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by magicalhippo 2830 days ago
Due to noise and aliasing. If multiple features (edges, materials etc) cover a single pixel, you usually get aliasing. If you do random sampling (of reflections, lights, whatever) you get noise.

For anti-aliasing you'll usually want at least on the order of 10 rays per pixel for a nice result. If you do random sampling, you quickly need 100 to 1000 rays per pixel to get an acceptable noise level.