Hi!

 I recently built a new computer and I was hoping for a large render speed increase in Poser compared to my old computer. So far I've been disappointed.. especially since I've only installed Poser 2010 + SR1 on my new machine (after drivers/windows updates) and no other software. It can only go downhill from here. :(

 My new PC:

 Intel i5 750 (2.66 ghz and a turbo boost feature to go to 3.2 ghz, though i don't know if that kicks in during Poser rendering)
Radeon HD 5850
High performance DDR3 RAM, 8 gigs
Windows 7

Old PC:

Intel Core 2 Duo (2.4 ghz)
Nvidia 8800 GTS
4GB of DDR2 Ram
Windows XP

 I rendering a shot with just 1 V4 with textures/hair/no clothing and no props or background. On maximum settings (No IDL) at 650x490. My new PC takes about 3 minutes per frame, my old one 5-6 minutes.  Does this sound normal? Am I wrong in thinking I'd get better with a minimal scene?

 I might overclock my CPU to 3.6GHZ, but I don't know if that's the bottleneck? 

 Any replied would be appreciated, thanks!

Two things come into mind.

1. How many lights do you have in your scene? The more lights, the more shadow maps Poser has to process.  Lights Poser 6 and up handle lights differently than Poser 5 did, so using lights created for Poser 5 and lower, will affect the time poser takes to render because there are probably very many lights in the scene.

2.  Size of the texture files.  Some of these texture files are humungous!  4,000 pixels and even much larger.  I only use Poser for mostly hobby purposes, so I don't need that size of texture map.  What I do is put a copy of the original to another directory, and resize the one in the original directory to no more than 1024 pixels on it's longest size. I find that really helps cut down on the render time.

how many cores does the new one have and have you enabled multiple cores in poser ?

going from 2.4 to 2.6 processor wont give you much speed improvement , the video card isnt relevant to rendering times , and you had sufficient memory on both systems. 

enable Poser to use 3 or 4 threads and it should go faster than the duo system.

Quote - how many cores does the new one have and have you enabled multiple cores in poser ?

going from 2.4 to 2.6 processor wont give you much speed improvement , the video card isnt relevant to rendering times , and you had sufficient memory on both systems. 

enable Poser to use 3 or 4 threads and it should go faster than the duo system.

 My new PC is quad core. I had it set at 4 cores on my old PC (which is 2 core) so I changed it to 8 for the new one. Should I stick with 4?

 And so the CPU is my bottleneck for sure? Would overclocking to 3.6GHZ make a big difference? (I know about overheating issues, I got extra cooling)

What Acadia said of course applies , if you dont have enough memorty then it starts to page out. You seem to have ample memory. I would try 4 threads only. It is possible to use more threads than processors if each thread is doing large amounts of disk I/O but it can slow down processor heavy applications.

Overclocking would make a big hit but you need to concern with overheating.

If you went from 5-6 min to 3 min thats a fair saving. It would cut a 4 hour render to maybe 2.5 hours. 

Quote - Hi!

 I recently built a new computer and I was hoping for a large render speed increase in Poser compared to my old computer. So far I've been disappointed.. especially since I've only installed Poser 2010 + SR1 on my new machine (after drivers/windows updates) and no other software. It can only go downhill from here. :(

 My new PC:

 Intel i5 750 (2.66 ghz and a turbo boost feature to go to 3.2 ghz, though i don't know if that kicks in during Poser rendering)
Radeon HD 5850
High performance DDR3 RAM, 8 gigs
Windows 7

Old PC:

Intel Core 2 Duo (2.4 ghz)
Nvidia 8800 GTS
4GB of DDR2 Ram
Windows XP

 I rendering a shot with just 1 V4 with textures/hair/no clothing and no props or background. On maximum settings (No IDL) at 650x490. My new PC takes about 3 minutes per frame, my old one 5-6 minutes.  Does this sound normal? Am I wrong in thinking I'd get better with a minimal scene?

 I might overclock my CPU to 3.6GHZ, but I don't know if that's the bottleneck? 

 Any replied would be appreciated, thanks!

srry, but your new system is 2core with multihreading ,not a quad core.
(at last that is what the official intel website says)
multithreading does not help you a lot if the 2 cores has a heavy duty rendering job from poser.
(both cpu's running 100% for the render)

2 cores = 2 threads, like other people said use 3-4 threads want bring you much i think.
(the rule : one thread per core) Search the forums for this, a loat of people tested that.

lol, 8 threads with a 2 core ?. do yourself the favour and messure rendering times
with the setting of 2 threads and 8 threads, use 3d3 renderfirefly - rendertime.

one more thing
render seperate process should be checked in general prefereces of poser.
so ffrender can use more maximum ram.

