Where are the SL bottlenecks? (was Re: [sldev] branches/shadow-draft missing llrender.cpp)

[Scott Squires]

I have an 8800GT, and have never seen > 35fps, and that is when starring
out at the ocean.  In a regular scene with no avatars, it is typically <
25fps.  Reducing the SL graphics settings from the "high" preset does not
increase fps.  My cpu is an X2 4200, but I rarely see over 60% cpu
utilization.  In the task manager, usage seems to be slightly higher on one
core, but there is not a core that is maxed out.  4gb ram.  While my
desktop resolution varies from 1600x1200 to 2048x1536 on one monitor, and
1900x1200 to 2304x1440 on the other, the highest resolution I ever run SL
at is 1600x1200.  Making the SL window smaller does not seem to make a
difference.  Is my cpu really a bottleneck, even though it doesn't appear
to be fully utilized?  Is this an architecture thing?  Do Intel users
generally see better SL performance than AMD users?  A cpu upgrade may be
in my near future, but swapping mobos to change architectures is a PITA.

On Mon, 26 May 2008 16:29:35 -0700, Dave Parks <davep at lindenlab.com> wrote:
> I get as high as 60 FPS in a scene with around 100 lights, and as low as
> 8 in a crowded scene with lots of transparency (Ahern).
> 
> This is on Win XP Media Center with a GeForce 8800GT and Intel E8400
> (about a $700 PC).  Long term there will probably be the option of
> enabling per pixel lighting without shadows, which results in very
> little performance hit.  Also, this is largely unoptimized.