POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 30	Source: POV-RAY

Ray-tracing is a rendering technique that calculates an image of a scene by simulating the way rays of light travel in the real world. In the real world, rays of light are emitted from a light source and illuminate objects. The light reflects off of the objects or passes through transparent objects. This reflected light hits our eyes or perhaps a camera lens. Because the vast majority of rays never hit an observer, it would take forever to trace a scene. Ray-tracing programs like POV-Ray start with their simulated camera and trace rays backwards out into the scene. The user specifies the location of the camera, light sources, and objects as well as the surface texture properties of objects, their interiors (if transparent) and any atmospheric media such as fog, haze, or fire.

Lower render times are better, however higher Pixel Per Second rendering values are best. Pov-ray is multi-threaded.

Pov-Ray 3.7 BETA 30 (multi-threaded) higher pps better Render Time (sec) Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 113.8 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 360.42 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 382.88 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 98.69 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR2) 445.26 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR3) 444.24 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 400.52 Render Average (Pixels Per Sec) Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 2303.61 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 1445.39 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 1357.27 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 2656.37 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR2) 1751.71 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR3) 1753.53 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 1300.42

Again, ray-tracing doesn't show any surprises, except for the 720BE's abnormally slow rendering times. The Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition is about 90% as fast as the Core 2 Duo E8500, which isn't bad since it's only 45% of the price.

SPECviewPerf 10	Source: POV-RAY

The SPECgpc project group develops and distributes SPECviewperf, which measures the 3D rendering performance of systems running under OpenGL. SPECviewperf measures the 3D rendering performance of systems running under OpenGL. The SPECopcSM project group has worked with independent software vendors (ISVs) to obtain tests, data sets and weights that constitute what is called a viewset. Each viewset represents the graphics rendering portion of an actual application. The ISVs that develop SPECopc viewsets have provided percentage weights for each test for which a performance number is reported. ISVs have defined these percentages to indicate the relative importance of a test within the overall application.

Higher results are better.

SPECviewPerf 10 (higher better) 2core Catia Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 19.19 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 15.43 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 16.47 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 20.47 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR2) 14.91 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR3) 14.41 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 9.31 2core Maya Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 38.57 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 33.21 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 34.3 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 34.08 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR2) 25.04 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR3) 25.87 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 31.3 2core PROe Points Ranking Intel Core i7 920 13.85 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 9.75 Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 13.03 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 12.75 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR2) 10.34 AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (DDR3) 12.94 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition 7.83