Quote - I'm on a PC, but when I need multiple morphed, clothed and posed figures in a scene, I simply create a separate pz3 for each character, then merge them together for the final render with File>Import>Poser scene.

These are all good tips, some of them I already use. I rarely use hardware shading or shadows because it really slows down the responsiveness. I'll turn it on just to set the lighting then turn it off again. I wish there was a quicker way to do it than going into Render Settings, switching to the Preview tab, checking and unchecking boxes, saving settings.

I like the idea of merging pz3 files. It always seemed to be clunky in theory, because you need to tweak the positioning after merging, but it's better than having the scene full of figures during the whole process.

Another idea I've been playing with... As each figure is posed and morphed to a final state, I convert that figure to a prop (after saving the clothed figure temporarily to the library for recall). This seems to speed up the scene considerably, I'm gessing because hundreds of morphs are gone. The drawback is obvious: All I can then do is move the prop. Expressions, arm and leg movements, etc. are all impossible. Plus I have to remember to keep weeding out the library of figures stored temporarily. But I have a folder just for that. A drastic measure, but it's a way to get a bunch of figures in a scene.

I'm envious of those who say they can put 7-8-9 clothed figures in a scene without  performance issues.