To build the serial version, you will compile the sample which is the serial version. You will then run the sample application and note the time to run the application. This time will be your baseline performance time.
Set the build_serial project as the startup project (Project > Set as StartUp Project).
Set the configuration to release mode: Build > Configuration Manager > Active solution configuration: > Release, then build the build_serial project.
Execute the application build_serial.exe with Debug > Start without Debugging. Take a note of the time in seconds displayed in the window title. This time to render the image is the baseline for parallelization with the Microsoft* Visual C++ Compiler.
For projects build_serial and tachyon.common, change compiler to the Intel® C++ Compiler (Project > Intel Compiler > Use Intel C++).
Rebuild build_serial in release mode (now with the Intel® C++ compiler).
The makefile automatically runs the sample after it is built.
Note the time to render the image. This time is your performance baseline time.