How do I show shading for test renderings Sample frame:


Until EEVEE gets into an official version, I'm trying different settings to test a character animation I made in cycles. Just good enough to see the character and floor shadows. No need for it to be super sharp it's just a test. I need the floor to see how the feet land. Her eyes have no lens so there is no transparencies to worry about.

1920x1080 resize @ 50% if lower difficult to see any details.

Multiple importance off.

There is only the floor and the character with a gray background as a light source.

Renders = 7 samples.

GPU rendering with my GTX1060 3GB
Tiles are maxed for GPU performance @480X270 = exactly 4 tiles per frame.
I got 0.99 frames per second. 

CPU i7 2600K
Tiles are maxed for CPU performance @48X27 = exactly 40 tiles per frame.
I got 0.94 frames per second.

What else could I check or uncheck to speed that up even more?
Ambient Occlusion can be enabled for the Viewport, which can help visualize distances between objects, you can even turn it up if you need: