Video card

[96tacolx]

I've gotten where I watch a couple of online tv shows a week. My computer is a HP pavilion 754n desktop. It's several years old but still works very well.

When I watch the online shows the video is slow/ jumpy and doesn't keep up with the words. Question, is that because of my connection speed (100Mbps) or would putting in a very good video/ graphics card help? Right now it just has the standard port that comes with the computer.

If I can fix it with a card, what is a good one to get?

Thanks for any help

 

[Tech11]

How much memory does it have?

A video card CAN help, by taking the graphics processing off the CPU.

Does it have AGP?

 

[shawn]

HP specs say it has one AGP 4x slot and currently uses the on-board.

The problem with AGP is that it's an obsolete format, so you're going to pay disproportionately more money for one than if it had a PCI Express slot.

I'd probably look for something in the $50-60 range. Radeon 3650, GeForce 6200, etc, assuming there's enough ram in the machine to make it worthwhile. Or look for another old one to scab useful parts.

link

 

[96tacolx]

Computer specs
2.53 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 processor
512 MB DDR SDRAM memory
80 GB hard drive
64 MB DDR SDRAM Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics with up to 64MB shared video memory
Here's pic of open slots. The dark one I assume is the AGP slot?
What are the 2 white ones called?
Thanks for help

 

[shawn]

Right, the brown one is an AGP slot. The three white ones are PCI (not to be confused with PCI-Express, which is a graphics slot.)

With 512mb of ram... I'm on the fence. My gut is that it'll do low-res fullscreen video without studdering. I have a P4 of similar age (using it at the moment), with a Quadro 500 (same thing as like... a GeForce 5200) but it has a gig and a half of faster ram.

Something else that might inform your decision... look at the capacitors around the processor. They're the small cylinders. If any of them are bulged on top or visibly leaking, I wouldn't spend any money on a video card.

 

[D'Mann]

I'm wondering how he has 100Mb to the internet? Did you pay for metro ethernet to your house?

Your PC is connected at 100Mb to a router, the router is connected to a modem. What is the modem connected to? Cable/DSL/Dial up?

but I would guess your memory is the biggest issue, it's 512 - shared, which means 384 real. XP takes 500 MB to boot, so that leaves negative to run after boot (not really, but performance wise it's close enough)

get memory before you get a video card. Flash video over the internet doesn't require a gaming video card.

 

[twistedjeepster]

I would say add more mem and a new videos card and it should take care of your issues. I have a comp here that I could sell if you interested it's a newer machine than the one you have. Just let me know.

 

[GubNi]

Doubt a video card would help much. It might, but most likely your computer is not running like it should. You may have too much junk in start up or your internet speed (.5 meg to 16 meg) isn't fast enough. You also need to add ram first.

 

[shawn]

Doubt a video card would help much. It might, but most likely your computer is not running like it should. You may have too much junk in start up or your internet speed (.5 meg to 16 meg) isn't fast enough. You also need to add ram first.

He said the video isn't staying in sync. That's the video card's fault for not being able to keep up with the necessary render speed.