I think I definitely need more RAM... Anyway, in Poser 5 at least, if you want soft-edged shadows you have to use shadowmaps instead of raytraced shadows. And each shadowmap has a preceding "Adding Objexts" phase. The actual rendering stage is faster with shadowmaps, but if you are getting a sluggish "Adding Objects" you can not only make coffee, you can bake the biscuits.