Somethings to consider with P7:

If you are doing an area or "spot" render, make sure you are not using the "render in separte process" setting.  Presently this not only is incredibly slow for that purpose, but it is also unreliable for spot renders.

On the other hand, for a full render, definately use it, it is a great many times faster.

Also be aware that it is a bit deceptive.  It takes a while to load in allt he textures and such and when it starts rendering it is very slow, but the process bar does not seem to match where the image is in the rendering.  (ie: the bar looks like you are two thirds of the way done, but the picture is only 10% done.)

Don't get frustrated at this point and cancel.  I've found that it might take a long time for the first half of an image, but then it suddenly flies through the second half.  In other words, what is displayed doesn't entirely reflect what is being done.  During the rendering, it will often look to have a bunch of artifacts, too, but then when it is done they will be gone.

This is not the case when you don't have "separte process" chosen.  If the scene is a simple one, you will get no preformance increase using the separate process as a matter of fact, you will slow yourself down.

I have found that HDRI is dog slow.  Incredibly slow, so slow I don't think I'll ever use it, slow, but I'm on a single core processor too.

I also have 3D Studio Max and I know it flies in comparison, but I've never done any benchmarks with the same scenes.  I use 3D Studio Max for work for very simple animations.  I've never used it with HDRI or anything as complex as what I do in Poser.  (I've never bought anything to help me bring things across from Poser and I've never had the patience to try doing it myself.)

(Carrara and Bryce are dog slow compared to 3D studio as well, but again I've never done the same things.  I guess having all this software I should do some benchmarks.)

Anyway, Having used Poser and having had every version since 4, I can honestly say the rendering speed and reliability is vastly improved in version 7.  Is it going to approach other software on the market?  Probably not, but Poser's strengths are other software's weaknesses, so it's all a matter of how much money you have and how much time you want to invest.  (Taking a scene from Poser to Carrara for me is too much time wasted as I have to redo all the texture shaders, for example.)