3D Rendering Performance

3dsmax r9

Our benchmark, as always, is the SPECapc 3dsmax 8 test but for the purpose of this article we only run the CPU rendering tests and not the GPU tests.

The results are reported as render times in seconds and the final CPU composite score is a weighted geometric mean of all of the test scores.

3dsmax 9 - SPECapc CPU Rendering Benchmark

The Phenom X4 9850 is once again within 7% of the Q6600 and it's around 11% cheaper, we'd say AMD has a competitive part here. Looking at the Core 2 Quad Q9300 however, we see that if Intel can get its 45nm availability issues solved AMD would have to respond with even better pricing in order to make the X4 9850 as attractive as it is today.

Cinebench R10

A benchmarking favorite, Cinebench R10 is designed to give us an indication of performance in the Cinema 4D rendering application.

Cinebench R10 - XCPU Benchmark

We see more of the same under Cinebench: the Phenom X4 9850 comes close to the Q6600, but the Q9300 comparison isn't nearly as close.

POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 24

POV-Ray is a popular raytracer, also available with a built in benchmark. We used the 3.7 beta which has SMP support and ran the built in multithreaded benchmark.

POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 24 - SMP CPU Benchmark

Under POV-Ray the two quad core Intel solutions are a bit much for Phenom to handle, the performance gap widens to over 25% between the Q6600 and the Phenom X4 9850.

Overall System Performance - SYSMark 2007 High Definition Media Encoding
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  • ap90033 - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    What!!!! How darest though speak such blasphemy!

    AMD is your king! Bow to PHENOM!!! :) LOL


    sorry feeling a little silly today.
  • hvypetals - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    Why are the Intel core 2 duo's outperforming the intel quad core cpus?

    Is it because the games cant see beyond a dual core?


  • ap90033 - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    Thats why I got the E8400 and clocked it to 3.6 ghz, it was cheap and it does very well for gamers....
  • ap90033 - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    Oh wait I could have saved 20 bucks and got a much slower AMD. Crap...
  • ap90033 - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    Then I would have had an AWESOME slow CPU instead of a CRAPPY much faster CPU....
  • Roy2001 - Monday, March 31, 2008 - link

    Wow, that's superb logic!
  • fitten - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    Most games can't "see beyond" one core, much less two, three, or four.
  • nycromes - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    This is what I expected from AMD and from all of you here making comments. It has always astounded me that people will act like these chips are the equivalent of a 500mhz chip compared to Intel's chips. Its like saying my car has 375hp and yours only has 370, my car is soo much better than yours. The difference is there, but for most people, the difference is quite negligable.

    The differences amount to almost nothing depending on application. Sure there are better parts out there, but competition drives markets to innovate and will bring down prices. Oh how awful. The intel fanboys can ride their high horses still, but AMD releasing better products benefits us all. Try taking your heads out of that little box and looking at the big picture.

    I like to see AMD working on new products and hopefully they can get more competitive. We all need to be hoping for this so we don't see slowdowns in development and skyrocketing chip prices. I mean, look at the GPU industry compared to a few years ago and tell me that the situation is great for consumers. More competition = happier consumers. nuf said.
  • ap90033 - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    you are right, and you obviously dont game. Intel=FPS=FTW
  • mark3450 - Thursday, March 27, 2008 - link

    What a complete strawman. Look at the data, the best Phenom chip is getting beated by the q6600 by 20% in real world performance, not the 1% in your idotic horsepower strawman attack.

    Yes everyone understands that the lack of competion isn't good. The reason people bitch at AMD is that they want AMD to have a competative offereing, but that data clear says they don't. They know because of that there isn't going to be any competition in the CPU market for a long time. Yes that isn't good, but sticking your head in the sand and denying the reality of the situation doesn't help.

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