I'm using mostly Poser format elements in Carrara 8.5 animations and enjoying it a lot. The machine is 3 years old, i7 4770k 3.5 GhZ, 16 GB RAM, nVidia 660GTX, win7. Because I compete in the 48 Hour Film contest (5 minute video in 2 days), everything is done for fast rendering. In particular, 720x480 frame size which the local contest producer makes look good on the theater screen with her projector. I usually get about 10 sec/frame render time, sometimes faster - no fancy lighting. I also use Particle Illusion for effects (explosions, dust, etc.), which renders in real time. Really. I think the video card helps with the animation previews in the 3D window (OpenGL, I think, a big plus to avoid animation render mistakes).