I wonder if there are some diminishing returns as you add cores but someone else will be far more qualified to answer that.

I saw a massive difference when I moved from dual to Quad core with H/T,  both in rendering times and the size of scenes I could build without any problems.  However, It was part of a new system I built so, at the same time, I moved to 64 bit processing use the 64 bit render engine along 12Gig in triple mode (can't remember the correct term).

 When I look at the CPU usage during a render all 8 cores, physical and virtual, are in use except towards the end of a render when cores go into 'parked' mode.  I guess this is when there is nothing less to do and they are waiting on the other cores to finish.

 I am no expert but I am sure someone else will be able to give some idea which had the most impact on my render times but I have to say I am very happy with the system and I cannot wait to see what happens when I load Poser 2012.

 

 

I use Poser 13 on Windows 11 - For Scene set up I use a Geekcom A5 -  Ryzen 9 5900HX, with 64 gig ram and 3 TB  storage, mini PC with final rendering done on normal sized desktop using an AMD Ryzen Threadipper 1950X CPU, Corsair Hydro H100i CPU cooler, 3XS EVGA GTX 1080i SC with 11g Ram, 4 X 16gig Corsair DDR4 Ram and a Corsair RM 100 PSU .   The desktop is in a remote location with rendering done via Queue Manager which gives me a clearer desktop and quieter computer room.