The best presets for the quality-speed ratio in renders are Vray and Corona in 3D Max. Four options for Vray and Corona are included with the scene, along with useful tips. There are also four scenes with different lighting.
If the scene is heavy, use the Vray 003 settings - it produces a fairly fast render. If the render on 003 is noisy and dirty, use Vray 001 - it's higher quality and cleaner, but takes longer. Vray 002 is a middle ground in terms of quality and speed between 001 and 003.
The 004 preset is the fastest, but it doesn't have render elements. I made it from the 002 preset by disabling the render elements.