17,000,000 polygons, from OTOY's LightStage.
Path tracing @ 1000s/px, using SSS
Took 2 minutes on 2 GTX 680
No normal/bump maps used yet. So the quality can be better, I'll post more pics as soon as we have updated the model.
Also the SSS can be better too, but I'll set that as soon as I have normal maps & all.
And yes, these are just polygons
EDIT :
Added 2 older test pics, not HD, rendered in about 20 seconds for the 2nd one. Don't remember for the first one...
EDIT2 :
Added another pic using Enrico's scene which is around 1 million polygons, still using path tracing in 720p, took 15 minutes approx. to get rid completely of the noise, using physical sky.