Does anyone here have just a 512MByte RAM computer and  using Poser 7 and VUE 6?  If so, how is the Poser 7 performance?   For VUE 6, how is the performance without Poser figures?  I might purchase the Poser7/VUE 6 depending on your results.

Poser 7 is supposed to be better with memory than 6 and I'm using 6 with just 256 ram. It will most definately test your patience at times. Luckily I'm not always confined to that pc.

Vue will be horrible with only 512Mb RAM I'd imagine it would be very slow to respond and you'd get a lot of out of memory errors - Vue is happiest with lots and lots of RAM to play with

Thanks folks, appreciate your comments-

I don't know about VUE, but I use Poser 7 with 2 Gb of RAM. That seems to handle two V4's in a scene with a background pretty well. I watch the system resources during my test renders, and I seem to be around 1 to 1.5 Gb during that period. I would think more RAM would help you significantly. By the way, both Best Buy and Circuit City have their more popular RAM on sale this week for about 1/2 price.

Mark

I used Poser 5 with 256m and poser 7 with 512 M and they run ok. 6 figures in a scene slow it down some but not to the point its unusable . You do need to check your setting for virtual memory (page file) since the default setting is too low . If you have disk space just set it for system managed and leave it .

I cant comment on Vue , but I use Bryce, Carrara and lightwave and they all work fine .

If you have the memory slot and some spare cash adding an extra meg of memory to your system when its on sale will help overall performance . even 512 would be good .

Thanks for your inputs folks 

I do have 512MB of RAM (PC800)

From what I read on the internet via Google, my motherboard is incompatable with every type of RAM known to man except PC600 and PC800s.  They are on sale for around $200 for a 512MBYTE kit-and that's from a discount house--I don't trust them.  They are also on sale from the normal distrubutors for $299.99 for a kit.  What I have is a Gateway 700SE with an Intel (Lexington 2) motherboard 2002 vintage.  Apparently Kingston does not make or distribute PC800s anymore.   

**Plutom - I have 1GB RAM & I use Poser 7 & Vue 6 Infinite.
**Within Poser I can work well with two figures & plenty of clothing items. Putting a third figure in & the scene will slow down.
Within Vue I can work comfortably with two figures just like I do with Poser. Same again though, add a third character & it can be a pain. In Vue it's best to purge the memory after every import. 
Also, (this applies mainly to Vue but does help in Poser as well with not much memory) is to after you've loaded your figures & set the scene up, shut down the program & reload it as this will free up memory again.
Another thing to remember when not havimg much memory is to try & not have memory intensive programs running in the background. Having Poser & Vue running together, internet explorer, virus scanners etc.
Also, just remembered, one of the biggest things which uses memory in Poser & especially in Vue, is texture size. If you're having characters in the background where detail isn't needed then you can reduce the textures in your paint program before the import. I personally don't do that as I'm stubborn & like to get in as much detail as I can even though it may mean it's harder to work with!

Regarding Vue without Poser figures, well it works so much better. Poser figures are memory intensive due to the amount of morphs & texture sizes. Vue can choke if too much is loaded. More RAM is definitely recommended if you can.
If you are doing mainly landscape work in Vue you shouldn't have too many problems with memory issues. The only thing you may come across is render times when using Global Radiosity, soft shadows etc & high render settings. It looks beautiful but render times can be slow, but is really worth it!

I had a computer with "only" 512Mb RAM and i had a lot of troubles with Vue using Poser figures! All were slow and if i added a second character, well... generally i lost the scene.

Now i'm running a QuadCore with 4 GB RAM and all run like a charm! Even with Poser and Vue opened together, with Photoshop and other as well :D

My old laptop had 512 of RAM and a 1.8 gig processor.  When I was using it with Poser 6 I had a horrible time with many images.  By images I am talking single figure with clothing, hair, skin texture.  My renders would take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, sometimes more.  I usually had to use a bucket size of 32 or less.

