I thought before people became too disenchanted with the thought of updating to a PC based Intel Quad Processor, I should give an update on my testing. Again, I'm updating from a Pentium 4 processor to a Q6600. Both PC's have 2 Gb of Ram and equally free HD space. I'm using XP on both and running P7. I did some comparisons of physical run time (how long I sat there watching the image render) for an identical scene. Consequently, I would consider these to be observations rather than hard numbers. I noted a few things.

 

1. The Quad Processor did better using Poser as the render software then switching to the "separate process" and using FFRENDER. This surprised me and may have lead to some of my early concerns about speed. On my Pentium 4 I had trouble rendering without using FFRENDER.

2. After a little tweaking, the Quad Processor is about 4 times faster than my Pentium 4 for renders most of the time. My test renders are: Raytracing on, Shadows on, Some ambient occlusion, Single bald V4 with 3D background, various shader node set-ups, etc. This reduction is pretty dramatic, and I am pleased with this aspect of the new purchase; however,

3. Both machines bog down when I put hair on V4, to the point where the time difference in renders is about 20%. I need to work this some more.

 

Anyway, again these are just my latest observations. They differ a little from what I put in my first post. I didn't purchase this PC just for Poser, so in that regard, change was necessary anyway. I also got about $500 off the retail price (~25%) from Dell which sweetened the deal. Some people can build their own PC and save money that way, but I'm not one of them. I would suggest people looking into updating to a new computer, do a search thru this forum using the words "Q6600" and "Poser" and reading those links in addition to what is said here. It seems there are a number of PC Quad Processor owners who are elated with their purchases, swear by the Quad Processors (not at them), and have had better experiences than mine have been to date. I'm happier now than I was, but need to work this a little more.

 

Thanks as always
Mark