Attached Link: http://www.geocities.com/justice_machine

definetly the RAM. As I painfully found out 64 megs is barely enough for doing anything more than single figure renders, with minimal props. After upgrading to 128, (& planning to go to 256:-) I saw a marked improvement.

RAM gimme Ram :)

Yes, Ram for sure. Go for 256 megs to start, memory is cheap right now. Don't bother updating processor unless you're going to go P3 or Athalon. Sidenote: Poser 4 does not gain benefit at all from video cards. Hopefully, Poser 5 will. -Darth

Upgrade my PII350 to a celeron500? No that's worce! ACK! Your going to SLOW your system down. BAD BAD BAD! Go with the memory, but take note anything over 200 mb will slow windows 95/98 down -Colt

trust me, having only 64MB of ram BLOWS. ..->[ aMP-3 ]<-..

O.k. I agree with Ram as first choice but here is a new question for you. Which is better? 128 SDRam pc 100. or a comination of; 192 SDram pc 66.

Ohh tricky...if your system can handel pc 100 then use that, if you are using windows 95/98. The reason is with more memory windows starts to slow down and a little faster memeory is better then a lot of slow memory. -Colt

Colt, Where are you getting that windows slows down with 200+ megs of memory??? I have 256 and windows blazes. Was sluggish with 128megs. I think what you want to say is that windows only USES 200 megs maximum. It will not attempt to address memory at higher adresses. Other programs, however, do not have that problem. What you get then, is less memory conflicts thus less blue screen or crashing. I dream of the day when I will have 512 megs of memory with an Athalon Gigahertz processor! -Darth_Logice

Im getting that from Microsoft :) Your partly correct windows only address 200 mb (really it's 197 or something like that) so therefor windows ignores the rest of it. However if you override the blocking command, and make windows use more memeory, it will slow it down. If you want to to go into great detail on why this works I will. Just know that windows will slow down if you put in too much memory. -Colt

I have not overridden any blocking commands that I am aware of, so maybe that's why I'm fast? Windows has always been fast enough for me anyway, it's other programs that are sluggish. -Darth

Windows NT/2000 supports more memory and doesn't have that problem. Your just over the limit with 256, so that means windows has blocked 56 mb of memeory and is running as if it has only 200 mb or your upgraded from a lower amount and you don't see the slow down because of the sudden jump in memeory. Point is if you add anymore memeory you will not see a speed increase or your system will slow down.

Hmmm, well, will probably have windows me before more memory, hopefully problem solved. -Darth, who does not understand why 98 would only limit itself to 200 megs when all hardware of the time could at least do 512 and guesses that's why people hate microsoft

ColtCentaur is right about Win9x - it does only address 200Mb of memory. I notice a marked drop in speed on my dual boot system (512Mb) when I switch from W2K to Win98 From what I understand, WinME does correctly address memory above 200Mb Paul

Paul i am thinking of a dual boot system myself but does this not cost memory. I mean if you boot up for example win98 will all the memory go to win98 (128 MB) or only a part of the memory (64MB) and the rest of the memory will go to win2k? thanx ponytale

It's an either/or ponytale. When you start up, you select which OS you want to run - eitherWin98 orWin2K - you can't run both at the same time :) (Boy that'd be really confusing). I use Win98 for the Word processor/Excel/Games type of stuff and W2K for Poser, Bryce, Max et al Paul

Someone once told me there was a app for Linux that lets you run both Linux and Windows 95/98/200/NT at the same times Chuckles The main problem with windows is it was NOT designed to be an OS. If you think back to windows 3.1, that program was just a software package, DOS is really the Os. Windows 95 comes along and changed that totally, and it had serve problems. Windows 98 corrected only the surface flaws but the memory 'hole' is still getting wider. The way it's meant to work is this. You start a program and it takes up memory, then you close the program and you free up all that memory right? Wrong. Windows sends 1%-10% of that memory into the hole of nothingness till you restart. Windows NT/2000 do not have that problem and Microsoft is NOT (there will be a outside party who made a engine to handle windows memory within the next year) going to fix that error in 9.X. What they are doing (if you havent noticed yet) is phasing out Windows 9.X and making people move to the more powerful NT. By the time everyone gets to the NT phase (and spend more money) NT will support the games and such and the world will be happy again :) Ok I'm going to stop before I go into a 6 page long story. Im a Microsoft sales rep BTW, so thats how I know all of this stuff :)