And if I was actually making a scene with other things in it other than a single figure, I had to render in pieces and assemble in post work.

I now have a different computer with 2 gigs of ram and I use Poser 6. Single figures render pretty fast, depending on textures and ratracing and shadows of course.  Complete scenes have given me grief and I have to resize the textures, lower the bucket size and sometimes render in pieces. But for the most part 2 gigs is working well for me.

512 was "workable", but could be very frustrating at times.  I strongly recommend that you learn Poser 6 lighting and IBL so that your computer doesn't have to worry about trying to render a gazillion shadow maps for 30 lights. That will make rendering so much faster for you.

I'll probably buy another computer when Microsoft proves to me that most of the major Vista bugs have been dealt with-this time loaded with RAM (It used to be that the optimum level for RAM was 512MBYTES and one didn't need anymore--sniffle, sniffle.

Ah, the olde rendering in bits and pieces trick and plopping them in ye olde PaintShop Pro for some serious editing trick.  Yep, been there and still there-even cheat like heck in VUE5-love them billboards and their poly count.  As for the multitude of light sources in the included sets, preaching to the choir on that puppy too.  Only need two of them, the rest go into the dumpster.

Probably will not buy Poser 7 or VUE6 with what I have now and me computer still runs like an energizer bunny-meaning the same as it did when I got it, 5 BQCT.  There are several reasons why I'm not buying a new Tim, the-tool-man- Allen type computer yet and it all revolves around Vista.
 
5BQCT (five years Before Quad Core Time)

*I'll probably buy another computer when Microsoft proves to me that most of the major Vista bugs have been dealt with

*you mean ... never?  :blink:

No seriously: I bought two new machines just today (with a look on what Poser7Pro will offer: FINALLY FARMRENDERING! And because I am old, ugly and poor I bought (in components) two Pentium 935 D machines (2x3,2 GHZ), Win XP64 (yeahyeahyeah) and 4 GB Ram each. Summed up to less than ....pocketcalculator.... 1.40 €/$..... less then 1,500, including a 8 x Gigabit Lan Paperweight. 4 logical CPUs that can really be used as two workstations....

Yes, I feel a bit lost in the moment with all that stuff spread over every accessible desk in reach...

Solid technique, approved a zillion times, cheap, but not out of date.
Before you spend so much money for just gaganeverseen-RAM, get standard stuff at standard prices - 4 GB DDR2/1066 are some 290 or so  $ at my place at this time.

Has anybody seen my screwdriver...

If you DownRez your textures, you might have more chances of successfully running a complete scene with only 512MB ram. check for the "DownRezer" poser utility in renderosity marketplace.

Thanks folks for all your input.  Bottom line from you folks-512MBytes of RAM will work.  However even with increasing virtual memory-which I did, now doubled, both VUE and Poser 6 and 7 love RAM so a new computer is probably what I need, I'll need to think about what I'm going to do with the one I have now- maybe set it aside for long renders.

It's the same as buying a new car when the old one is working perfectly (after replacing the fuel pump, power steering unit assembly, and  rear driver's side window motor assembly). 
Anyway gang enjoy the rest of the holiday season.  Plutom

*Thanks folks for all your input.  Bottom line from you folks-512MBytes of RAM will work.

*Hold on.... bottom line is that Poser 6/7 will work with 512, but Vue 6 won't. Trust me I've used Vue 6 with 512Mb and it made me cry. Even without importing any Poser stuff, Vue is still very limited with what it can do with 512Mb. I went from 512Mb to 1Gb and then Vue was happy with native scenes, but when it came to importing poser stuff, Vue wasn't happy with the 1Gb at all, it begged for more.

Even Poser with 512Mb isn't a great solution, but it will work much better then Vue.

Aeilema, I certainly trust you, I sort of came to that conclusion too--and thank you for the info on P6 and 7, wasn't too sure of that.  Plutom