.10 minutes in 2012. These are current values. Just rendered.
But listen to this:
I have been rendering this test scene with almost every new computer that comes to my hands and with any current version of 3ds max, since an AMD Athlon 1700 system.
I’ve taken notes of rendering times for this scene, and I’ve been using my current machines for more than 3 years. (a Quad core Q9550 and a Quad core6600 still at hand)
Apparently and very strangely, rendering times are getting slower and slower on each new versions of Max.
Below are the scores:
(CPU and fsb mHz - rendering time with one light with raytraced shadows- rendering time with light deleted.)
Q6600 at 266 fsb - 2.09 - 0.36
Q6600 at 296 fsb - 1.59 - 0.33
Q6600 at 355 fsb - 1.40 - 0.28
Q9550 std. fsb - 1.34 - 0.27
These values are all before Max 2010, very probably 2008 but not exactly sure.
The same Q9550 renders at 2.00 with Max 2010 and 2.10 with 2012 today. 2011 is even slower.
(New render times are all with 64 bit versions)
An i7 960 renders the same scene with 2011 at 1.24 (at 3.33ghz) , and at 1.02 at OC’d 4 gHz.
i7 is definitely a quad core with multithreading. Nothing else.
As you see from above, a Q9550 with Max 2008 approximately equal to i7 960 with Max 2011 in performance.
I always check task manager to see if Max is using all the resources and nothing else.
Old versions are obviously fast.
May be there’s nothing to be surprised about this: it may be a sale strategy:
Together with microprocessor companies, software companies are forcing us to buy new systems every upcoming version.
My recommendation: Do not buy a new processor unless it adds more than 2 times to your performance.
Author: Kanbur
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