My order of preference would be: First: upgrade my 64mb ram to 128 Second: upgrade my S3 Savage 3d 8mb to 32MB TNT2 card Last: upgrade my PII350 to a celeron500 (Ironically, I recently upgraded my Celeron 266 to a PIII 550 - but I already have 128MB RAM, and ran out of money just before I placed the order for the card).

{Upgrade my PII350 to a celeron500? No that's worce! ACK! Your going to SLOW your system down. BAD BAD BAD!} No longer true - there are PIII Celerons. In fact, a PIII Celeron is not a bad idea - 100 mhz FSB, half speed, half size cache, and about 65% of the price of the full chip. {128 SDRam pc 100. or a comination of; 192 SDram pc 66.} If you're running a Celeron, then stick with PC 66, unless you plan to replace the CPU again; only the latest, Coppermine Celerons use the 100 mhz bus, so your system is restricted by the speed of the CPU. If you get full PIII - any flavor - then shell out the extra money for PC133. It will run in PC100 boards, and will still work if you upgrade the motherboard later. And I thought WIndows 98 was restricted to 256 MB, not 200... Win95 was limited by 128, IIRC.

CharlieBrown: From what I know Windows 98 has a limit of 196-200 mb. Im sure it could be different on each system, I just go by the posted facts. I still don't like the Celeron Chips, for a litte more money you can get a much better system. -Colt

It depends what you mean as a 'limit'. Win9x will permit programs to see and use RAM above these limits you are talking about. A limit may be that more RAM slows Windows in some way (probably only a significance to games players), but this will be more than compensated for by a large file not causing the system to write to disk. I don't care what is written anywhere, I know that my Win98 system has more headroom when running graphics apps and large files when there is 512MB rather than 256MB in the slots. (LOL Paul, don't you think the reason your system runs markedly faster with Win2K on two processors, is that it's running with Win2K on two processors...) As for Win9x failing to release system resources once an application is closed (its biggest problem), you can get freeware utilities which address most of the issues. BTW, WinME is just Win9x with yet a few more baubbles attached. Most of those baubbles will be available for free to Win98 users as downloads from Microsoft, so I don't think anyone should get too excited by it. Save your money and buy Windows2000 after a couple of Service Packs have been released and more drivers are available for more hardware. As for delara1's question, upgrades that will benefit Poser should be: 1: More RAM (don't worry about 'limits') 2: More processor speed. I haven't bothered with a 3, since Poser makes no use of video card hardware acceleration in its work window or for rendering. So long as you have a card which is sufficiently good at normal 'Windows' 2D acceleration (which you have), you won't see any significant benefit by adding a whizz-bang video card. Unless you play games as well, of course, but that's another story.

You guys answered a question I had been wondering too, about upgrading my video card. Poser won't use it anyhow. What about Bryce and Max? Will they take advantage of a good video card? And any opinions of which video card? Some people tell me GeoForce(?) some say TNT2. I do play some games, but graphics are more important to me.

I use the Maxmem freeware program to keep the memory leak away. Just turn it on and leave it on and it will periodiclly make sure unused memory is not being held in "the hole" so to speak.

Chailynne - most non-game software will ignore the videocard you have, EXCEPT for the RAM on the card. 16 MB is suggested, 8 is Standard, 32 is the current top (yes, there ARE 64 MB video cards, but ONLY Dell has gotten theirs to work well, and in some configurations, the 32 MB cards run better). And higher video card RAM only REALLY affects the number of colors on the screen, but this can impact renders somewhat.

