Anybody running Poser 6 on a double core system can please tell me if it runs
  a) faster (hey, one can always hope!),
  b) slower,
  c) no difference
compared to a similar single core system?

Looking for a means to reduce time on week-long renders...

(BTW, my actual rig is an Athlon 64 4000+ with 2GB of low-latency RAM.)

No impact on Poser (it will only use one core).

Yes, I know that, but doesn't it take any advantage of the general improvement (like for instance not sharing a CPU with Windows)?

Even when it does not use both cores on Poser, it can use the other core for other tasks, so the system feels better overall. Unless, og course, you do not have much RAM....

I guess the feel must be better, since you have a spare CPU doing almost nothing, but didn't anyone do some benchmarking to see if this changes anything in render times?
I use dedicated computers with a stripped-down Windows for Poser, nothing else is running on them, so the spare processor is of no use if it doesn't help reduce rendering times any.

Praying for a 64-bit, multiprocessor-aware version of Poser

I haven't noticed much difference, maybe a couple of seconds in sim and render times?

However, I use other 3d that's that use dual cpu's so I feel it was worth it. If you are upgrading anyway, it couldn't hurt and the pricing is close to single cores.

Quote - I haven't noticed much difference, maybe a couple of seconds in sim and render times?

Uh...  :-(

Thanks anyway.

No, I have a fairly recent computer (Athlon 64 4000 MHz), the question was if and how I can improve it still further. Waiting over a week for a render to finish is long... I'm not that young anymore, I fear I will die before I've rendered half the pics I have in mind...  :o)

If you want better renedering times i would suggest waiting for Intels Conroe CPU's, according to pre-release benchmarks they spank AMD in most tests, use less power and cost less.
I dont know how trust worthy these test are but i would not buy a new computer until conroe has been released since prices will most likely drop.
But maybee you dont want to invest in a completly new system.

Indeed, changing the CPU for $500 is something I could do, but build yet another computer from scratch is too much hassle and money. It's not like this one is old...

Not to mention I'm an optimist and still hope Poser 7 will have a 64 bit version able to use several cores, in which case I'll get me an FX-60 CPU and that's it...  :o)

Quote - If you want better renedering times i would suggest waiting for Intels Conroe CPU's, according to pre-release benchmarks they spank AMD in most tests, use less power and cost less.
I dont know how trust worthy these test are but i would not buy a new computer until conroe has been released since prices will most likely drop.
But maybee you dont want to invest in a completly new system.

Erm.....considering that Woodcrest failed government usage tests, and Conroe is showing the exact same issue, I'd suggest waiting before jumping into any Intel silicon (both chips are throwing consistent usage errors when a RAID array is used on the system; Conroe seems particularly snotty with a RAID 5 setup. Intel lost a government contract when Woodcrest failed its reliability trials...and flakey behavior with a RAID array is =bad= juju for a server class chip....) Synthetic benchmarks are probably the least reliable means of judging a chip or system; it's far too easy to pick and choose the parameters to make the new silicon look far better than real world performance will be.

Ok, well as i said i havent checked the tests myself, only seen other people jumping up and down about it.
Personally i hope the new ones are good since intel has been slacking tha last few years and its never any good with monopolies.
Anyways, i hope poser 7 will utilise 64 bit and hopefully they will optimize the overall preformance, eating way to much memory imo.

I recently moved up to an Athlon64 X2 4200+* from a P4 3Ghz Prescott** and I do see slightly improved rendering times in Poser6.  Granted some of the improvement could be from an overall improved system.  Although I had hoped for more, the real bonus is that I can do other things while rendering which I could never do with my single core P4. I can easily run photoshop and other software at the same time (during rendering), with no slow down. 
While the rendering times aren't much shorter, the fact that I can do multiple tasks at once increases my productivity and effectively cuts the overall time to do work. 

So, in a nutshell, yes it was worth the upgrade.

*New System:
Athlon64 X2 4200+, 2GB PC3200, GeForce 7900GT

**Old System:
Pentium4 3.0E (Prescott), 2GB PC3200, GeForce 5900XT

Well I've solved the multiple tasks problem by having multiple computers... So I don't care if Poser takes all the ressources or not.

Praying they will release a multiprocessor version soon. Got enough of those week-long renders.