i have a bit of spare cash at the moment with the intent to upgrade mmy machine a wee bit and was wondering if anybody out there who has purchased and recieved p5 and has a pc with moderate spec.. would view there machines ability to cope with the new programme. if i spend money upgrading from a 500mhz to something around 1600mz and 500mb of ram will that be enough. I know what the minimum specs say but i have had experience of things really being minium.. can anybody suggest anything.. thanks for your time.

I'm running Poser 5 on a PIII 550 with 640MB of RAM. It has only crapped out once, after running for over 24 hours, but I have only used the Material and Pose rooms. I've just tried the FireFly renderer. I'm seeing how the Mil characters and their stuff work with the new renderer -- it is the most important new feature for me. I'll try adding some hair and dynamic cloth this weekend to see if I have any problems.

I guess I have a mid-range machine, now, but Poser has only crashed once on my AMD 900 w/ 512 MB RAM. I tried to run a cloth sim while running background applications and using my internet browser. Apparently that was bad.

If you should prioritize, I recommend focusing on RAM more than processor speed. Both are important, but Poser appears to benefit more from increased RAM (providing that the OS can handle it, NT/2000/XP takes better advantage of a RAM upgrade). I haven't received Poser 5 yet (I live in Europe...) so I can't give you any comparision between Poser 4 and 5 performance on my machine, but as a general rule it think what I wrote above still applies. I run a 2.2 GHz P4 with 512 Mb RAM on Win XP. Despite the fast processor, Poser 4 still begins to choke when I render too many figures with high res textures and bump maps in the same scene. RAM must be the only cure for that. Poser 5 with lots of strand based hair and dynamic cloth probably puts similar requirements on the machine.

While my cash reserves builds up I am using Poser 5 on a 466 with only 128 MB of Ram. [yea, I know this is much too low a system and except for the Mdragon with all it's maps [I reduced the maps to half resolution and that worked] I have been able to use Poser 4 fine. I usually only use one character with a few props.] While some features like cloth calculations and rendering is slow to impossible, I have been able to play with the other features like the face room and materials and even the hair. I do plan on upgrading this old computer soon but it is good to know I can learn Poser 5 meanwhile. Of course I may go completely gray or bald meanwhile! ;) Lynn

I have a Pentium 4, XP OS, and 512mb ram, crapped out on me 6 times, but I am impatient and move from room to room rather fast, don't think you can do that.....well that is obvious since I crashed 6 times....duh...Sharen

I did my first cloth simulation yesterday. Don with the dynamic short pants walking for 30 frames, it took around 20-25 minutes on my puny PII 400 MHZ with 384 MB of RAM. Its a dual but still its an ancient computer being a PII 400MHZ.

Go for the fastest processor you can get. Poser 4 is the most intense user of CPU power I have seen. I am running an AMD XP2000 with 1.5 gigs of EEC Registered Ram (OS win 2k pro sp2). I also run a core temp monitoring program.

For instance Graphics apps like Paint Shop Pro with files of over a gig in size open run the core temp at around 37 Celsius. If I turn on Poser 4 and load a millenium figure the temp rises to 41/42 C. I have 9 high speed fans and very good air flow/controll but Poser still pushes the core temp around 4 to 5 degrees above any other program including modelling programs with very large models open. Task Manager shows that poser just pumps the CPU like no other program.
More Ram can help but Cpu speed is the crucial element.
I am still waiting on Poser 5 but I suspect if anything it will push the CPU even more.
Regards
STORM

I would agree that RAM might be more important. I have an Intel Celeron (not sure about the speed) with 256K RAM. P5's a little pokey, but OK if dealt with patiently. I had a couple of messages about Virtual Memory running low, so that's why I recommend RAM. (BTW, I'm an old-timer when it comes to 3D packages. Just think of those slow times as times you can reacquaint yourself with your cat...)

Athalon 800 here,(2.53Gh system on order:)) no major glitches yet With P5 but am beginning to suspect that system compatability is a problem for some people.

I didn't think mine was lower end P4 xp gig RAM, but Poser 5 works slower than molasses. hasn't crashed tho. but I've almos tfallen asleep waiting a few times.

I'm using a Pentium 333. Poser 5 seems to be working fine. I do have to wait at times, but since I haven't seen it on a faster machine I don't know if this is normal. I have been able to use the Face, Material, and the Hair room. haven't tried Cloth yet. Rendering works fine. It's a little faster than Poser 4. Oh... I have the ram at maximum, 384.

Thanks for the response people. I am not really too bothered about render times, well not too bothered.. what i am more concerned with is things likeslow downs when i pose the characters or even change background colors etc.. In p4 i find that the losres daz dragon cause my system probs, and if i over stack vicy with props then causes probs.. all i really need is an upgrade which allows the program to move faster pre rendering.. or does poser move slow anyhow.. or vene do i have too much stuff in poser anyway.. its around 3.0gb regards smooh

I have a P3 866 with 512 RAM. It runs like a slug. I am quietly waiting for my dual proc Dell Precision Workstation 530 to come in. (ok, so im not being so quiet about the waiting part)