Your forgetting 1 important point if an application is programed properly and will work even on lower spec machine, will keep lot people happy.
Now i use AMD 64 4200 1gb mem gona upgrade 2gb and installing today or tomorrow XP 64 second hard drive.
I have found poser 7 can render large scenes and depends on what options going even though they still wont fix the bugs, and studio even with its faults is a superb program for FREE and renders superb.
Carrara 5 pro was best investment i ever made as it can render giant scenes, and yes had vue 5 esprite and when borrowed 5 inf from friend i was bloody angry when see how they made inf handle memory better than esprite.
Now i bought 6 esprite because was supposed be dual core and another reason got second system, and was able to handle memory better and render bigger poser scenes.
This post in vue forum would get pulled or screamed at.
Now vue 6 esprite can do a superb high render of 1 poser figure and some plants for a high quality portrait render but, ya looking at 6 to 10 hours, but if 6 inf far shorter.
Vue 6 esprite is a glorious RIP off program as it is a cheapo cut down version of 6 inf, it is a waste of money and unless you can afford 6 inf use some other program.
Vue 6 esprite can do fantastic renders but i don't like idea that i was ripped off with my money for a cheap piece of junk that cant even render a poser scene that poser 5 and 6 can do, as they bloody advertised that it can render poser scenes.
They shoulda stated that on a 1gb machine ya cant do that much render of poser stuff.
And i don't give a bloody toss about oh i got quad core 20 GB mem super 1000 dollar or pound graphic card etc etc yada yada yada, most people will have computers that have between 1gb to 4 GB and medium graphic card and a software house that supports people like that will earn great money.
Lots people dont buy vue 6 as the word spread like hot cakes about the swindle 6 esprite was so E-On only themselves to blame if people get their software but don't buy.
You make a program 1 for high end market and 1 for low end market but you don't bloody screw the low end users by leaving dual core support out and making it screw up on memory.
You start with core program that works on dual core and min 1 GB mem then you split into the version for high end users and low end users, vue 6 esprite was a glorious RIP off as they deliberately sold it with inferior capabilities that other same priced marked programs can do.
They should have fixed p7 first before doing a pro version and ill tell ya this if 7 pro is bugged then they is finished as a company, so they getter make sure they bloody beta tested it..