I'll third (or fourth) the whole Low Poly / Subdivision surface observation. It has made my workflow go alot smoother (no pun intended) especially in the area of rigging. 

I have also observed that "high end animation rigs" tend to have three levels of geometry: (1) a super-duper low poly mesh with no joint articulation - think animatable bounding boxes for forearm, shoulder, thigh, shin, torso, head, etc, (2) a mid-res mesh to get a better idea of what the finished product will look like and (3) a high-poly / subdivided "render" mesh whose visibility is switched off until the final render is performed.

Edit: also, for your full 64-bit Poser / ease of use / stable powerful number cruncher: Perhaps you have outgrown Poser, which I liken to a 3D gateway drug. There's a lot of great apps that are proportionately a lot easier to use if you're not afraid to roll up your sleeves.