[Bubbaloo]

I would expect to see more time compression as we move on. Especially once Leopard for the MacPros is released that allows more efficiency with 8 cores over Tiger. Animation with Maxwell Render is now a reality. 11 to 12 minute frame renders is not bad.

Also, the next series of xeons is out now (7300 series). I'm waiting to see someone with a couple of these quads blow us away.

[bodebodebode]

Am I the only one who can´t acess benchwell.com ???

I got a brand new Dell Poweredge dual-quad core Xeon and am trying to gain acess since last month, but no sucess.

Is the site on-line ?? everything normal ??

already tried in diferent machines and conections,....both IE and Mozilla.

Is there a mirror ?? Or could someone please mail me with the scene ?

Thanks all !

[-Adrian]

It seems you're the only one with that problem, the site is up like 99.9% of the time. Maybe you could try using an open proxy server to access it. Anyway, here's the scene file (hope you can access that). Post your results here or PM them to me and i'll add them.

[T_RNLDesign]

I can't seem to open the mxs file. It says that it is invalid.

[-Adrian]

Happens to a few people, it seems to be machine related. The file is fine (can't fix anything).

[T_RNLDesign]

I opened the mac version on my pc (Core 2 duo 6400) and it works fine?!? thanks

[-Adrian]

That's good to hear. The windows file always renders without any problems here, no idea why it doesn't for some.

[Cadhorn]

this has probably been addressed here already, i'm just too lazy to read through all 16 pages of this thread: it would be very useful for those of us trying to zoom in on what exact new hardware to buy if there were an option for benchwell test submitters to add their detailed system specs (hyperlinked, so it doesn't clutter up the main test results page).
know what i mean?
don't get me wrong, i love benchwell.com as is, it's been a fantastic starting point for figuring out which way to go with my next system. i suppose i could pm some of the people and bug them for their system specs, but i'll bet a lot of other people would like to know too.

[KurtS]

good idea, Cadhorn! I sure would like to know more about the systems of the top performers.

20Mhz 286, 1024k RAM, 14" amber monitor, FireGL V5100

...excellent!

[-Adrian]

Interesting idea. Do you think it would be used though? I have to correct a lot of entries because frankly the users seem swamped with the basic details already. Of course those who overclock know what they're running, but i think many cg artists don't have the time to dive into these matters.

We could collect some ideas for the next update if you want, changes should be made at once, because without real user accounts, there's no way old entries can be updated by the users themselves.

Some ideas where:

• ● A different scene that represents generic render jobs more accurately, possibly even two or three different scenes. "Archvis" to test large amounts of lightsources, indoor lighting / indirect bounces, maybe multilight. Also a scene with complex multilayered materials, SSS, caustics, dispersion, and what have you. Rendertime ranking could then be by averaged result. Only a heavy geometry test i'd rather not do, because it would make for a big download. Let's see if Maxwell displacement can help in that department, or if it's really that good
  ● A field for external links, so you can specify your hardware more accurately - alternatively a plain textbox on the benchwell site, where you can add additional specs or notes about your system.
  ● Add an optional non-public email field, so people outside the forum/community can be contacted if they wish allow this. Sometimes there's interest in certain entries, but we don't know the person behind them.

As i said before i want to stick to the no-account system. There was very little abuse so far (thanks ) and it's more inviting this way. After all the person benchmarking is doing the favor here by adding content.
A price/performance column has been suggested several times, but since there's no free database to access current hardware prices, this isn't gonna work.

[Bubbaloo]

If the user is required to use their Maxwell forum login name, then we could just look them up on the forum and pm.

[KurtS]

i think many cg artists don't have the time to dive into these matters.

I agree, and maybe it's enough if just 10-20% of the computers listed had some additional, detailed specs?

● a plain textbox on the benchwell site, where you can add additional specs or notes about your system.

good Idea!

[-Adrian]

Just browsed through the thread, this made me . A classic already.

Ok, I'm running the benchwell test right now. It's blowing everyone else's score away so far. (...) Trust me, you will want to see this...

[Bubbaloo]

Hey, I was excited...

[Tyrone Marshall]

I would keep this run of the benchmark as the thing that makes a benchmark is its longevity. To constantly change the test so that it generates a different set of responses too often leaves little for comparison against previous marks.

Think of the '100 meter dash' its the same no matter what olympic after olympic.

This is definitely a hard issue to ponder.