Hi all,

Just wondering what people thought were the ideal specs (Windows) for running Poser 7. I'm talking about things such as RAM, motherboard, video card etc.

thanks,
Andrew

I had an XP system with 2 Gb on board, running Windows XP, and a series of GFX cards, nothing too fancy, such as an ATI X1950 Pro, an NVidia 8600GT, and BFG NVidia 7600GT.  At various times it had a Pentium 4 3.4Ghz, an E6700 Dual Core and finally a Q6600 Quad Core CPU.  I got Poser 7, and had nothing but trouble with it, having used Poser 6 happily for years.  I had random crashes, white screens, black screens, sometimes even Poser just diappearing altogether.

A few months back, following a heart attack, I spent a bit of time building a complete new system.  This was based on an Asus P5Q Pro motherboard, the Q6600 processor noted above, 8Gb of Geil Black Dragon memory (uber-cool red LEDs!) and Windows Vista 64 bit Home Edition OS.  It has, at various times, had all the graphics cards above installed on it, plus an ASUS 8600GT.  The problems with Poser 7 lessened somewhat, and I finally identified the Open GL as the source of the problem, I think.   I finally settled on using the BFG NVidia 7600GT, and have no problems whatsoever running Poser 7 now.  Last couple of weeks I've been effortlessly (on the part of the PC, that is - nearly broke me!) working with 400Gb scene files with completely smooth results, producing 3000*2400 pixel renders, and not a single crash.  Personally, I think it's all down to the red LEDs on the memory.

Hope that helps!

I'm using a Dell XPS with the Q66oo quad core, 8GB ram, an ATI HD 4870, with XP pro 64 andhave as of yet never had Poser 7 crash on me. Don't know why it is so stable, but I'm happy it is.

Asus PQ5, Q6600 processor, 4Gigs ram, Nvidia BFG 9600XT, WIN XP Home ....solid.

You all and your uber-nice systems... Intel Celeron 2ghz, 2gb RAM, nVidia GeForce 7600 GS with dual monitors, and Win2k

Booya. Still kickin', baby

Thanks all for your response.
I am looking for overall performance (as I'm thinking of getting a new PC).
So I am looking at what optimizes speed as well as stability.

For what it's worth, here are my personal guidelines for buyin a PC -

• don't overspend. High-end components are always too expensive. You pay 100% extra for 5% more performance. Buy in the middle, that's where price/performance usually is decent. Paying less for hardware will leave you some money for software, a decent chair or desk or taking your loved ones out for dinner.

* keep it balanced. Don't spend everything on an expensive processor and then save on RAM or get a cheap slow hard drive to finance the expensive high-end graphics card.

• think outside the box. My #1 most important component is the monitor, that's what you'll end up starting all the time. Second and third are mouse and keyboard. Those three impact your physical health, the rest doesn't. If you're buying a laptop,  buy an external keyboard, mouse and monitor too. Your back, wrists and eyes will thank you later.

* keep it quiet. Personally, I can't stand loud computers. When I have to focus, I don't want a loud whiny GPU fan. This may not be everyone's preference, but I rather have more silence and less performance than the opposite. What good is the best computer if sitting right next to it makes me go bonkers?

• keep it cool. Unfortunately an opposiing force to the previous point, insufficient cooling is one of the main reasons for crashes. Make sure there's good airflow in the case. When picking components, look at their power ratings. The more power they consume, the more heat they generate. And the highest end alwasy runs the hottest. Pick something that's not top of the line and it will run cooler, require less fans and be quieter.

• keep it powered. Get a good strong power supply. The other main reason for instability, small power supplies. When you have your CPU pegged at 100% for a background render, then move your preview image and stress the GPU, cheap power supplies won't be able to support that. The result can be a crash or a spontaneous reboot.

That or get an iMac.

Also take note that on WinXP Home Poser  (and windows itself) will not use more then 2GB Ram. I think Win XP Pro will allow you 3GB and with Win XP64 windows can use more the 3GB, but Poser 7 is limited to using 3GB, but the other GB's could be used by other apps running at the same time.

So RAM depends on the OS you're using. No use to spent $$$ on RAM in a system that cannot handle it......

At this point, I'd always get a 64bit OS unless you have a serious reason not to. 32bit systems are a thing of the past.

Depends..... whn I did rebuild my pc a while ago, I decided stick with  Win32, since 90% of the applications I do use are still 32bit and to spent a lot of money on a new license for windows wouldn't gain me much. On top of it a I would then have to upgrade various applications to 64bit, so it could in the end become rather costly. The machine is 64bit ready, but most of my software isn't, so no switch for me yet, I invested that money into something else instead. A full color HP laser printer, 64bit can come later, for now I don't gain much with it.

You don't have to upgrade your applications. I'm still using my old copy of Photoshop 6.0 on Vista 64 and many of the other applications I use daily are 32bit only and work beautifully. Even more, applications that are "large address aware" (like Poser 7) will be able to use a 4GB address space as opposed to 2GB on a standard install of a 32bit version of Windows.