# Progressive vs buckets, render time difference **URL:** \ **Category:** Issues\ **Created:** [September 4, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122 "2013-09-04T08:55:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/1 "2013-09-04T08:55:58Z")
Again, I’m not sure if it’s a bug. Rendered the same region with two setups: 1. Progressive, PTS: 100, passes: 4 2. Bucket, PTS: 100, initial samples: 4 If I understand it correctly, for path tracing this would mean 100 rays per pixel x 4 passes = total 400 samples. And for buckets, 100 rays sampled 4 times for each pixel = total 400 samples. I thought the image should look the same and render with same speed. It looks exactly the same, but rendering time is much longer. ![ptpt.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/d/6/d6b896c5df98f7e91f7a31a0dc7123285ba4611b.jpeg) ![buck.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/4/d/4d5be4d7867148390df58f1ec80c61ee22952c46.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Ondra\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Ondra\_1](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Ondra_1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 9:00am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/2 "2013-09-04T09:00:38Z")
you set adaptive steps to 0, right? ---
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 9:05am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/3 "2013-09-04T09:05:30Z")
What is adaptive steps? ---
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 9:08am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/4 "2013-09-04T09:08:25Z")
Another one. Progressive: 400 pts x 1 pass. Bucket: 400 pts x 1 initial sample. btw, it’s Sep 3 2013 00:00:50 ![ptpt2.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/a/1/a155102f4637d639b26419b3f6ad686f83ba59f6.jpeg) ![buck2.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/8/d/8d39a46f7e7f4ee268053aca5d86f71b081b8385.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Ondra\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Ondra\_1](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Ondra_1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 9:51am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/5 "2013-09-04T09:51:38Z")
just printscreen the settings 😉 ---
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/6 "2013-09-04T10:12:36Z")
here you go ![progr.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/4/3/430ef8f0f168e163ef6dbc18356483f9d0a99fc8.jpeg) ![bkt.JPG](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/0/2/0204bb0955a437ff6312c95c786c9205a7484575.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Ondra\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Ondra\_1](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Ondra_1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 10:37am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/7 "2013-09-04T10:37:18Z")
ok, you are comparing something entirely different (adaptive buckets to nonadaptive progressive rendering), so the comparison makes no sense. There is no reason for the two times to be the same ---
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 10:39am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/8 "2013-09-04T10:39:34Z")
How is this adaptive for buckets if there is only one pass? And if so, then why these two images look the same in terms of quality? ---
**Author:** ![Ondra\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Ondra\_1](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Ondra_1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 10:48am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/9 "2013-09-04T10:48:25Z")
you have “passes” set to 10. I’ve just tried with 1 and it works as expected. Just send the scene 😉 ---
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 11:19am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/10 "2013-09-04T11:19:37Z")
I have passes set to 10 but completing 1/4 of the first pass took much longer than rendering the whole region in progressive mode. I can upload simplified version of this scene later. ---
**Author:** ![Ondra\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Ondra\_1](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Ondra_1)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 11:25am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/11 "2013-09-04T11:25:12Z")
do it ---
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/12 "2013-09-04T18:49:15Z")
Ok, looks like HD cache is the cause of this. Without HD cache both images render with exactly the same time. After enabling HD cache, progressive rendering becomes faster and bucket rendering becomes significantly slower. I added those objects around lights to make the lighting less “uniform” but it also works with regular lights. ![prog_ptpt.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/4/e/4ef97bcfd3546e7d1b864c4a3f80fca583fa5ce2.jpeg) ![buckets_ptpt.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/4X/a/9/6/a96862bb66d38fe1282ea68dfd4bf49da18917c1.jpeg) ![prog_pthd.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/3/c/3ce8a778af06aef78eb09dbef74c714e875c855d.jpeg) ![bucket_pthd.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/c/f/cf64730fd281529a77e826fe5bfef2484c305544.jpeg) [bckvspt.max](https://forums.chaos.com/uploads/short-url/rI1PX7HgZxyxEK8jWZZI8NQIHmS.max) (232 KB) ---
**Author:** ![rafpug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3da27b/32.png) [@rafpug](https://forums.chaos.com/u/rafpug)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/13 "2013-09-04T21:12:42Z")
Hi maru I tried the scene while maintaining your configuration the final image I will be too bright It 's normal? ---
**Author:** ![cecofuli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/cecofuli/32/27814_2.png) [@cecofuli](https://forums.chaos.com/u/cecofuli)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/14 "2013-09-04T23:28:14Z")
Mmm.. interesting test! In fact, usually I prefer bucket (better quality and little adaptive sampling) and I found Bucket mode slow. ---
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 8:33am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/15 "2013-09-05T08:33:32Z")
> [@rafpug](#): > > Hi maru > > I tried the scene while maintaining your configuration > the final image I will be too bright > > It 's normal? If you didn’t change any settings, this means you have wrong gamma configuration in Max. > [@cecofuli](#): > > In fact, usually I prefer bucket (better quality and little adaptive sampling) and I found Bucket mode slow. Yes, in theory adaptive buckets MUST be more efficient than non-adaptive progressive rendering. But it looks like there is some bug with HD cache which is affects rendering speed in more complex scenes. It’s exceptionally visible when you’re rendering something for school on a cheap laptop and after whole night you end up with noisy images. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![cecofuli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/cecofuli/32/27814_2.png) [@cecofuli](https://forums.chaos.com/u/cecofuli)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 8:40am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/16 "2013-09-05T08:40:52Z")
I’ll do some research about this problem 😉 ---
**Author:** ![maru](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/maru/32/15975_2.png) [@maru](https://forums.chaos.com/u/maru)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 9:06am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/17 "2013-09-05T09:06:08Z")
Ok, but remember that I did this test with extreme values just to verify if there is such problem. In normal, more balanced situations this may be unnoticeable. ---
**Author:** ![rafpug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3da27b/32.png) [@rafpug](https://forums.chaos.com/u/rafpug)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 11:10am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/18 "2013-09-05T11:10:16Z")
Hi maru Mx2014 - default Gamma 2,2 This value is correct? ---
**Author:** ![rafpug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3da27b/32.png) [@rafpug](https://forums.chaos.com/u/rafpug)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 11:12am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/19 "2013-09-05T11:12:38Z")
Default Gamma 2,2 ![gamma 2.2.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/c/4/c4c4636006115db2ebf0ea5332b25fdf4af0dcef.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![rafpug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3da27b/32.png) [@rafpug](https://forums.chaos.com/u/rafpug)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122/20 "2013-09-05T11:20:55Z")
Only if I change the value of the light intensity from 50 to 1.0 mi looks like the render ![intensity Light 1,0.jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/original/3X/b/2/b2f6f1d9870d49b060ec548398290e7fe59ed79a.jpeg) [Next page](https://forums.chaos.com/t/progressive-vs-buckets-render-time-difference/126122.md?page=2)