Hi,

Does anyone use a 6 core AMD Phenom 3.2ghz machine? I'm trying to do some benchmarks on real Mantra rendering vs our Intel machines and I would very much appreciate if I can send someone an IFD file (or .hip file) to test render. It would be completely self contained so you should be able to load and click render

Cheers,

Peter B

I do not have one, but Tom's Hardware has a fairly decent CPU comparison chart:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-cpu-charts-2010/benchmarks,112.html [tomshardware.com]

Mantra isn't included, but Cinebench and 3D Studio Max renderers are. Might help if all else fails The AMD hexacore 3.2GHz CPU performs about like a i7 960 in both cases.

Peter,

I am getting one next week and a a friend of mine has one running so if you mail me the IFD then I am happy enough to pass it on and make him do some benchmark tests

Please post up the results when you're done – I'm considering a new machine soon, would love to see the results.

Great idea. Peter, if you could post also ifd file, please. So we could make even more comparision tests.

Cool, thanks guys.

Mark, that's a great benchmark site, the issue is that the CPU I have at work isn't on the list (it's an E5440 quad core, x2 CPUs) and I really like “real world” benchmarks since the numbers don't tell me how it will feel

However, certainly price/performance is with AMD on this one. Shame I can't find a dual-CPU AM3+ mobo and have 12 cores

I'll get that IFD up on the weekend!

Cheers,

Peter B

AMD's dual motherboards are strictly socket F or G34, not AM2/3/+ (I believe). A 12-core Mangy-cours CPU clocks out at 2.4GHz, and isn't suitable for workstation work.

The i7 930 would be the closest to your E5440, though it only has 8MB of cache rather than 12, and is 60Mhz slower. Most benchmarks show that increasing cache size at that level has only a very small effect on performance.

Ah OK thanks Mark. So price/performance between the AMD and the Intel is pretty much identical…

OK here's the IFD file along with the resultant image (or as I call it, “art”)

On my dual core Athlon 4400+ it was 44 minutes. This was Suse 11.2, using “gcc 4.3” build.

On my dual core laptop with T5550 1.83Ghz Core Duo, it was 60 minutes. This was Vista 32bit.

Note that I used 11.0.542 to enable the new option to disable displacement shaders (applied to the ROP). I'm including the .hip file in case people want to take a look.

However, please use this IFD file in 11.0.542 for the benchmark to ensure complete apples to apples, if at all possible. If not possible any info is OK too.

If you're on Linux or OSX, open a shell with Houdini set up and simply do:

mantra < benchmark.ifd

Note that it will write a file called “benchmark.pic” in the same directory.

On Windows, from the Start Menu, go to the Houdini version and open a Command Line Tools DOS window. Type the drive letter of the drive the .ifd file is on, hit enter, then “cd” to the directory with the IFD. Once there, do:

mantra < benchmark.ifd

just like on Linux. Same thing, a benchmark.pic will be written to the same directory.

I'd love to hear about anyone's findings! I'll try this at work on 4 and 8 cores of our work machines, plus the OSX machines we just bought. On Thursday or Friday when I'm back at work, at least

Cheers,

Peter B

Quad Core - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz, Hyperthreading enabled.

OpenSuse 11.3, Houdini 11.0.542 (gcc.4.4 build)

8.5 minutes here.


cat benchmark.ifd | mantra
…
stuff
…
Render Time: 66:10.60u 25.41s 8:28.20r

Howdy,

I gave this a shot on two machines. Both running Houdini 11.0.542. The Linux box uses the gcc 4.4 build.

Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard / 2.8 GHz Core i5 4GB RAM (quad core, doesn't have hyperthreading)

Render Time: 43:37.86u 7.86s 11:44.66r
Memory: 142.71 MB of 10.58 GB arena size

Gentoo Linux 2.6.34-gentoo-r12 gcc 4.4.4 Dual Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5520 @ 2.27GHz 24GB RAM with Hyperthreading on (16 threads)

Render Time: 78:01.39u 25.34s 5:01.32r
Memory: 119.58 MB of 120.52 MB arena size. VM Size: 1.13 GB

Ubuntu 8.04 x86_64:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (HT enabled)
Render Time: 65:36.89u 29.61s 8:26.58r
Memory: 73.80 MB of 74.33 MB arena size. VM Size: 565.63 MB

Ubuntu 8.04 x86_64:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz
Render Time: 45:04.50u 15.40s 11:38.54r
Memory: 55.27 MB of 56.71 MB arena size. VM Size: 276.78 MB

Ubuntu 8.04 i686:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU 540 @ 3.07GH (HT enabled)
Render Time: 3.62u 69:43.21s 17:49.99r
Memory: 45.16 MB of 46.54 MB arena size. VM Size: 81.13 MB


Maybe we should post this on a wiki somewhere [odforce.net]?

P.S. Those times on the i3 look suspicious – it looks like the user and system times might be swapped.

Windows 7 64bit on a dual Opteron 2376 2.3ghz running 11.0.469:

Render Time: 9:16.814u 1.107s 9:22.64r
Memory: 306.93 MB. VM Size: 401.54 MB

Apologies, but I don't have access to that exact build, but I rendered the same results with both 11.0.527 and 11.0.547: a little over 5.5 minutes.

Render Time: 44:36.43u 17.67s 5:42.73r

I'm running the same software as Peter, SUSE 11.2, the gcc 4.3 build, and the hardware is:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 975 @ 3.33GHz

with hyperthreading turned on.


Cheers,

J.C.

Hey John,

How many cores on that?

My work benchmarks are (gcc 4.1, Centos 5.2, Houdini 11.0.538)

Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5440 @ 2.83GHz

8 cores no HT

Render Time: 51:34.91u 17.73s 6:31.98r

4 cores no HT

50:59.78u 16.21s 12:50.20r

Cheers,

Peter B

“Eight” cores(quotes courtesy Hyperthreading Inc ). That seems somewhat comparable with your results, yeah? My clock speed is a little faster…

Cheers,

J.C.

P.S. the full blurb on the cpu is “Intel i7 Quad Core Enhanced Performance V2”

P.P.S. Well, no it doesn't seem comparable. You're running two cpus, I'm running one with HT. According to the scuttlebutt I keep reading here, I'm supposed to be penalized more heavily, yes? This is why I've been mystified by all the negative talk about HT.

mark
P.S. Those times on the i3 look suspicious – it looks like the user and system times might be swapped.

I never know which is which, really. I just look for the biggest number

My work benchmarks now include on OSX 10.6 8core 2.4ghz Intel (not sure exactly the CPU)

5:40

which is very fast IMO

Sadly, we had a 12 core (dual 6core) test machine in that has since been returned. My tests at the time showed an almost 50% speed increase over our normal (spec'd above) 8 core machines.

Anybody able to test the 6 core Phenom 3.2ghz? This is all great, but none of these faster ones can I afford

Cheers,

Peter B

pbowmar`s benchmark scene.

Render Time: 2:44.331u 0.873s 2:51.27r
Memory: 559.67 MB of 590.99 MB arena size. VM Size: 682.80 MB


Wohoo! Gotta love cpu!!
Dual Intel Xeon X5680 3.33ghz (12cores)
24gb ram

If only I could even come close to affording that