This paper proposes an effective methodology for calculating the photovoltaic field output. A combination of two methods is first presented for optical performance calculation: point projection method for direction radiation, and Monte Carlo ray-tracing method for both diffuse radiation and albedo radiation. Based on the optical calculation, an accurate output of the photovoltaic field can be obtained through a cell-level simulation of PV system. Several simplified measures are taken to reduce the large amount of calculation work. The proposed methodology has been validated for accurate and fast calculation of field output. With the help of the developed code, this paper deals with the performance comparison between four typical tracking strategies. Through the comparative analysis, the field output is proved to be related to the tracking strategy. For a regular photovoltaic field, the equatorial and elevation-rolling tracking show the superior performance in annual field output to the azimuth-elevation and rolling-elevation tracking. A reasonable explanation for this difference has been presented in this paper. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.