i believe the point i was making was that the content being rendered (in this case high poly objects with transparency, glow, and refraction) can bring powerful machines to their knees. Remember the G3 didn't have to render any transparncy or refraction. hartcons, yes, macs seem to suck at 3D. i haven't tested this with other software, but they certainly get schooled in carrara. however, macs crush pc's in 2D so it all comes down to which tool you need for the job. when i get ready to mass render, i plan on getting an athlon or two. but for working on the scenes it's much nicer to be on my platform of choice.