I don't want to start an opinion war, but I am considering upgrading my computer. I want to know if I am better off getting a single processor with as fast a procesor as I can get, or a dual processor with two lower powered processors? I haven't priced it all out, but right now it's looking like either a singe P4 2.4GHz or Dual P3s (probably in the 800MHz to 1.2GHz each) Either way I'll probably have an NVIDIA or ATI video card, I am considering dual monitor support, though I won't be using that for a while (only have so much money!) I'm really looking for technical (technological) answers, and not opinions like "More is always better!" THanks!

Not being facetious, but the real answer is 'it depends.' Poser doesn't do multi-processor support, so as far as it is concerned your second processor will be of no benefit other than letting you work on other applications whilst Poser does a render. OTOH if you use a multi-threaded application like Maya or Max, they do take advantage of a multi-processor environment. So if you'e mainly a Poser user with a little Maya thrown in then go for the single processor. If you mainly use a high-end, multithreaded app but use Poser for making your figures and then render back in your big app, go for multi-processor.

xpost ;)

Depends on which software programs you'll be using. Poser doesn't actually utilize hardware accelleration, so the 3d card won't matter. I've got a GeForce 4, and I use 3dsMax, and honestly, I've had problems with the drivers; Max was crashing on me constantly in D3D mode, until I switched to their internal HEIDI software accelleration. Where memory is concerned, I'd recommend 512mb; potentially you could go up to a gig or more, but most programs that aren't specifically designed for it may not utilize more than 512mb. Poser 5 (and possible earlier versions as well- don't have experience with them) tends to fill up all avaliable memory, then dig heavily into the swap file when rendering, so be sure you've got a nice, fast hard drive. If you can afford it, set aside a second physical drive and use that for your swap files; then it won't get cluttered up as much. Personally, I've got a P4 2.4 as well, and I'm more than happy with it. I'd go with the single processor over the dual processor setup- Windows still doesn't handle multiple proccessors as efficiently as it should (BeOS does multi-thread processing well; but I doubt we'll ever a BeOS version of Poser).

Thanks for the responses. I currently run a P3 733 with 1GB RAM. The motherboard supplies onboard video which is sharing 64MB RM for the Video. My render times did not improve significantly when I upped from 256MB to 1GB RAM. I was hoping a hardware upgrade might help. Poser is my main app, and I am playing at learning Maya (PLE) in hopes of going that direction eventually. I'm not really a modeller at this point. Not sure if PLE version utilizes multi-processors. So Poser requires the fastest processor with the most RAM, nothing else will help. Thanks for the answers! I think that's what I needed.

Wow. Everybody has these impressive setups. I do my thing on a little AMD K6-II 450 with a crappy FIC mainboard and 512 MB RAM, with an ATI All-In-Wonder 16, state of the art 1998 video card. Though I use Max in d3d and it's fine. Heidi won't work for crap with me.

Add two more things to the mix: Poser doesn't use OpenGL, so memory on board becomes even more important compared to video memory; and Daz Studio will, although I don't remember is it supports dual processors. It sounds like you're spreading out. To be honest, not many software packages take advantage of dual processors. However, if you've got money to burn, more is ALWAYS better. The speed of the processor right now is way ahead of most software. There won't be much difference between any high end processor in the way of speed. Memory plays a much more important role now. The more memory, the better. Youwant to remember to get either Windows XP or Win 2000 pro. Other Windows systems have an upward limit on memory use. If I remember right, Win 98 would only address 64 meg of memory on the main release, and the update only let you go to 128 meg. I got a tremendous performance boost when I switched to XP.

One little addition for that extra kick of speed: Western Digital is making their newer hard drives with 8MB caches. This gives a real increase in speed when opening applications and loading data (i.e.: models and textures). If you'd like to decrease the wait time while models load or textures load during render, this is something that helps. Of course, defragging your drives occassionally (about once every two weeks or month is sufficient) will also keep things humming. BTW, Cinema4D also supports multiple processors, especially R8 which also supports hyperthreading.

