thank you for the info. i have tested Poser a little today with the new Abit motherboard and using Jim Burton's test render i am no longer at 78 seconds but at 1 minute 50 seconds.while my machine seems to be a little less fast ,i do not seem to be having the problems with Poser 5 that i previously had.to anyone considering an Athlon 64 ,i have to add this. i did research for monthes ,and read up on every component to be installed in my new PC.I spent $2,500 on just the tower ,buying it from Velocity Micro ,and they have a great reputation ,(they are also only 30 minutes from my home ,which i thank god for now)BUT ,they use another company to handle their service calls and no one at that place knew of the problems with the MSI motherboards. one guy even suggested that my 2 RAPTOR harddrives were "delicate". finally calling Velocity directly they immediatly told me of the motherboard problem.THEY COULD NOT PASS THIS INFO ON TO THE COMPANY HANDLING THEIR SERVICE CALLS? I have had my new PC for 2 months and i am re-installing all my programs for the 4TH time.having to do it all over again ,i am not sure i would have gone with this very new ,high end equipment. i have spent more time trying to get this thing running ,then actually getting to use Poser.