I just finished upgrading my win2000 to winXP Prof. For S&G's I clocked a render, that under 2000, took 3min 10sec. Under XP, the same scene rendered in 2min 30sec! I couldn't believe the difference, so I tried it again and got the same results. No changes, other than the operating system, were made. This was an upgrade and not a fresh format. So it would seem, that XP is the operating system of choice to run P5. Mark

I find that very, very, very doubtful. XP is Win2k under the hood, with a fancier GUI; It would make no sense for it to perform faster. Possibly you had some services running in the background on win2k that didn't carry over to XP. Hmm. do you have a AMD XP processor in the 1300 to 1800 range? there was a bug that caused them to be doggy in Win2k, I believe, that would have been fixed in WinXP.

I am not a newbie to Microslop's op systems. I was just sharing an experience, hoping for an answer. XP, yes it is a glitzy version of 2000 that was made to be somewhat "idiot-proof". I know for a fact, that the same apps were running on each system(Norton2002 and Norton Internet Security). It isn't a decent comparison unless you have identical conditions. I run an Athalon XP2600 333mhzFSB 1GB DDR400. I don't know of any reason why it should operate differently under these systems. If I were to make a guess, I would say it would be slower under XP(even though I turned off all the glitz). It does use more memory than 2000, but with 1GB to work with, the difference is insignificant. I was kinda curious when my laptop(Athalon 4 1ghz 200mhzFSB with 320MB SDRAM) was getting decent render times. It runs WinXP. I keep both systems well maintained. In my experience, XP is faster, though I can't explain it.

I was halfway hoping you were running one of the Intel hyperthread CPU's, would possibly have explained it. But I suppose if it does, it does...naa, there has to be SOME explanation.. I'd like to see it on a bare system...just the OS and Poser. I'll never own a copy of XP, so I can't test it myself; I've worked with it enough as a MCSE to NEVER let it in my home!

I worked for mechanical and electrical engineers making electrical equipment for years. One of the older engineers mottos was "make it idiot proof and they'll make a better idiot." my $1.27 on the subject(my 2cents times inflation rate since phrase was coined). By the way there is no borg queen. That was done purposely to lead you away from the real borg monarch-Bill Gates. You WILL be assimilated.

so what's so bad about XP that you'll never let it into your home RealDeal? enquiring XP using minds would love to know ;) is it something we should all be warned about?

actually that's a great idea Ratteler, I wonder if we could persuade Apple to do that. Shame they can't combine their efforts instead of competing against each other all the time

Linux is not a viable alternative to the majority of PC users out there. Dream on. Neither is Apple. Too expensive for what you get. Just the way it is.

My opinion is that XP Pro is the best sullotion for "homebase-entertanment-operation-system". When it come to servers and buisnez systems ther's alot of systems better than NT/2000. I've heard about many people talking about XP is rendering faster then 98. So I think it's true. I can't explain why is rendering faster... RealDeal, what OS are you running? 98/2000? Try XP! You'll never change back! /Pax Corpus