Quote - > Quote - Since depthmapped shadows are rendered in a single thread (as you're implying), that's an excellent point I hadn't thought of.

Shadow maps are being rendered in multiple threads.

Not by my tests either. CPU load on a dual core system is only using one core during shadow map rendering, texture loading, etc... The additional cores only kick in once the actual render starts.

svdl already posted the link to the benchmarks we ran. Dual core, or even quad core if you can afford it, are definitely well worth it for Poser 7 rendering. Even if you don't have Poser 7 or other multi-core apps yet, the cost difference between single and dual core processors is miniscule. Multi-core processors really shine with multitasking, if you ever run with more than one app open, the benefits will be very obvious. :)

I think if we aren't there yet, we will soon be approaching the point where the majority of new PCs will be at least Dual Core. More and more applications will be directly supporting multi-cores in the near future, so it's really a "no brainer" at this point imo.