I received Poser 5 today from Amazon and have been playing around with it for awhile. I am totally surprised! I have read a lot of discussions about this new product and expected it to cause me and my system nothing but problems. So far, so good. No crashes and no "freezes".

The rendering, as reported, is slower in 5 than it is in 4, but not so slow that you start to pull your fingernails out by the roots. To me, Poser 5 renders a LOT faster than Bryce!

Actually, the "slowness" has been a non-issue with me. To me, fast is the type of rendering MAX does and I don't expect Poser 4 or 5 to measure up to that speed. Still, if you compare 5 to 4, 4 is faster but if you compare 5 to Bryce, in my opinion, 5 is much faster. But it is really a non issue compared to all the other great features of 5.

The quality of the render along makes Poser 5 worthwhile. The manual that is included with the product has a lot of good useful information and using it alongside Poser 5 should have me and anyone else up to speed on all the new rooms and features in a short time.

I have only had the product for a couple of hours and haven't became a power user yet as I am in 4 but so far it has not disappointed me. I haven't found anything that I dislike about the product.

Another surprise, Poser 5 doesn't seem as RAM hungry as I expected and I am able to run Photoshop, Poser5, and surf the net all at the same time with no problems at all.

Hopefully when I post again in a week, I will still be as satisfied with Poser 5 as I am now.