It just drives me bonkers it take 12 minutes of waiting to see if I corrected something,then 30 seconds of adjusting...another 12 minutes of rerendering....I was hoping a new video card would help solve that...
What program is that? I'm assuming it's not a massive Photoshop filter
3DSMax? Final scene rendering is 100% CPU (except for a few specific plugins, like Mental Ray and Gelato), so a better graphics won't do much for you there. Upgrading your processor to a quad-core will give you a HUGE boost in performance, though. I think you said you had a dual core... going from, say, a Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.6GHz) to a Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz) speeds up Tom's Hardware's benchmark scene from 72 seconds to 48 seconds. The Q6600 is available for $185 from Newegg (~ same price as the dual core E8500, which scores 60 seconds on the benchmark).
In Cinema4D, the speed-up is about the same: from 235 seconds to 153 seconds.
Going to a Core i7 would, of course, speed things up even more, but then you'd be shelling out a LOT more as well. With a bit of luck, the Q6600 could be a drop-in replacement for you current processor. You get a bit more bang for your buck with AMD Phenom quad-core systems in both 3DS Max and Cinema4D, but if you already have an Intel motherboard, the difference isn't worth a change.
I doubt Cinema4D has GPU rendering for anything but previews either, barring a few select plugins.
Memory and a faster processor (more cores) would be your best bet to speed things up.
If you're regularly getting Blue Screened, try changing graphics driver. E.g. download the latest WHQL certified driver - or, if you've already done that - try the latest, bleeding-edge non-WHQL certified one. You might even try an older driver, just to check if the bug is something that has crept in recently.
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