sorry to not be clear, I meant from 8 down to 7 rather than the other way, one may ask why, well as i said, i had trouble rendering sprites until i found out t is not possible in any version of Maya using software renderer and the only way was using a hardware renderer?? too many tuts and not enough experience!!

i took off Maya 8 but have been think ing of using it again, not really sure why, i think Maya 4.5 would be enough for me but..??

I think the problem i had with the view port high render was it was permanently on?? Even in texture mode (6) with no lighting I had lighting (Maya 8) and shadows so i THINK somehow high quality render was always on, though the machine didn't get too chunky?? I don't know its a huge program and i figure somewhere around the year 2009 i might have a descent grasp of it.
thanks for the answer