I don't know why anyone would say that there is no difference in render times between Poser 7 and Poser 8. This is my little contribution to the thread. In comparison, the first image is from an animation of 421 frames and the next was 366 frames. Both zoom, the first inward and the next outward. with motion capture poses from various places and vendors. Before I start talking up Poser 8's speed I will say this, I still set up in Poser 7 and do all of my test renders there. I do this because of simple familiarity, and nothing else.

Poser 7 rendered a single frame of this animation within 3:40 give or take a couple seconds. Poser 8 rendered this same image within 2:20 again, give or take a couple seconds. When you're animating a 300+ frame animation, these times make all the difference. So, you could use Poser 7 to do it and it will look great. however, the guy using Poser 8 will have already finished and be working on the next sequence. For me, I need to get my work done so speed is very important. Poser 8's only problem is that sometimes the finished animation can have artifacts. Simple to fix but even then, I am still ahead of the time Poser 7 would have left me at.

Lastly, If you're not animating for a living then don't worry about it.