Originally posted by The Architect This is a bit odd. All versions of Maya should work better on computers with more than one processor or core and there should be no need for any optimising. May I ask what the specs are concerning both your computers? Amd Athlon 64 x2 4800+ (2.4Ghz) Nvidia Quadro Fx 3450/4000 (256mb) SB X-fi 610GIG (110,500 gig) 85% captivity 2 gig mem. XP Sp2 Maya 7 Edu (2 year licenes, 3 month left) My problem isnt with rendering per-se . it renders fine and damn fast considering all the hassle it goes threw to refresh the viewport changes. I can make changes to shaders in realtime so long as the hypershade is full screen. although as soon as I render or display geometry any updates zap my performance to a very low number ^^;