I am getting a new computer. The one with the Pentium 4 630 chip is more expensive but I have heard is worth it for its hyper-threading technology. As 3D artists, is it worth the extra $80? Is the hyper threading technology worth the price increase? Also, a ATI Radeon X800XL was the suggested graphics card. Is it worth it? If not, why and is there a better selection? Thanks you!

Poser does not have multiple processor capabilities, so it is a waste of money on the Pentium, Poser-wise. I would use that money on faster memory. I do not have an answer on the ATI video card. I do have an AMD64, and it is extremely stable, no problems with it whatsoever

I love my AMD64. It was not expensive and has worked better in just about all applications than the two Intel machines that share a room with me. I love ATI cards. I don't have to go get a new driver every time I try a new piece of software. When I had that other brand card, it seemed I spent most of my time downloading new driver's. The particular card you mention I do not know that much about.

While Poser does not support hyper-threading, if you plan on doing other things on the computer at the same time as a render, it does come in handy as you don't experience any appreciable slowdown in Poser or any other programs with hyper-threading. As for the graphics card, unless you're using P6 and OpenGl preview, a top of the line graphics card isn't that important, memory OTOH, is very important. Poser doesn't access the graphics card, but it likes as much memory as you can give it, as will the rest of the programs on your computer.

I have not experienced any slowdown while using the computer while doing work with Poser rendering in the background. But I do agree wholeheartedly with obtaining the fastest and biggest memory you can buy. (And that your motherboard can support!). Actually I would buy a relatively "normal" video card, the AMD64, and with the difference, spend it in lots and lots of fast memory.

Attached Link: http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/04/21/17TCamd_2.html

Infoworld has some info on hyper-threading in their review of the new dual core AMD Opterons: "...Hyper-Threading is an ingenious stopgap that Intel developed to boost the performance of a narrow range of applications, namely those that do their background processing via lightweight threads instead of the coarse processes that dominate software design..." From what I've heard, the boost it gives you depends on what your applications are and most don't currently support it. I suspect HT's one of those ideas like Rambus memory that will end up more as a footnote.

HT is not much use unless an application has been written for it; and most don't (kind of like MMX years ago when it came out). It really is a stop gap measure to get around some of the performance penalties inherent in the P4 design; I wouldn't make a buying choice based on that. I would hold out for a dual-cored chip or get more memory. From my own experience, I've just upgraded to an Athlon 64 x2 4600 (2GB ram, GF 6800 256MB), and the performance is amazing! Just to see who much I could push it, I had Poser render an animation while I ran Doom3 at full quality at the same time; it didn't drop a frame or crash at all! That's what I call multitasking!