Hmm - I think Win7 limits all threads to 2Gb RAM. Am I wrong? The way Poser has used memory has changed over the years.

For example, if I understood what I was seeing, my old Poser8 would have 3 'partial-scene' threads running on a quad-core, and the last core was the manager. So while the total load might be 100% at first, usually 1/2 way through the render the CPU load had dropped to 50% or less, as 1 or 2 of the partial-scene threads had completed their section and stopped. No increase in "memory" would fix that! Also, some older version of Poser (non-PRO) limit all threads to 2GB RAM regardless of the Windows version ... so adding more RAM is pointless.

Newer Poser does a better job of keeping all working. For example, at least with PoserPRO2014, all cores keep working, as each is doing small portions of the scene. In fact, I splurged to buy PP2014 (& move to Windows 8) after P8 to gain the larger 64-bit support which allows (as example) any 1 thread to use ALL available RAM. So if you are using an older Poser under Win7 64-bit, you are going to be limited to a few threads max'd at 2GB each, and adding RAM won't help. This was a W7 thing - as even in Windows 7 64-bit, all threads were limited to 32-bit RAM space.

My system is AMD FX-8350 8-core with 16GB RAM. I find the shaders used have the max impact, so for example any scene with glass or glossy-surfaces designed for DAZ renders horribly in Poser - so as example, I select any glass and apply a Poser-friendly 'glass' MC6, and that can EASILY cut 90% of the render time off a stupid scene with a few water glasses on a table!?!?!