Chailynne: Max makes use of OpenGl and Direct3d etc but if you really get into the high in you can video cards made for max and just scream speed and powers. The cheepest of these cards is $1000 and made by Diamond I belive.

That sorta answers that question. I am looking at getting a new Dell computer in a few months, and I want it to last me a while. I'm not a professional though, so a $1000 video card is out. I don't have Max yet, it was just in the back of my mind that someday maybe... if I ever figure out this 3d stuff. LOL Thanks for the info. :o)

Bryce (versions 3 and 4) can make use of OpenGL and Direct3D for accelerating its work window. In the period I used WindowsNT and a video card with good OpenGL support, the speed advantage on the OpenGL setting was quite something to behold. Now I'm back on Win9x and a Matrox card (poor OpenGL), nothing is significantly faster than Bryce's Sree3D software acceleration (also used by Poser). Except for the wireframe mode, of course, which is what I use. BTW, Bryce rendering is not accelerated at all by video hardware. Only a faster processor/memory system can speed that up.

Take a close look at the ELSA Synergy II and its brothers. It has both OpenGL and Direct3D, and also comes with special drivers for Autocad and MAX. It is one of the few 32Mb cards that doesn't cause power surge problems too so I am told. According to th eUsenet hardware groups the 32MB cards are a rich source of crashes because of that problem. Mike

RayDream Studio also has a 3dfx option for the renders... just makes them look nicer preproduction... 8 ) Definatly, RAM, then processor speed.... then vid card... if your motherboard is PC100 capable.. get them... they'll be run at processor bus speeds... so no probs... i.e 66mhz proc... runs at 66 mhz.. then when you do move up to the 100 mhz procs.. it'll fly... I'm looking into the PC200 mem chips.. but they're still expensive... remember.. your biggest enemy is heat.. more better faster... yes.. but cool that puppy down 8 ) Wizzard

I have a geoforce 256 32mb card. Mike is correct about the power surge problems. Also, I found out the hard way that there are some real AGP driver issues with the Athlon 700 chip, the non Athlon boards, I currently have an Asus) using the new Via chipsets, and high-end video cards. Fortunately Asus posted some updated drivers for their card but I have had other minor problems in Win2000 not found in 98 (have a dual boot system - only way to go.) I could not even get my ATI all-in-wonder card to run properly. Except for more onboard ram, these cards do little or nothing to inprove performance in Poser that I can tell. As for your question. If I had only one choice, I would opt for 256 ram. Rob

I am also going to buy a new dell computer. I am thinking of buying the dimension 4100 (800 Mhz, 256MB) which dell computer are you going to buy Chailynne?

That's the one I was looking at ponytale. With an upgrade to ram (256 meg), update on monitor (17" trinitron), update to HD (30 gig) and a network card since I have a cable modem. The Dell I have now is 3 1/2 years old. The cpu used to travel back and forth a lot for a couple years, and I have never had a problem with this computer. Well, the floppy drive hasn't worked for a couple years but I never use it anyhow so I didn't replace it. It might be more expensive than building your own, or some other brands, but for the stability, and not having the knowledge to build one, I feel it's worth it. :o)

Buying an OEM computer (Dell, Gateway, etc.) is a good idea if: 1) You need the software bundle (or especially if you are a first time computer buyer) 2) You do not, and have no friends who, feel comfortable working with computer components, or 3) You are actually replacing an outdated computer completely (monitor, CPU, case, etc.) and have a home for the old one. 4) You want/need "one stop shopping" for warranty support. In these cases it can be cheaper to buy a pre-packaged machine.

I use ram optimzer and that frees up your memory for you. Memturbo has a free 30 day trial on their memory optimizing software.Ram optimizer has a free version also. On another note I just got one of the BUSlink usb harddrives it works very well though a little slow transfering things(8k transfer rate I believe). I like the idea of a portable harddrive and the fact that it is non-intrusive to add it. I can operate any program on it that will operate if it doesn't need to be on the c: drive( if I remember correctly Poser 3 needs to be on the c: drive but Poser 4 doesn't) Tootles, Marge