Side note, if anyone has any tips as to why DAZ will randomly create a bunch of noise and how I can avoid that (without the filtering option if at all possible) that would be greatly appreciated.
If you are talking about noise during the render process, then if you have your settings correct, then you typically will only see some noise in a large image. By that I mean, the more your GFX card has to render or the harder it has to work, the more noise you are likely to end up with. Ideally, your goal should be to hit 95% rendered with no more than 2500 iterations. That can be difficult and sometimes you have to increase that number (Max Samples under Progressive Rendering), but every iteration over 2500 increases your render time. On the same screen, you could also bump up Render Quality to 1.5 or 2.
If you continue to have issues, start by reducing the image size. Really HD or 1280 x 720 should be fine for most renders, but you could go Full HD at 1920 x 1080. If you are going for just a portrait look, use the Golden Ratio which is 667 x 1080 or visa versa for landscape.
Still having issues? Delete everything in the scene that is not visible to the camera. Daz will still process everything even though it is not rendering them so again, less work means your card can focus on the image.
Finally, shoot outdoors and use the Sun-Sky Only mode or if indoors, use scene only.