On Thu, 27 Feb 2003 16:32:08 +0100, Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde>
wrote:
> It looks interesting but i have some doubts whether these numbers are
> representative.  My own tests some time ago showed that the MinGW version
> is significantly faster than the Borland C++ version.  What were the
> optimizations used for GCC?

BORLAND:
  CFLAGS=-6 -ff -H- -O2 -Oi -OS -Ov -P -q -V -vi -w
MINGW & DJGPP:
  CFLAGS= -march=pentiumpro -O3 -pedantic
DIGITAL MARS:
  CFLAGS= -o -v0 -cpp -mn -6 -ff -WA -Ae
WATCOM:
  CFLAGS= /oneatx /oh /oi+ /ei /zp8 /6 /fp6 /zq /xs /bt=nt 

I did not played much with settings - mostly used those suggested in docs.
Perhaps I can inspire somebody for further playing. I will be happy to find
propositions of other combinations.

Except Borland, development of all packages is open-like and perhaps some
improvements can be introduced into compilers. For example I would like to test
http://cmeerw.org/prog/dm/rtl.html solution. I have no idea how this can
influence.

> BTW the support libraries should not matter much when you render without
> file output.

Since image io operations are part of typicall using I decided to use it. But of
course for longer renderings its influence is less important.

ABX

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"ABX" <abx### [at] abxartpl> wrote:
> Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde> wrote:
> > It looks interesting but i have some doubts whether these numbers are
> > representative.  My own tests some time ago showed that the MinGW
version
> > is significantly faster than the Borland C++ version.  What were the
> > optimizations used for GCC?
>
> <...>
> MINGW & DJGPP:
>   CFLAGS= -march=pentiumpro -O3 -pedantic
> <...>

From this list, at least one quite important thing is
missing: -fomit-frame-pointer. There are a few other things to tweak, but
the impact of not generating EBP-based stack frames outweighs all the rest.

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Vadim Sytnikov wrote:

> "ABX" <abx### [at] abxartpl> wrote:
>> Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde> wrote:
>> > It looks interesting but i have some doubts whether these numbers are
>> > representative.  My own tests some time ago showed that the MinGW
> version
>> > is significantly faster than the Borland C++ version.  What were the
>> > optimizations used for GCC?
>>
>> <...>
>> MINGW & DJGPP:
>>   CFLAGS= -march=pentiumpro -O3 -pedantic
>> <...>
> 
> From this list, at least one quite important thing is
> missing: -fomit-frame-pointer. There are a few other things to tweak, but
> the impact of not generating EBP-based stack frames outweighs all the
> rest.

I'm missing the -ffast-math flag which should have quite some impact as 
well.

-- 
POV-Ray Objects Collection: http://objects.povworld.org

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On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 14:47:21 +0100, Micha Riser <mri### [at] gmxnet> wrote:
> > From this list, at least one quite important thing is
> > missing: -fomit-frame-pointer. There are a few other things to tweak, but
> > the impact of not generating EBP-based stack frames outweighs all the
> > rest.
>
> I'm missing the -ffast-math flag which should have quite some impact as 
> well.

Ok. I added -fommit-frame-pointer, droped file output and tried again with:

megapov.exe +Iglowlits.pov +GAoutput.txt +W640 +H480 -A -J0.0 -FN -D

  dmc:     329
  mingw:   299
  borland: 264
  djgpp:   204
  watcom:  185

then I added -ffast-math to mingw and djgpp:

  dmc:     329
  borland: 264
  mingw:   256
  watcom:  185
  djgpp:   169

what are next suggestions ?

ABX

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ABX wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
> what are next suggestions ?

- use a slower scene for more accurate results (benchmark.pov for example)
- try the official WinPOV and the MSVC megapov for comparison

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, include files, Sim-POV,
HCR-Edit and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/
Last updated 28 Feb. 2003 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______

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ABX wrote:

> 
> what are next suggestions ?

* Memory aligning: -malign-double
* Loop unrolling: -funroll-loops (might get worse though), 
-funroll-all-loops (likely will get worse)
* Use of profiling information.

Flags are for gcc, other compilers might have similar flags for it or 
already enabled by default.

