I have read a few posts indicating that Poser 5 is not written as a multi-threaded application and therefore cannot take advantage of dual processors. Does this also mean that the Firefly render engine will not benefit from a second processor? I am considering upgrading from a 1.0 GHZ pentium with 512 Kb of ram to a dual Athalon CPU system and want to know if dual processors would be any better than just upgrading to a faster single processor? Thanks in advance, rDogg

Basically, no. To take advantage of dual rendering, you must: 1. Have an operating system that supports it 2. Have applications that support it There are actually very few applications that take true advantage of dual processors (such as Photoshop). You will experience no advantages with anything Poser related.

I'll disagree a little.
If you are running a multiprocessor enabled operating system, you will get a performance boost, but only because the you would essentially be running Poser on a dedicated CPU; the other CPU would be running your OS, GUI, filesharing, memory management, etc.
In my own limited tests in this arena I noticed about a 2-9% increase in power, with bigger scenes getting the most boost.

Yup I agree with RealDeal. The renderer itself only uses 1 processor but everything else running on the pc gets load balanced to the 2nd. Which means whilst poser is rendering you can make a texture, model, play games, anything! its like having another pc :) Of course the limitation is memory, and even with 1GB of RAM in my rig some renders take it all, and I try to keep them out of the swap file if possible (nothing slows a render down more than having to use the swapfile). Last one I tried in LW bombed out with an out-of-memory error, meaning it wanted more than 2.25GB! (RAM + VM). P5 doesnt support multithreaded rendering, but LW does, as does Max and most of the 'higher end' 3d apps. Once you go dual u never go back! Soluble Hamster The one, the only, dissolvable rodent.

While I agree with all of your observations re: the ability to multitask other applications, the actual rendering times for Poser will not be significantly affected. A person would be better off purchasing a faster processor and faster memory than going for a dually system for use with Poser. Dual motherboards and processors are SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than any benefit they will provide for Poser alone. As rDogg mentions just P5, I say he is better off going for the faster single processor/memory. (trying to see how many times I can use significantly in a post, and am now wondering if I spelled that correctly.... i think it is time for bed.)

I have a new dual athlon 2400 (2x 2.0 ghz), my old sys was a 650 mhz pavilion. In poser, render times aren't all that different... The new comp. calculates shadow maps in a snap however, so if you're used to GI, then your times increase dramatically. But, the actual render itself is only about a 50% increase over the old pavilion... Evo

Only a 50% increase? Are you sure that, as a result of not noticing the extra resources due to the far more powerful machine, you haven't thrown in more complex content, higher rez's, more lights, etc, that would slow it down? When I went from an 800mhz PIII to my 1.4 Athlon render times of IDENTICAL scenes were nearly half. When I went from that to my current dually, it was even better....

Thank you all for your insights and comments, I guess I really need to think about how much I need vs. want the dual processor system and how much money I can afford to spend on the new system. rDogg