you main bottle neck  is still you processor.
the new one ist not a big improvement to your old one.
you could have a remarkable performance boost with the intel  flagship i7 processor.
(6 cores = 6 threads.)
your old :   core2    2 cores at 2.4 GHZ
yours:         i5 750  2 cores at 2.66 GHZ
flagship :   i7          6 cores at 4.2 GHZ

overclocking to 3.6 GHZ ,
yes try it out, will improve your renderspeed if your system runs stable with overclocking.

you have enough ram (8Gig).
Are you using W7 64 bit or the 32bit version. ?
(i guess its W7 64bit otherwise 8G of ram makes no sense)
Only if you use 64bit version of Windows 7 and the 64bit Version of pp2010 you wil get the maximum performance possibel with your new system. (FFRender and all binaries in 64bit)

the intel i7 is the maxium and very expensive on my opinion.
an alternative would be the amd black phenom quad core cpu (4 cores at 3.66 GHZ)
cost's a lot less then the intel i7.
This in combination with W7 64 ,pp2010 64 and 8G of ram runs nice
(i have such a system)

Is your version of Windows 7 the 64bit version? have you tinkered with any settings or is it factory condition? http://www.blackviper.com/ is a good place to start if you like tinkering, don't have anything else running while you're rendering.

And DO NOT overclock it, your system could become unstable or worse case scenario burn out the processor.

Quote - srry, but your new system is 2core with multihreading ,not a quad core.

See:

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42915

look in the list

number of cores = 4
hyperthreading = no

You're probably thinking of the i3 or something. He's got an i5.

Either way if his/her OS is only 32bit they're not being used to their full capacity.

The CPU fan can also be a bottleneck, I say this by experience.
Use Core Temp: http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

I use it when windows starts to monitor my PC. I also use SysTrayMeter all the time, to watch the CPU load.
See if your CPU reaches temperatures of more than 80 Celsius degrees during 100% (or 50% if you use double core and the program just uses one, if it uses the 2, then 100%).
If it does, buy a BIG COPPER cpu fan. You will notice a big improvement in performance.

Quote - > Quote - srry, but your new system is 2core with multihreading ,not a quad core.

See:

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42915

look in the list

number of cores = 4
hyperthreading = no

You're probably thinking of the i3 or something. He's got an i5.

Uuups , ghonma you are right, i picked the wrong column at intels specifications site.
so you have 4 cores @ 2.66 Ghz, and this should make markable a difference to your old system.
If overclocking at 3.2 Ghz is workig for you this should give another big boost in rendertimes.
On the other side from 2.66 to 3.2 is a very big step. I really dont know about this
intel turbo-boost feature that says ... up to 3.2 Ghz possible.

 Thanks guys.

 I actually replaced the stock heatsink with: http://www.pricecanada.com/p.php/Coolermaster-Hyper-212-Plus-Direct-Touch-RRB10212PGP-620782/

 So I don't think heat is the problem. I will definitely tweak my Windows 7 and turn off all unneeded services.

 I have Windows 7 64 bit and Poser Pro 2010 64 bit.

 I think I'll give overclocking a try. 3.6 with turbo boost off so it's constant. I'm pretty sure my CPU at 2.66 is the bottleneck right now. 

4 cores will beat 2 cores for render speed. Poser is difficult to get great speed improvements from if you have enough memory. 

The motherboard FSB must be equal or superior to the processor FSB or it may also be a bottleneck.

My cooler is similar: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiperia3d/3704747155/

The rule is two threads per Core at the most, one thread per core at the least and Render Separate Process checked. (More can be bad and less is pointless)  Remember to uncheck Use External Binary Morphs when using DAZ3D figures (V3 and later_)

with that said... much can go into impacting the Render Time. If you still feel there are issues, contact Support with the details and someone will take a look (Put Attn John in the Subject of the Incident and I will look for it)

Your CPU is definitely a bottleneck, after all it's a stripped down version of the i7 you bought. They took a lot of the good stuff out of this one. Also a lot of people underestimate the Core 2 Duo. I'm not sure which one you've got, but they made some very good ones.

As someone else said, your motherboard is a bottleneck most likely. Since you've got a graded down less expensive i5, it was made to fit a graded down less expensive motherboard as well.

Then there is Windows 7. If you really want to compare the 2 you should run them on the same system. You're old Core 2 Duo will be a lot slower in perfomance under W7, while your new one will soar when you use it with XP.

While a system may sound impressive, as soon as it start using stripped down items, it can be matched by an older system using first class items only.

I use to build my own computer, and I always start from the motherboard. Choose that one that has the fastest FSB and that fits with the processor you want. Add a huge copper fan.
And if you can find a cold graphics card without fan like me, take it.

Once I had a graphics card that had a fan that when it was old it made a loud noise. It sounded like an helicopter starting to take off.