I'm considering getting Poser 5, but my desktop machine is 500Mghz, the listed minimum. Has anyone run it at that speed? How stable is it, and does it 'feel slow'? What's more important, memory or processor? I've got 512mg RAM on that machine. I also have a 1.13ghz / 256mb RAM laptop, but it only has a 30gb HD and I already have over 40 GB's of 3D data files (admitedly about half of that is pre-vicky/mike clothes, poses, and figures...) Upgrading my processor would be expensive, as it's slot based Athlon. I'd need a new CPU, new motherboard, and likely new Ram chips (so I haven't yet done this, and won't until the economic situation shifts a bit for me... post dot-com is hard on a web-programmer). So that said, I'm essentially stuck with the machines I've got for more than likely the next year or two. Would Poser 5 run well enough on them, or should I just wait till I can up the machines. They've got a $10 discount sale going right now, a nice offer, but not enough to make it urgent... :)

I run Poser 5 on a PIII 500 system with 640MB RAM. I've used the hair room and the cloth room without any problems. It just takes a while for some operations.

I use it on a 500Mghz laptop with 158 megs of available ram as well as my desktop that is twice as fast. It does get pretty slow when there is a lot on the screen and rendering can take 2-3 hours or more depending on which options you have turned on.

I have a 500Mghz machine, but only have 356mg RAM. P5 will run in all its rooms, but it is very, very slow... If you are a patient person, go ahead and buy the P5. I'm not patient, so I reverted to P4 until I could upgrade next year.

I've had this discussion before - and tested twice now P5 sr2 on a PIII 500mghz machine - 128 graphics card and 512 of ram. It doesn't work worth a s... In P5's defense and all 3d graphics programs in the forefront. They are more powerful and are made to work with the newer more powerful machines. Or so they claim. The more you want the 3d program to do the more it's going to require a bigger better machine. Especially for animation. Even the small new programs require more. For the price of about $250 and up you can get a half way decent mother board and processor between 1.6ghz and 2ghz. Personally I wouldn't recommend to any one that really wants to render - using P5 on a 500mhz machine and agree they should not be stating that as a minimium.

I feel your pain on the Slot A dude. I got a pretty good deal on a 1GHz but I was waiting for the prices on the MPs to come down when the economy took a swan dive. If you've got a good cooling system you can probably overclock it up 100 MHz or so. Probably wouldn't help a lot with P5 but might be a nice boost for P4.