Hi! Just invested in an Athlon 64 x2 4200 dual core processor. I know that P6 doesn`t support this function, but what can render p6 scenes and take advantage of the dual core. Chris

What makes you think that the P4 render engine would make better use of the dual core than the newer Firefly?

Vue d'Esprit 5 by E-on Software.

It's not 100% Poser 6 compatible, but they're working on it. And Vue supports dual processors and hyperthreading.

absolutely no idea. I liked the idea of dong something else whilst p6 got on with rendering, but if the whole process could be speeded up I'd love that. Vue does sound like good option. Does it support nettwork rendering as I've got an Athlon 64 3500 sitting around with spare MB and drives?

You might be better off asking this on the Vue forum. However, as I understand it, E-on has two different "lines," the pro line (of which the latest is Vue Infinite - fantasic program!), and the regular. The pro line supports network rendering, the regular line doesn't. But you can buy the "Mover" plugin separately, and that supports network rendering. (You don't need the Mover plugin if you buy Vue Infinite, because it's included.)

I recommend getting Mover if you don't get Vue Infinite, because it lets you import Poser's dynamic hair and cloth.

Thanks, I'll try over there

Doesn't Bryce support network rendering? That would be a cheaper option, depending on what else you're looking for.

I'll have to look at that too. Thanks

Bryce does support network rendering, but not dual core/processors. It also doesn't do P5/6 hair.

Does any of these have native 64 bit engines? That would make the real difference. I have 2 operating systems installed now (XP and XP64), and there is a huge difference between them when it comes to native 64bit apps. PS: I only have winrar that is native 64 at the moment, but that seems to be a good way to compare as what it does is quite like rendering - needs pure computing power...

are you finding that programs run faster with the dual-core, if you are running multiple programs things run better?

The 64 bit version of Windows server has been out for quite a while, and you'd think it'd be a natural for big services doing multiple things at once. In the real world, I've never seen it used, and rarely discussed. The only time I do see it discussed is when it's patched. I got a demo from Oracle and the speed differences were either the same, or slightly slower, except in a few cases. It makes sense, because a CPU can handle small chunks of data faster than big chunks. I could see in the future some benefits to 64 bits CPU on Windows for graphic applications. It will require a software company to change their applications for 64 bits to gain full benefits, such as Poser. It might be as simple as recompiling the application, but it may require some real changes to the code, such as changing data types. It comes down to critical mass. If there's a small pool of 64 bit PC's, why should a software company bother creating a 64 bit version?

Attached Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/business/20050708/index.html

Interesting article from Tom's Hardware. Not strictly regarding graphics, but it discusses gaming, which shares some simliarities. "Intel and AMD's introductions of dual-core processors may have ushered in a new age of computing, but so far, these new architectures have done little to radically change the PC gaming experience. As our tests showed in the Pentium D 840 dual core processor works only as fast as the single-core Pentium Extreme Edition counterpart with an equal clock speed. A Pentium Extreme Edition with a faster clock speed thus runs faster than the dual core Pentium D. Of course, we won't discount how Windows XP is already equipped to take advantage of AMD and Intel's dual-core designs by accommodating a significant number of program threads. This means that, in addition to those many nagging programs that start up every time you boot up your PC, you can run many more processor-intensive programs without worrying about your PC slowing down as much, compared to single-core CPU platforms. You can thus frag away at those hideously scary adversaries in Doom III, while in the background you download a video file, run Outlook Express and keep dozens of Web browser and word processor documents open with less risk of your PC glitching up"

Does any of these have native 64 bit engines? XSI:Softimage is 64 bit native. That woudl include the Mental Ray engine I believe.

Does this mean that, with 64-bit Windows, I could do something else on my computer whilst Poser renders?

Attached Link: http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/pclt/PCHW/Hyperthreading.htm

64 bits means more RAM can be easily addressed. This is important if your doing something RAM hungry like graphics; you have a 64 bit version of the OS *and* the application. Also anything doing number crunching, like graphics and databases, could run faster, again if it's a 64 bit application. Windows supports "threads." This allows a single Intel/AMD CPU to appear to be doing multiple things at once. In other words you can cruise the web while rendering. While your PC can do two things at once, a single application has to be written in a special way to support multiple threads. You can write a computer game to use multiple threads, but most games are not written this way yet. I'm guessing Poser is also single-threaded; I think when you're rendering you can't do anything else in Poser. A multi-threaded application is Microsoft Word. For instance, it can save a file in the background, print and spell-check at the same time. Intel has pretty much topped out how fast a single CPU can run. One of the factors is the unbelievable amounts of heat some new chips generate. So the solution is to pack more CPU's into one package. In the past (2004), Intel introduced "hyper-threading" on their CPU's to give the appearance of multiple CPU's. They're moving toward "multi-core" which real mulitple CPU's. I'm guessing that "multi-core" CPU's will be a big part of the PC scene, for the next few years anyway.