I was a long time Ray Dream user, versions 4, 5 & 5.5. I purchased Carrara 1 when it came out, but was put off by the non standard interface, so until recently, continued to use RD 5.5 on my Athlon 2600+, 1 gig ram, XP and nVidia geforce card. I recently gave it away to someone getting started in 3D, as I bought Carrara 3 on EBay for under $40 and loved it so much I upgraded to version 5 a month later. RDS 5.5 ran fine in XP, but I have an nVidia card, so I think the problem is your graphics card. If you don't have Carrara I suggest you check EBay. They usually have 3 or 4 new in the box version 3s for sale, average price: $38.00. You can then upgrade to version 5 at Eovia if you like.