LightWave_7.5_Eval_Guide

Pentium® 4 Processor Software Evaluation Guide for
NewTek* LightWave 3D* 7.5
/performance November 2002
Rev. 1.0
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The Intel® Pentium® 4 processor may contain design defects or errors known as errata. Current characterized errata are available on request.
Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel® Pentium® 4 processor at 3.06 GHz or higher, a chipset and BIOS that utilize this technology, and an operating system that includes optimizations for this technology. Look for systems with the Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology logo which your system vendor has verified utilize Hyper-Threading Technology. See /info/hyperthreading for information.
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About this Document
This document is a guide measuring performance of the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor on application software. The primary audience for this document includes individuals, publications, OEMs and technical analysts whose goal is to test or evaluate the performance benefits and features of the Pentium 4 processor. If there are questions that are not answered here on software application performance evaluation of the Pentium 4 processor, please contact your Intel representative.
Each software application test measures different aspects of processor and/or system performance. While no single numerical measurement can completely describe the performance of a complex device like a microprocessor or a personal computer, application tests can be useful tools for comparing different components and systems. The following results and procedures give a glimpse of the performance of certain software applications, however your own usage of each application may vary from what is shown here. The only totally accurate way to measure the performance of your system, is to test the actual software applications you use, in the way you use them, on your computer system. Test results published by Intel are measured on specific systems or components using specific hardware and software configurations, and any differences between those configurations (including software) and your configuration may make those results inapplicable to your component or system.
Software application tests are, at most, only one kind of information that you may use during the purchasing process. To get a true picture of the performance of a component or system you are considering purchasing, you must consult other sources of information (such as performance information on the exact system you are considering purchasing). If you have any questions about the performance of any Intel microprocessor, please view the detailed performance briefs and reports published by Intel or call Intel at (US) 1-800-628-8686 or 916-356-3104.
Chapter 1
Pentium® 4 Processor Performance on NewTek* LightWave 3D* 7.5
Description
1.0 Software
NewTek* LightWave 3D* 7.5 is a 3D graphics and animation package used to create scenes for television film and games as well as print, web authoring and other media that involve 3D solutions.
Animators using systems based on the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor and its platform enjoy shorter render times for television and movie productions for a better design experience. The shorter render times seen on the Pentium 4 processor platform allow designers to render more often to see how their designs look as well as allowing for the use of more complex, highly compute intensive effects such as radiosity 1 which is not suited for older generation architectures. Intel’s Pentium 4 processor based on the Intel® NetBurst™ microarchitecture contains the design characteristics of enhanced floating point and rapid execution engine to fully take advantage of the benefits included in the LightWave 3D package resulting in a more efficient design process.
LightWave 3D 7.5 comes with a selection of scenes meant for benchmarking purposes. The benchmark scene highlighted in this document represents current designs with a realistic model that utilize the powerful rendering features found in LightWave 3D 7.5. This workload is included among NewTek’s “Most Recommended” benchmark workloads.
Description
Workload
1.1 Test
Scene 1 Skull_head_newest: This scene portrays a lifelike model of a skull with uneven, textured surfaces. It uses radiosity to create realistic lighting effects for a natural looking scene.
The complex rendering effects seen in this workload makes it a prime candidate for measuring 3D rendering performance as it demonstrates the new levels of complexity that can be achieved by running the latest software on powerful systems.
1.2 Results
The NewTek LightWave 3D 7.5 test shows excellent performance for the Pentium® 4 processor for ray tracing (rendering technique) with radiosity to render realistic 3D scenes. This workload was created to showcase key features of the application. This application benefits from enhanced SSE2 technology implementation, rapid execution engine, high memory bandwidth with the 400 MHz or 533 MHz system bus, and balanced platform design. The Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology 3.06 GHz offers 3 times the performance to run the LightWave 3D workload compared to the Pentium III processor 1 GHz.
1Radiosity is the scattering (reflection) of light off of diffuse surfaces, which causes surfaces to become indirect light sources. LightWave 3D has a radiosity solution built in, which can produce some spectacular results, by essentially calculating bounced lighting for global illumination. Source: /product/feature_radiosity.html
Note: The above results are in minutes and seconds. For configuration see Table 1.0 and for detailed procedure see Chapter 3.
1.3 Benefits
A person using NewTek* LightWave 3D* 7.5 for rendering content creation in a business setting can save significant time by using a PC based on the Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology 3.06 GHz. As shown in the chart above, the Intel Pentium 4 processor with HT Technology 3.06 GHz is over 3 times faster than the Pentium III processor 1 GHz and 1.5 times faster than the Pentium 4 processor 2A GHz.
Chapter 2
System Configuration and Setup
2.0 Current
Reference
Configuration
This section describes the configuration used for the Pentium® 4 processor desktop performance evaluation as reported in this document. Note that the configuration is subject to change, and any changes may be reflected in the later versions of this document. Table 1 shows the hardware and software configuration used for this performance evaluation.
Operating System Windows* XP Professional Edition (Build 2600, FAT32 partition,
32-bit File System with “System Restore” DISABLED) Motherboard or System (1) Intel® D815EEA2 with Pentium® III processor 1 GHz
EA81520A.86A.00xx.P10 BIOS
(2) Intel D850EMV2 with Pentium 4 processor 2A GHz
MV85010A.86A.0025.P10 BIOS
(3) Intel D850EMV2 with Pentium 4 Processor 3.06 GHz
supporting HT Technology MV85010A.86A.0036.P14 BIOS Memory Size (1) 2x128MB Crucial* (Micron*) PC133 CL2 SDRAM
(2) 2x128MB Non-ECC RDRAM Samsung* PC800-40
(3) 2x128MB Non-ECC RDRAM Corsair* PC1066-32
Graphic Adapter (2D/3D) Leadtek* WinFast* A250 Ultra TD (nVidia* GeForce4 Ti 4600) 4x AGP graphics
Chipset Inf File Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility v 4.00.1009
Hard Disk IBM* 120GXP 80 GB IC35L080AVVA07-0 ATA-100
Hard Disk Driver Intel® Application Accelerator v 2.2.2128
Graphics Driver nVidia Detonator 4 reference driver 28.32
Resolution /Colors 1024 x 768 @ 32-bit color
DirectX Support Default MS DirectX 8.1 from Windows XP
Table 2.0 Current Reference Configurations:
Note: All equipment is publicly available unless it is stated otherwise.
