I don’t understand something: did you just open the rcX scene in sp2 and pressed Render?
If that is the case, it’s very likely to be slower, as the sp2 sampler is a lot more sensitive, and it’s years apart from the values (and dare i say it, even methods) we all used to use in rcX.
So as mentioned you’d need some tweaking in the noise thresholds, and possibly some tweaks in the AA settings.
I was just thinking the same thing! It does make comparing the different version hard though.
Yes, but with 25% time render i hope in better noise quality. And, like you can see, me and Morbid Angel prefer RC5, Vlado and RErender SP2. So the difference is not so clear.
This scene is not so simple (QMC+QMC, all DMC, DOF), but maybe with MBlur, glossy, Area shadows the difference from this two version could be much more visible.
Bye 
cecofuli
that makes no sense whatsoever…2 me both look equivalent, BUT given the diferent rendertimes i m guessing from my personal experience that the sp2 is oversampling, which is leading to the higher rendertime!
cecofuli can you add a glossy refleciton to this scene and render with it?
As Lele says, maybe lincreasing noise threshold in DMC sampler, in the AA or twatking the SP2 version, we can get 13 min 10 sec with no difference.
Morbid, if you want, the scene is freeware.
Now i’m rendering some frames for tomorrow, so my octa is busy 
bye
cecofuli
ok…how do i install both RC5 and SP2 on the same machine?
Hi Morbid,
RC5 come with software license. Do you remember?
I’m going to sleep now. Bye 
cecofuli
So, there was a number of problems with your scene. Logarythmic exposure, projected gradient as screen mapping for gi.
I have stripped down everything. For a clean test you must have the basics and only basics. Here below I have recrated your scene with max 2008 RC5 and max 2009 SP2. Sun/sky physical cam.
For RC5 I have set adaptive qmc 1/64 at 0.01, gi qmc/qmc 8/3
For SP2 I have reset vray settings to default, and setup manually the same settings: adaptive dmc 1/64 at 0.01, gi brute force/brute force 8/3.
Both scenes use gamma correction with gamma 2.2 (sampling at gamma image). Lastly a simple area filter is applied…
More tests are coming…
just letting you know dmitri, but your sky is different between your two images and the RC5 is slightly warmer on the direct lit geometry, also probably due to the difference in the sky.
I’m not seeing this. Comparing in photoshop they look exactly the same other than some noise difference. 5x5 averaged eyedropper samples (to get rid of the noise) yield exactly the same numbers.
Percy,
I thought the same thing too. So I opened them both in Photoshop, layered them and they are identical. I tracked the problem to my LCD. I have a Samsung and it seems colors drift a little from the top to the bottom of the screen. So, by having both visible in the post, the top image looked warmer than the bottom. Could be your problem as well.
Back on-topic: by layering them in PS and turning the top layer on and off, the quality seems to be the same, just the noise pattern changes. I wouldn’t say that one is better than the other.
indeed, a difference of the two renders from Dmitri leads to noise-only differences, which peak at 3 (of an rgb255), and extend up to 8 (if they become a lot less pixels).
Allright with pixel-fu**ing, but come on, who can see 3 points of rgb difference in a noise pattern?
I’m planning some tests myself, this time on the sampler itself.
its Dmitry…
Im actually running a high quality renders right now. 1/64 at 0.001 and also same test with glossy reflection. Tonight we will see how it turns up.
Hi Dmitry,
i don’t know why logaritmic is ON [???]… And the gradient ramp is only for background, not for GI. For GI i use a VRay Environment color. Anyway, simply scene is the best for testing. But in the “original scene” the difference in the rendering time remains. I don’t know why… Maybe is DOF fault?
Here, the sky is the same.
Lol Dmitry, sorry for the typo XD
Well, the RC5 had rQMC, the SP2 has DMC.
Reason enough for two identical settings, with two different samplers, to produce different render times without a stark difference in quality.
cecofuli, indeed the times are different in your scene. Hance I reapproached it. Normally when going from older version to a newer version you MUST reset renderer. At one point when I was working on your scene, vray told me - unknown path sampler, using default. This ment that when I opened your RC5 scene in SP2, some how the path sampler remained from the old one, and was not recognized. That said, god knows what else has not ported over. That is why a full reset is in order. Im sure that neither the DOF or anything else is going to make a significant difference.
Just as an aside, http://www.popularscience.co.uk/features/feat16.htm is why the skies look different
its probably drift in my monitor. I kinda actually suspected it might be the case, but was too lazy to bring em into photoshop.
I tracked the problem to my LCD. I have a Samsung and it seems colors drift a little from the top to the bottom of the screen. So, by having both visible in the post, the top image looked warmer than the bottom. Could be your problem as well.
Thanks for this test - now I know my monitors are crappy. 