So, forget about what the package says.... what is really the minimum hardware I will need for Poser 5... and what factors have the most effect on performance? RAM, CPU speed, video card, etc. etc. etc. I currently have a GForce ?? video card (not sure which one exactly, but its pretty good), 700Mhz Pentium, 256MB RAM. Will I need updating? I've done a little work with 3D models for work and I HATE having to wait when I rotate an object... THANKS FOR ALL YOUR GREAT ADVICE!!! This forum has been most informative! Jim

You might be able to run Poser5 on what you've got but it'll be painfully slow. your video card is fine as it is but the rest should be upgraded asap. Get yourself a pentium3/4 1Ghz would be good, Ram would be better at the 1Gb mark too as Poser5 uses it all & more. Using WinXP or Win2k is a good idea too they have better memory management than Win98 or WinME which seems to be a big factor in whether Poser5 works or not. Make sure you get the SR3 updates for Poser5 too that's vital if you want any kind of good experience from using it :)

Memeory, chip speed, and hard drive. The bigger the better. XP or Win2000. Why? Because Poser doesn't use hardware acceleration, and is terribly memory intensice. The more memory you have, the better it will run. You need Win2000 or XP becuase both ME Win ME and 98 have limits on the amount of memory you can use, and you'll waste most of the memory if you use them. Big hard drives help because of the swap file. P5 likes continuous space available, so you need a large area available for swap. Add to that all the files you'll wind up with. I've got 20 gig in compressed files just for Poser. I'll be getting a P4 fast machine with 2 or 3 gig of memeory next month, 2 120 gig hard drives. I am getting a very good video card with lots of memory too, because Daz Studio will use hardware acceleration. More power, Scottie! I need MORE POWER!

do a search in this forum.. you will find literally pages on this topic.

Well not hardware related but change poser settings to make working with poser faster such as using box tracking, setting poser to start up with no default figure loaded etc...

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1418149

Agree with above, but I wouldn't bother upgrading to just 1GHz. Have a 1.1GHz AMD and that's really too slow. Try for 1.4 AMD at least, more if you can swing it. See these threads for info: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1418149 and follow the links back. If you are buying P5 then you probably won't have the really slow version - see the thread in PoserPros Gen Discussion forum on the removal of Content Paradise to significantly speeed up load time (~20%?). But if you do have one of those very, very slow copies of Poser 5, you'll discover that your .xml file is constructed differently to the example setup described, but it's still fairly easy to figure out what to do - and your performance will jump up to the typical "just slow" performance that others experience using Poser 5. But at least it's then useable - for the first time in my case. (And the change in performance was instant, and no I didn't change my system, CPU, OS or any background tasks in the 2 minutes it took to edit the .xml file and reload Loser 5. Nor did my ability to operate Poser change either, for the nay sayers who've been complain the EVM dreamt up all these problems ;-) CL have 2 versions of (at least) that file out there, and it's night and day different in terms of performance w-w/o Content Parasite for one version. Not sure how this came about, whether from upgrading from SR1 through SR3 in turn rather than one jump, or partaking in the paid "beta" (SR2a-z), or ... But it really is inexcusable.

I have a 2.4G Pentium 4 with 2G memory, it's slow but bearable to work in that environment. This is because I have 4 huge runtimes linked. If you plan to use nothing but Poser 5 material-- Don and Judy Posette and Dork, then you can get by with your current set up but you will still not be happy with speed. You'll have a very difficult if not impossible time trying to work with V3 and M3. Nothing can make P5 a speedster, however, more processor helps the poseing speed and more memory helps the rendering speed because you can up the bucket size and have a comfortable memory. With 2G I can up the bucket to over 200 and render quite fast for Poser 5 with firefly, but that takes RAM.

I followed links all over the place and came up with nothing concrete on removing the Content Room. I found a vague post over at PoserPros but it wasn't specific enough for me to even give it a try. Is there a more specific place where I can get the EXACT info on how to do this ?

There's a step by step guide being worked on right now & should be ready within a couple of days over at PoserPros, watch out for the name Netherworks in the Poser5 forum :)

or possibly the freebie forum :)

Haha ! Ok, I'll keep an eye out for it ! I just didn't want to fool around with it since my .xml is one of the odd ones that doesn't look like c1cle2's. Thanks a bunch !

Badco, check again ;-) Or wait for Netherworks illustrated guide. Mine's just boring old text instructions - but was already done when I got nornaddict's post here. Wasn't trying to steal anyone's thunder.

Ok, I got it over there ! It is a bit easier to move the dials ! Now I don't have to stop the dial at 15% so that when I let go of the dial, it will actaully read 16% ! That was a lot of fun to deal with ! NOT !!!!

I've been searching..where are the directions ????

Eek! Sorry it took so long. It's posted in .pdf at that place where that guy said it would be ;) waves at nornaddict

WOW..just found the pdf and did this...I usually hit the P5 icon and read my email...but it loaded in about 4 seconds.... f....n AWESOME !!!! I don't even care if the dials are faster..just the load time shorter makes my day :) thanks

No worries, Dave-So :) I'm glad I could help make your P5 experience a little brighter.

waves back at Netherworks :D

I'm a performance freak and all I can do is salute you for the tip! Thanks a lot!