Since I have a dual proc system, I can tell you P4/p5 is not multithreaded. You can always tell because single threaded apps will peak out one processor while not affecting the other. When I render in max it effects both. It's still great having a dual proc system, because while one app is churning on one proc, I can do other things on the other with no noticable system lag (some times it's actually better that apps aren't multithreaded). For most people I recommend a single processor system because it may not be worth the additional expense. -Mark

Two issues that affect Poser performance that are sometimes overlooked are memory access speed and disk performance. Many people are now using very large bitmapped texture maps --20 meg and up. . .using these maps means that the render engine is pushing a lot of data in and out of memory; if this is your approach to rendering, then memory performance becomes important (it appears to be much less of an issue with procedural textures)

Attached Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20020305/index.html

That's correct, crocodilian. And the memory access speed is directly reflected by the bus speed. If you can get your hands on a RamBus or DDR 533/600MHz-bus (or whatever the fastest is these days) motherboard and the proper memory, it will make a large difference. Disk performance is difficult though. You can't get much better than 7200RPM unless you want to go SCSI 10000RPM and spend money like there's no tomorrow (they are prohibitively and ridiculously expensive drives, not directly supported by Windows, and comparable to the newest drives in every other way). You can look for the fastest read/write speeds and that'll help. The WD 8MB cache (also 7200RPM) drives that I mentioned will definitely help. Make sure it's UDMA. Beyond that, there isn't too much else. Bandwidth (33/66/100/133 that you see for IDE interfaces) is not as much of an issue. At 133, you are only getting 33% performance increase over 100. And since most hard drives only support about 50MB/s, 100 or 133MB/s doesn't really make a difference, now does it?

OK, this all sounds cool but.....of all the processors out there, which would be the BEST for Poser...Pentium, Athalon, Celeron, Duron, AMD?

nu-be: whenever I upgrade I either keep the hard drive or ghost it over so I don't actually need to reinstall anything.

I just finished installing a new motherboard, processor, and memory. Everything seems to be running all right now (pokes machine cautiously with stick), although I had trouble with my USB ports and sound card at first. nForce2 motherboard (no video), Athlon XP 2000+, 256MB DDR memory ... still a work in progress. I'll be upgrading to WinXP soon and adding as much memory as I can afford. Might replace this crappy Turtle Beach sound card, also.

Ratteler, does the nForce2 built-in audio have both front and rear connectors?

Otherwise... what's the point of going nForce? I went nForce because I didn't want to go VIA. I may well use the built-in sound later, but I don't feel like experimenting further at the moment. My current card is a technology orphan, like 3Dfx. No driver updates in years. I'm not a big supporter of Creative Labs (never owned a Sound Blaster), but I've never cared much for integrated solutions, either.

Oh, and mine (the ASUS A7N8X) does indeed have a header for front-mounted audio ports, along with a MIDI/gameport header, internal audio connectors, and S/PDIF digital audio connector. My only gripe is that it has no instant-off capability. If I want to totally power-down the system, I have to hold the power switch down for four seconds.

When I say "front and rear connectors", I mean front and rear speakers, as in DTS 5.1 capabilities. This is why I don't use the onboard audio on my Gigabyte mobo - it only outputs stereo channels. I like to watch DVD's on my computer. :)

Clarification please... I'm getting mixed information on the importance of the video card for Poser 5. In this thread I see: "Either a Geforce 4 or ATI Radion will be fine for Poser work. Since Poser makes absolutley no use of any graphic card features it really doesn't matter. Most card are available today in a dual montior config. Make sure your card has at least 64MB of RAM. 128 Would be better." My only problem is the rendering speed of Poser. Does this mean that a faster video card with texture memory wouldn't lower the rendering speed? If I am reading this wrong and a better video card is the way to go, then I'd appreciate recomendations as to particular models. I'd prefer to stay with Nvidia.