Hello, I have about 512 RAM and I'm thinking in adding 245 more. Is Poser 4 going to take advantage of that? What is the maximum RAM memmory that Poser uses? Thanks in advance, Luis

Poser, like any program, will take as much as you throw at it. The system requirements are running at about 100 megs, but even that seems a little pokey, especially when you get into some of the more complex scenes and large scale renders. I don't think you need to throw all 512 at it, but I'm sure you'll find the processing pretty amazing if you do.

Not being a computer wiz I don't know but I'm certain I caught Poser opening up Notepad and writing to-do lists when my memory got low.

When I first bought Poser, I asked Curious Labs that question: They suggested 32meg per character ... they made no mention of any upper limit. I'm running 256 meg and it ain't enough... I'd put a gig of ram in the machine if it would take it.

I have 512 MB of ram and i still have major problems rendering scenes with high res characters and props. rodpanther

Hi Folks! I shudder to think of the day in the not-too-distant future when programs like Poser, Photoshop, and Office will need at least 1G of RAM just to know that they're on your computer. I wish someone in the industry would step forward and put an end to this madness. Peter (Dr Zik)

Be carefull, if you put more than 3x 256 in the Computer, he will chrash. Win98 and Win98 SE is unable to use it. That happend to me, i had to format C:

I have 512 ram but I still have trouble with Vic 2 and her updo hair. I use her with out the bump maps and I halfed the updo hair texture, that helped alot, but freeze ups still happen on occassion, especially if I add much to the scene. I shudder to think what poser5 and new characters of the future, will want in terms of ram. Maybe we all need to not only add more ram , but maybe new graphics cards or something? I wish I had the answer!

No answer is needed. What we're going through right now is called progress. Users want more features, higher quality, etc. That takes more oomph. Hardware guys make bigger, stronger stuff and the software guys write to take advantage of it. I don't want that to stop. If it had stopped 10 years ago, we'd all still be using 286's and programs like Poser wouldn't even be possible. Hopefully I'll be able to say the same thing 10 years from now about the Pentium 4 and Poser v15.07. As far as cost goes, the PC industry is great. In the 80's I bought a brand new car for under $10,000 and a 286 for $3000. Now the same model car costs over $20,000 but I can still get the latest-greatest PC for around $3000. I say keep that RAM-hungry stuff coming! It means better quality (most of the time), and RAM is cheap.

RAM sure helps!! But, there are other considerations too... A fast 7200 RPM Hard Disk, A good Mother Board(i just bought an Abit Dual Pentium, It Kicks Ass!!), Make sure your HD is Defragmented(Mine is automated to do all my Drives once a week!), A fast CPU(Anything above 850 MHZ will be good, I got AMD ones!) And last but Most important to Poser, is make sure your "PageFile" or "SwapFile" starts at 1 gig!! Yes, you read right!! If you use Win2k, it starts by default at 368megs(which is not enough for Poser!!). The reason is simple, Poser stores all the textures & BumpMaps there... So, a Vicky2 HiRes one & it's Bump Maps will Flood that Swap File quickly!! I often end up with scenes averageing 3 HiRes Charaters with all the clothes, and 20 props, furniture, etc... So, it adds up very quickly... When you need to scrool down the list of items in the "Mat Editor", then your in trouble! LOL Oh!! One last thing!! Since Poser doesn't take advantage of DirectX or OpenGL... Your Graphic card has to be very Good!! I used to buy only ATI ones. Now, i swear only by GForce Cards... That's my 2 Cents worth... But, after using Poser since version 2... ;-) Later!! Marco

First, unless Poser is bizarre, everything is stored in ram before ever going to the pagefile. I could be wrong, but I tend to think it behaves like most other programs. Maybe I'll look into this...certainly interesting. That said, some pretty good advice all around. If you're using more than 256 megs, don't waste your time with with anything other than NT4 or 2K. (I refuse to acknowledge the existence of XP, other than to say I refuse to acknowledge it.) Those others won't use the ram and there's no telling what may happen. Programs may freeze, the operating system may freeze, it may run without problems, etc., but it should not entirely crash a system (gotta be something else wrong to require a format to fix it). To answer the original question though, yes, Poser will use everything you have and then some. It's not uncommon for me to check my ram and see well over 500 megs being used in a render of just Vicky, hi-res maps (the 4000x4000 body and 3000x3000 head), the up-do hair (big maps there as well), and well, that's basically it. I haven't managed to get it to use all 768 yet, but I don't normally put more than one character into a scene. I'm weird! :) And on the opinion-oriented side, BOO nvidia. Go ATI and Matrox. :D Just wait for the Radeon 8500...only a couple weeks to go. :)

Ok, here are the facts. I have a athlon 1.2 Ghz, with 512 Mo 133 SDRAM. My graphic card is a radeon 64 DDR, and my hard drives are all 7200... AND IT FREEZES ALL THE TIMES ! ! ! ! lol Please, help me... I need to render huge images, with a lot of characters with high res maps, but it just can't handle it ! i read, thanks to Viomar that something important is the pagefile or swap file. What is that ? I know what swapping is, but i get lost here. Does that mean that i need 1 Gig on my C drive, where windows is, or does that mean i need 1 Gig free from my D drive where Poser is? or does that mean something else? please, give me some help before i loose control... smile thanks Cecile

What operating system are you using? I don't have it, but I've read much about Win2000 solving many problems. Your swap file is a section of your hard drive Windows uses for RAM. It's dynamic unless you change it, which I've also read will fix many problems. I can't say for sure on either of these two issues because I have a lowly PII, Win98se, a dynamic swap file and never have crashes. And I often run Poser ProPack and Photoshop 6 at the same time.

I'm running Windows 98. I also can run Photohop 6 and Poser 4 in the same time, with no crashes. Crashes only seem to happen when a lot of figires and or a lot of textures (high res) are involved. For exemple, i was using 2 human characters and clothes, and table with a chair. I just can't render it. i have to remove some stuff before it can hardly try to render , at the speed of mmy old P2 400... Its sucks.

Well, like I said, a lot of people report that after installing Windows 2000 many--if not all--of their crashing problems go away. This is because Win2000 does a much better job of handling memory. Problem is, Win2000 is a much different operating system than 98. If you're not very well versed in the workings of a PC, you might run in to other troubles during and after installation. You might not want to consider it unless you have a computer guru handy to help you out. If you have such a person, you should probably make the switch. By the way, I love your site and tutorials.

Hey, thanks, Jackson ;o) Well, i'm quite "versed in the working of PC" but i am allergical to Win NT and or 2000... I just don't like it. I think i'll have to wait for XP, expecting it to handle evrything better ;o)

You're welcome. I know what you mean about NT/2000. One can only hope XP is better. Good luck.

I won't touch XP without a spear! LOL As for the Swap file, go in the control panel, open the "System" panel, then go into "adanced" tab. Then look for "performance", in there is the "Swap" file settings! Make sure it starts at 1 gig!! This should improve things for Poser or any other "Mem hungry" app!! That's it!! Marco

Well, I'm always a sucker for Microsoft's "preview programs" . They make you pay to beta test their stuff but that's another story... I've previewed all Win9x version except ME. I heard too many bad things about it. However, I just installed WinXP Pro and although there were a few minor setup glitches, Poser seems to render faster and hasn't locked up with the same images that used to make it crash.. For example I've finally been able to render V2 with the Daz's Hi Rez texture and even put Alice hair on her. Previously these wouldn't work.

Another example of something that previously wouldn't work..