- Micha

-- 
POV-Ray Objects Collection: http://objects.povworld.org

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In article <18qu5v0b9uf1amnnpum810vr8upmr5qgh1@4ax.com>,
 ABX <abx### [at] abxartpl> wrote:

> megapov.exe +Iglowlits.pov +GAoutput.txt +W640 +H480 -A -J0.0 -FN -D

glowlits.pov is not a benchmark scene, and is nothing like typical 
scenes. I would suggest using benchmark.pov.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 16:06:35 -0500, Christopher James Huff
<cja### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
> > megapov.exe +Iglowlits.pov +GAoutput.txt +W640 +H480 -A -J0.0 -FN -D
>
> glowlits.pov is not a benchmark scene, and is nothing like typical 
> scenes. I would suggest using benchmark.pov.

I was not concerned much on choosing the right sphere because I considered it as
begining for further tests with various conditions. The longer test with
benchmark.pov I leaved for weekend. Now I have results:

app.       | compiler    | GUI | P-II | PIII |
-----------+-------------+-----+------+------+
povray 3.5 | intel       | win | 2740 |  815 |
megapov    | djgpp(gcc)  | dos | 2865 |  852 |
megapov    | mingw(gcc)  | con | 2909 |  872 |
megapov    | open watcom | con | 4094 | 1234 |
megapov    | borland 5.5 | win | 4407 | 1332 |
megapov    | dmc         | con | 4907 | 1454 |

where P-II is P-II 233 MHz with

call:
  application.exe benchmark.ini +Oapp +GAoutput_app.txt -J0.0 +FN

benchmark.ini:
  -w96 -h96 +a0.3 +am1 +v -d -f -x
  +Ibenchmark.pov

P-II:
  Pentium 2 233 MHz, 128 MB, NT4 Sp 6

P-III:
  Pentium 3 730 MHz, 128 MB, Win2000

Seems time for checking profiliers.

While MinGW is in fact faster than Borland compilation it seems strange that DOS
application (DJGPP) is faster than console application. It is signifficant
difference but it can means a day for a long renderings. AFAIK they use were
build with the same GCC version and I applied the same config.h for both.

And BTW: I noticed all images produced in this test are significantly different.
I have to track differences....

ABX

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On Mon, 03 Mar 2003 10:07:19 +0100, ABX <abx### [at] abxartpl> wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 16:06:35 -0500, Christopher James Huff
><cja### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
>> > megapov.exe +Iglowlits.pov +GAoutput.txt +W640 +H480 -A -J0.0 -FN -D
>>
>> glowlits.pov is not a benchmark scene, and is nothing like typical 
>> scenes. I would suggest using benchmark.pov.
>
> I was not concerned much on choosing the right sphere because I considered it as
> begining for further tests with various conditions. The longer test with
> benchmark.pov I leaved for weekend. Now I have results:
>
> app.       | compiler    | GUI | P-II | PIII |
> -----------+-------------+-----+------+------+
> povray 3.5 | intel       | win | 2740 |  815 |
> megapov    | djgpp(gcc)  | dos | 2865 |  852 |
...

did you use profiling with ICC?
it makes povray run about 15-25% faster (forgot the exact figures).

for gcc profiling does not seem to help much with povray. 

I use these...

-tpp6 -O3 -xi -restrict -long_double -ipo -ipo_obj -unroll
  -prof_dir /tmp/iccprof -pc80

-prof_genx and -prof_use are the profiling options,
docs tell how to use 'em.

-- 
Safari - y7p### [at] sneakemailcom
"Talk is cheap. Show me the code." - Linus Torvalds

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In article <ou566vgg0gqih2vvlsovillshbf09t7r4g@4ax.com> , ABX 
<abx### [at] abxartpl>  wrote:

> app.       | compiler    | GUI | P-II | PIII |
> -----------+-------------+-----+------+------+
> povray 3.5 | intel       | win | 2740 |  815 |
> megapov    | djgpp(gcc)  | dos | 2865 |  852 |
> megapov    | mingw(gcc)  | con | 2909 |  872 |
> megapov    | open watcom | con | 4094 | 1234 |
> megapov    | borland 5.5 | win | 4407 | 1332 |
> megapov    | dmc         | con | 4907 | 1454 |

IIRC, Intel offers a trial version download of ICC, and the Linux version is
free (I think).  So you might want to see if it isn't only a problem of bad
compilers...

    Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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