Quote - Regarding the original post:

Speed
Lights
Ambient Occlusion
Speed
Shaders / shader tree / multi layer shaders
Terrain creation / modification
Speed
Sky
Modeling Tools
Speed
Ability to adjust mesh / create morphs

Did I mention speed?

Hello,
 compared to Poser7, Carrara 7 is much faster, but Poser 8 caught up.
Compared PoserPro2010 64 bit, I find it sometimes faster than Carrara 7 (depending on settings).
However, with Carrara Pro, you can have multiple computers working on the same
image. With Poser, every frame is computed on a single computer.

Best regards,
   Michael