***" i don't see any links in your post #1 here. I've read it over three times now, and no links. I guess that's why I'm asking for a comp from you, because I don't have your test frames, and therefore your times."***

Hmmm. I posted them as links within the message, so it's strange you can't see them. Wonder if anyone else is having that trouble?

Anyhow, hopefully you can see the image attached to this message.

This is the hair I'll try to animate for you later today or tonight. This still render took exactly 4 minutes to complete at the size shown (720x480). I'm using 3 lights, and one of them has raytraced shadows. So even with raytracing, I'm still getting acceptable time. I think the skin realism and hair style are reasonably close to what you have shown in your example.

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.