The sources for obtaining all the latest driver versions, software, BIOS, etc. are as follows:
•The nVidia graphics reference driver Detonator 4 can be downloaded from /•The latest BIOS for Intel motherboards can be downloaded from
/support/motherboards/desktop/
•The latest Intel Application Accelerator can be downloaded from
/support/chipsets/iaa/
2.1 Run Procedure Common to All Standard Benchmarks and Tests
This section outlines the run procedure recommended for all benchmarks:
•Always start with a clean, formatted hard disk.
•Install Windows*XP from the original operating system CD.
•Immediately after installing the Windows*XP operating system, install the latest INF files to allow the operating system to recognize the chipset and all the components on the motherboard. This step is
critical to ensure that AGP4X and fast writes are enabled and functional. The INF file can be
downloaded from /design/software/drivers/platform/inf.htm. For further details, please visit /support/chipsets/storagedrivers/ultraATA/.
•One can use several publicly available utility based on CPUID/RDTSC instructions to check to make sure that APG4X and fast writes are enabled. Example, WCPUID utility available at http://www.h-
.
•Install the Intel® Application Accelerator by downloading from:
/support/chipsets/iaa/
•Download and Install the nVIDIA graphics reference driver from:
/view.asp?PAGE=windows2000.
•Make sure the system has at least a 10GB hard drive with 250MB free space.
•In the Control Panel, set the display to 1024x768 resolution and 32-bit color mode at 75Hz refresh rate.
•In the Control Panel, double click on Display, click on the Settings tab, click the Advanced button, click the GeForce3 tab, click the Additional Properties button, click the OpenGL settings tab and change the Vertical Sync setting to “Always Off.” This prevents the graphics card from having to wait for the
vertical refresh of the monitor.
•Turning off Visual Effects: Right click on My Computer on your desktop, click on the Advanced Tab and click on the Settings button in the performance section, Click the Visual Effects Tab, choose Custom and uncheck all the boxes. Click OK. Having visual effects on is known to decrease performance across all platforms.
•Disable System Restore: Right click on My Computer on your desktop, click on the System Restore Tab, check the box called Turn off System Restore. Click ok. The System Restore captures the state of the system at any given time and stores the information on the hard disk. Having System Restore On,
increases the run to run variation on most benchmarks.
•Disable Windows Update: Right click on My Computer on your desktop, click on the Automatic Updates Tab, click the option to “Turn off automatic updating, I want to update my computer manually.”
Click OK. It is important to turn this option off because the window may come to the foreground during
a benchmark run which may cause the benchmark to fail.
•In the Control Panel, double click on Display, click on the Settings tab, click the Screen Saver tab, select (None) in the Screen Saver option. Click on the Power button, click on the Power Schemes tab, change the power schemes to “Always On,” change the Turn off monitor option to Never. Click on the
Hibernate Tab, and uncheck the Enable hibernation box. Click Ok. It is important that screen savers and hibernate do not occur during a benchmark run because they may cause benchmarks to fail.
•Install the required benchmark from its CD according to the directions provided by the benchmark vendor (or let the “Autorun” feature start the installation program automatically). Be sure to copy the files to the hard drive by checking the box that says “Copy support files to hard drive” when prompted.
After the benchmark installation is complete and the system is ready for evaluation, use the Shut Down command on the Start menu to Shut Down and Restart the system.
Chapter 3
Procedure for Evaluating Pentium® 4 Processor Performance
The following is a procedure for evaluating Pentium 4 processor performance for rendering scenes in NewTek* LightWave 3D* 7.5.
Run this test on a Windows XP system.
Installing LightWave 7.5:
1. You need to install LightWave 7.5 before applying a version 7.5 update patch. Start the LightWave 7.5 installation.
2. Install the sentinel driver with default settings when prompted.
3. Reboot your system
4. Start the LightWave 7.5 installation again.
5. Skip the sentinel driver installation if asked again.
6. Install LightWave
7.5 with default settings.
7. Download the LightWave 7.5 update patch from /product/7.5/
8. Install the LightWave 7.5 update with default settings.
9. Reboot your system.
Running LightWave 7.5:
1. Start LightWave 7.5. Start->Programs->LightWave->LightWave 7.5
2. Open the test file by going to File->Load->Load Scene…
3. In the “Load Scene” dialog navigate to the “benchmark” folder and load the workload
“skull_head_newest.lws”. C:\LightWave\scenes\benchmark\skull_head_newest.lws
4. Open the rendering options dialog. Rendering->Rendering Options…
5. In the “Render Options” dialog uncheck “Show Rendering in Progress” and leave the rest of the options default. Turning off the show rendering option removes any graphics card display overhead.
6. Close the “Render Options” dialog by clicking on the “X” in the top right corner.
7. Finally, hit the “F9” key to begin rendering.
8. A warning dialog will appear informing you that the viewing options are not enabled. Click “Yes” to continue with the rendering.
9. Once the rendering has completed the time, in seconds, it took to render the scene will be displayed in the “Rendering time” section of the “Render Status” dialog. Lower is better.
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