Posted a similar question 10 days ago. I'm new to animation. Been working with poser debut for about 6 weeks. Quickly realizing I need to upgrade computer and newer poser version. I'm asking the community at large for help.I don't understand all the ins and out and terminology of all the hardware and goodies required for a newer computer. My wife is quite ill and I'm her caregiver so it's a challenge to find the time to look for a computer. Anyone that's out there that needs to take a break from animating and could help me find a reconditioned computer would be so great. Looking for a windows 7 OS desktop. Can this be wireless? Is it possible to be able to have some kind of USB port that would allow me to use 2 separate independent tv screens. I'd like to watch parts of tutorials on one, and then duplicate on the other. This is not critical but would be helpful. I don't ever plan on being anywhere close to the professional level so I'm also needing advice on a newer poser version. Any big difference between poser 9, 10, or 11? I'm more of a hobby guy but do want to grow my skill level.The poser short movies on Youtube are quite amazing and a little intimidating. My budget for the desktop with shipping is $500. Would like to get one ordered middle of next week. Any help and/or advice would be so very helpful. Thanks everyone!

Try Tigerdirect.com, they have a lot of Refurbed Microsoft Certified machines of all types from $100 to $7/800 depending on what you want. I've been running a Refurbed Dell Optiplex Intel Core 2 Quad 3,33Ghz, 8Gig Ram 1 Terra-byte HDD, running Win7/sp1 Pro w Discs The basic machine set me back $280 bucks $50 extra for a Visiontek Radon 6450 2 Gig Graphics Card, good machine hasn't had a Hiccup in 2 years so far, tell the truth had better luck with Refurbs than any New machine I ever had.

While Tigerdirect still exists it is now owned by PCMALL which is using Tigerdirect mostly for B2B machines. Of course it is a business class workstation you are looking for...

Thanks Lenord! Good info. Which poser version are you running? Are there some better than others? Some to avoid? I don't know anything about Nvidia, but I've seen other recommend it it or is this the same as your Radon graphics card? Your thoughts? In looking at poser youtube tutorials, there are tons. The bad part is I never know which version they are using. Would it be more efficient for me to order dvd's of the poser version I order as to make my time of learning more efficient?

skipdouglas posted at 12:20PM Sat, 09 July 2016 - #4275184

Thanks Lenord! Good info. Which poser version are you running? Are there some better than others? Some to avoid? I don't know anything about Nvidia, but I've seen other recommend it it or is this the same as your Radon graphics card? Your thoughts? In looking at poser youtube tutorials, there are tons. The bad part is I never know which version they are using. Would it be more efficient for me to order dvd's of the poser version I order as to make my time of learning more efficient?

It depends on what program you are using, if you want to do GPU based rendering, Nvidia offers better support for it. IRAY for example requires it. If your program only supports CUDA rendering then you need to go NVIDIA, If your program supports openCL Radon is more cost effective. Most programs at the moment support CUDA, so which card you choose is important and you can't pick one until after you pick your application.

Most applications revert to CPU rendering if they aren't compatible with the video card, which still gets you there, but is much slower.

So found this on tiger direct. Would this be sufficient? Would the Intel Graphics 2500 work okay? Please forgive my lack of understanding of some of your terminology. I'm not sure what CUDA means or is. Would this computer work okay for Poser 9, 10, or 11 do you think?

HP Elite 8300 Ultra Slim Desktop - Intel Core i5 3470S, 2.90GHz, Quad Core, 8GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, Intel HD Graphics 2500, Intel 82579LM, Gigabit Ethernet, Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (Refurbished)

Tigerdirect seems the same as it ever was to me, New, Used or Refurb Accessories and all electronic goodies, of course there are many other places too I've just had real good luck with anything I got through Tigerdirect, I don't tend to mess with what works. Your also right on the Graphics Card being right for what you plan on doing with it, if I had my druthers I'd get the Baddest Mother around but that's just Cost prohibitive, I prefer NVIDIA but got a really good deal on the Radon it works OK for what I do now but if I get a chance to upgrade to a NVIDIA on the cheap I will, Computers and Graphic Arts are a Hobby so I try to stay on the side of the Best I can afford and not the Exotic, this Hobby can get expensive if you let it. The best Electronics ain't Cheap, as a retired Electronics Engineer of 40+years I know it ain't, I have way more $$$ tied up in Audio Electronics than Puters, I'm an Old School Tube fan and have $20K tied up in Tube Equipment and High Efficiency Horn systems as well as Solid State Digital Home Theater, not going to dump that much into Computers.

Oh yeah I don't do Poser or Daz I don't do Character driven Art. I do Fractals, Ray Trace and open CL/GL Flame/Mandelbrot Escapetime types and Mojoworld/Terragen/Vue Terrains and Planetscapes....

Ya could try Newegg too, who's prices seem just a teensy lower to me with about the same quality of service (although I've gotten tons of stuff from Tiger Direct over the years...love em).

As far as CUDA goes, only Nvidia has CUDA, therefore Intel Graphics won't help you render any faster with Superfly. Firefly will render exactly the same no matter what graphics card is used because it uses the CPU, not the GPU. But if you're wanting to use Superfly as fast as you can make it, you need Poser Pro 11 and a CUDA card, meaning an Nvidia graphics card. Superfly is based on Cycles, which for the time being can only do a gpu render on a CUDA card (Nvidia only). For Poser versions less than the latest, the Intel graphics will do just fine :).

Laurie