I tend to disagree with you. For instance check out this
clip. (video clip .avi DIVX ~4mb) On my laptop I was able to get up to over 4 million polygons with tolerable scene navigation even with camtasia recording in the background. The scene contained 1282 objects. Keep in mind I used software rendering. Which goes to show that Carrara can handle it even without OpenGL. And my laptop isn't a powerhouse. (see specs in siggy below)
If you still think its Carrara and not Poser objects themselves...ok. But in my experience I would not agree.