I am puzzled by the different render times I get comparing Bryce and vue. I am an old Bryce and new vue user. I can render approximately the same scene that I created in Bryce and again in Vue with 1.5 days in Vue and 2 hours in Bryce. The Bryce scene has more polys than Vue. Also, Vue goes belly up all the time. Bryce only sometimes. the only reason I keep trying with Vue is that the mats are generally more realistic. but, bryce doesn't complain as much when I introduce daz models etc. If I try to use a 3d person,  vue plays dead, and I have to make an alpha image from the 3d model.

Also, I have a pretty good system with an Athlon x6 and 16gb ram. I do have a radeon 5750 with 1024 ram.

 Any enlightment will help.

trying to figure this all out...

Well first of all we'd need to know what version of Vue you're using? Some were better than others...

With 16 Gig of RAM you should be having no issues with memory, I'm only using 8 Gig and generally don't have issues with only very rare crashes.

Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.

I am using vue 9 xstream.