Render speed 249 vs 253

Is it only me, render time of the same scene (two boxes - only 6+6 polygons, but 2048x2048 texture on each of them) took almost 3 times longer to render in 2.53 than i 2.49…

Any clues ?

That’s very akward, I remember watching a tutorial showing precisely the difference from 2.49 to 2.53, being 2.53 a lot faster. Make sure you have all settings exactly the same, there are several settings you have to check.