ArchiCAD Benchmarks

[Anonymous]

It would be helpful if the members of the forum start a benchmark that compares how different computer configurations handle ArchiCAD. There are lots of non-ArchiCAD benchmarks comparing equipment but none that specifically addresses how equipment performs when running ArchiCAD. By establishing an ArchiCAD benchmark we could begin to paint a picture of what hardware makes ArchiCAD run better/faster.

We would need a common ArchiCAD file to use for the benchmark. A first step would be to find out if there is already a benchmark file in existence. If none exists one could be created quickly that has a good sampling of ArchiCAD's native library parts and elements. The file should contain enough elements or polygons to actually tax system performance. This might include a meshed terrain or other object with a good many polygons. The test file could be made available here on the forum as a downloadable file.

The next step would be to establish the parameters for testing. The following are some suggestions:
1) Computers should be restarted before testing to clear ram and other programs that might effect performance.
2) Record time to open the file.
3) Record time to manipulate the file in some manner that tests each system's performance speed. THis might be something simple like opening a preestablished section view in the project.
4) Record the time to open a 3D window of the project with a commonly established set of 3D Window settings.
5) Record the time to produce a PhotoRender of the project with a common set of PhotoRendering settings.
These four benchmarks would then be recorded here on the forum along with each system's configuration.

This sort of user benchmark testing has been done successfully on other software forums. It would help us, the users, become more informed about what equipment configurations allows us to use ArchiCAD at it's fullest.

Thank you,
John

[Anonymous]

Thanks to Karl and Djorge I now have the benchmark file and testing criteria. The criteria seem pretty loose and open to a lot of unspecified variables.

Below are test results as cut and pasted from the ArchiCAD report. I apologize in advance if this posting is not the proper place for test results.


HIDDEN LINE : 4 SECONDS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1176 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
264 slabs 0 meshes 30 pitch roofs
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:01:37 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:01:38 PM
Elapsed time : 1 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:01:38 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:01:38 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hidden line removal (analytic)
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:01:38 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:01:41 PM
Elapsed time : 3 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------

SHADED RENDER: 17 SECONDS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1176 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
264 slabs 0 meshes 30 pitch roofs
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:34 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:34 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:35 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:35 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hidden line removal (analytic)
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:35 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:37 PM
Elapsed time : 2 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:55 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:55 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:55 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:56 PM
Elapsed time : 1 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Polygon painting
Sun direction : vertical 35 horizontal 240
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:56 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:19:10 PM
Elapsed time : 14 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------

PHOTORENDER: 27 SECONDS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1176 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
264 slabs 0 meshes 30 pitch roofs
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:34 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:34 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:35 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:35 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hidden line removal (analytic)
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:35 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:37 PM
Elapsed time : 2 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:55 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:55 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:55 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:18:56 PM
Elapsed time : 1 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Polygon painting
Sun direction : vertical 35 horizontal 240
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:18:56 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:19:10 PM
Elapsed time : 14 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 0 walls 0 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:20:27 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:20:27 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:20:27 PM
End time : 5/4/2004 2:20:27 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ArchiCAD Rendering Engine V5.T
Method : Scan-line Z-buffer algorithm (1) (524030)
Image size : 640 x 400 (1000 K)
Sampling rate : 2 Antialiasing factor : 3
Effects used : Shadow casting : Sun
Transparency
Smooth surfaces
Emission
Highlights
Fog : R40000 G40000 B40000 Low
Ambient light : R28835 G28835 B28835
Sunlight : R52428 G52428 B52428
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PhotoRendering :
Start time : 5/4/2004 2:20:33 PM
Shadow body generation time : 2 seconds
Sun direction : vertical 35 horizontal 240
Model info : 21684 K ( = 9678 K + 821 K shadow bodies + 11185 K projected)
: 89414 polygons, max. 7682 in one scan-line
End time : 5/4/2004 2:20:41 PM
Elapsed time : 8 seconds
Memory used : 14894 K for model (68 % of the ideal)
1416 K for smooth surfaces
3921 K for rendering internal data structures
1000 K for pixel map buffer
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Total of all three renders: 48 Seconds.
That is not really that great as compired to L.S. Chew's results or the the old test scores on Ole's site considering that the clock speed on this brand new Dell's processor is faster that the other computers in the test.

I'm wondering what settings are different? I did have the render set to include transparency.

The only thing that is installed on this computer is Windows XP Home, ArchiCAD 8.1 r2 (build 2275), Macafee AntiVirus, and some DVD and recording stuff that Dell preinstalled.

It is nice to have a baseline so that I can see how the speed changes as I add programs and tweek the settings. I'm also going to try the test with the Matrox Parhellia 256 and a Matrox G400Max installed on this computer to see what differnece those graphics cards make in render times.

I'm also wondering if there is something that I can do to get faster rendering times out of this machine? Any tips would be welcomed.

Many thanks for all of the help,
John

[Anonymous]

I just ran this test for kicks on my new PC

@XI Computer
Dual AMD Athlon 64 4800+ 2.42 Ghz
4 GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX w/ 512 MB RAM
Windows XP sp2
With ArchiCAD 9 installed on RAID 0 drives (SATA II)

Here are the results. I've been known to make a mistake when posting these results before so please let me know if this was done correctly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1176 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
264 slabs 0 meshes 30 pitch roofs
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:52:01 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:52:05 PM
Elapsed time : 4 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:52:05 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:52:05 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:52:38 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:52:40 PM
Elapsed time : 2 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:52:41 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:52:41 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hidden line removal (analytic)
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:52:41 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:52:42 PM
Elapsed time : 1 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:53:06 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:53:08 PM
Elapsed time : 2 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:53:08 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:53:08 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Polygon painting
Sun direction : vertical 35 horizontal 240
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:53:08 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:53:17 PM
Elapsed time : 9 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document name : FORE TI 3D
Processed : 1 walls 2355 objects 0 columns 0 ncBeams
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:53:36 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:53:38 PM
Elapsed time : 2 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Projection : Dimetric axonometry
Camera azimuth : 0
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:53:38 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:53:38 PM
Elapsed time : 0 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Polygon painting
Sun direction : vertical 35 horizontal 240
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:54:13 PM
End time : 1/12/2006 5:54:22 PM
Elapsed time : 9 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Rendering Engine
Method : Scan-line Z-buffer algorithm (1) (851832)
Image size : 640 x 480 (1200 K)
Sampling rate : 2 Antialiasing factor : 3
Effects used : Shadow casting : Sun
Transparency
Smooth surfaces
Emission
Highlights
Fog : R40000 G40000 B40000 Low
Ambient light : R28835 G28835 B28835
Sunlight : R52428 G52428 B52428
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PhotoRendering :
Start time : 1/12/2006 5:54:22 PM
Model info : 22124 K ( = 9900 K + 825 K shadow bodies + 11399 K projected)
: 90698 polygons, max. 8240 in one scan-line
End time : 1/12/2006 5:54:29 PM
Elapsed time : 7 seconds
Memory used : 14897 K for model (67 % of the ideal)
1416 K for smooth surfaces
4095 K for rendering internal data structures
1200 K for pixel map buffer
----------------------------------------------------------------------



Is 36 seconds correct?

[Djordje]

Eric wrote:
I just ran this test for kicks on my new PC

Gone to the Dark side?!?!?