The only problem with using the GPU as it is also with Cycles for Blender (and they ARE FAST) is that your limited by the amount of ram on your GPU. For instance, I have a 1 gig video card. As soon as I have a scene that reaches the one gig limit, I'm done. If that happens before your scene is rendered, you'll need to use the CPU to render. For portraits and simple scenes, GPU rendering is ideal (unless you have a smoking video card...lol). I'm not sure anymore if Luxrender can go from using GPU to CPU while it's rendering, but I don't think so. However, anything's possible I guess ;). I'll have to investigate...hehe.

Using Luxrender and the CPU IS really slow I'll admit, but the end result is really great. Sure, Poser has gotten better with Poser 9/Pro 2012, but if you want things like caustics you won't get them in Firefly - YET ;). I suppose I'm willing to wait because back in the day I started this whole 3D business with Vue d'Esprit and some scenes I had rendering for two days...

Laurie