I see on the BLender download page options for version 2.8, 64-bit Windows. But one version says “New compiler” and the other does not. What’s the difference?
The difference is in compilers used to compile blender. Test both.
“New compiler” means it was built using vs 2015 that supports newer C++, as opposed to the older vs2013. To the end user, a newer compiler once used to mean a slight performance increase over older compilers.
When 2012 was offered over 2008, people reported up to 15-20% faster renders. The jump from 2013 to 2015, however, hasn’t shown any real increase to me. Official builds stay as long as possible on the old compilers because they are more stable.
OK thanks for the info.