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ALE Benchmarks

Times listed are process user time; ALE is compiled with GCC 3.3.4 and linked with ImageMagick version 6.0.1; and all images are 3x8-bit RGB non-interlaced PNGs. Test names are constructed as follows:

Machine code Description
PIIIPentium III 700MHz 100MHz FSB 256K L2 cache
ATHAthlon XP 3000+ 400MHz FSB 512K L2 cache
Test code Description
A+R3 256x256 100% white images, --perturb-upper=32
R 3 256x256 100% white images, --perturb-upper=0
Run Code Description
1Run number 1
2Run number 2
3Run number 3

Benchmark Table

Version Configuration PIII A+R 1 PIII A+R 2 PIII A+R 3 PIII R 1 PIII R 2 PIII R 3 ATH A+R 1 ATH A+R 2 ATH A+R 3 ATH R 1 ATH R 2 ATH R 3
0.5.1-patch3 IMAGEMAGICK=1
BITS=8		 0m16.830s 0m16.884s 0m16.871s 0m1.432s 0m1.438s 0m1.432s 0m4.819s 0m4.821s 0m4.818s 0m0.400s 0m0.401s 0m0.401s
0.5.1-patch3 IMAGEMAGICK=1
BITS=16		 0m17.024s 0m17.062s 0m17.060s 0m1.493s 0m1.500s 0m1.493s 0m4.904s 0m4.902s 0m4.904s 0m0.414s 0m0.415s 0m0.415s
0.6.0 IMAGEMAGICK=1
--8bpc 		0m13.917s 0m13.881s 0m13.888s 0m2.632s 0m2.642s 0m2.640s 0m4.251s 0m4.257s 0m4.254s 0m0.771s 0m0.764s 0m0.750s
0.6.0 IMAGEMAGICK=1
--16bpc 		0m14.007s 0m14.015s 0m14.020s 0m2.754s 0m2.751s 0m2.753s 0m4.307s 0m4.299s 0m4.302s 0m0.794s 0m0.803s 0m0.796s
0.7.0 IMAGEMAGICK=1
--q0
--8bpc
0m13.328s 0m13.366s 0m13.352s 0m8.245s 0m8.255s 0m8.253s 0m3.739s 0m3.742s 0m3.731s 0m2.325s 0m2.328s 0m2.322s
0.7.0 IMAGEMAGICK=1
--q0
--16bpc
0m13.439s 0m13.466s 0m13.462s 0m8.378s 0m8.337s 0m8.342s 0m3.765s 0m3.762s 0m3.768s 0m2.356s 0m2.354s 0m2.354s
0.7.1 IMAGEMAGICK=1
--q0
--8bpc
0m13.133s 0m13.153s 0m13.143s 0m8.100s 0m8.109s 0m8.108s 0m3.774s 0m3.781s 0m3.776s 0m2.327s 0m2.332s 0m2.322s
0.7.1 IMAGEMAGICK=1
--q0
--16bpc
0m13.243s 0m13.249s 0m13.269s 0m8.177s 0m8.196s 0m8.204s 0m3.808s 0m3.810s 0m3.799s 0m2.371s 0m2.368s 0m2.365s

Summary

Between versions 0.5.1 and 0.7.0, alignment times show a steady improvement, but this can be partly explained by a change in the default alignment settings in 0.7.0. Rendering times, on the other hand, are about 6 times longer for 0.7.0 than for 0.5.1, as a consequence of renderer changes. More detailed summaries for alignment and rendering tests follow.

Alignment

Alignment times improve as the version number increases, through version 0.7.0, but note that version 0.7.0 with the --q0 option defaults to --mc 30, which offers less accurate alignment than is offered by other versions' configurations. (Instead of sampling the difference between images for each reference image pixel, --mc 30 specifies that differences be sampled at roughly 30% of reference image pixels.)

Rendering

Rendering times increase significantly with version number, through version 0.7.0, the most significant increase being between 0.6.0 and 0.7.0, as the latter uses a computationally more expensive rendering technique. Whether the improved rendering quality is worth the extra rendering time likely depends on subjective criteria, but the differences seem to be most apparent when performing relatively complex rendering tasks.


Copyright 2004 David Hilvert

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