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PCI Card for Flash Acceleration

F

FirNaTine

Senior member
A friend asked me to look into some simple upgrades for a secondary computer of his. One of his main complaints was Youtube video performance.

The computer is a Dell Dimension B110 with a ~2.8Ghz Celeron D /1 GB DDR. I found a few compatible processors and memory upgrades, but I am unsure if any would be worth the money invested.

I came across the GPU acceleration of Flash video information, and thought that with a cheap card he could see a solid improvement in performance for Flash content.

The only issue is that the only expansion available is a PCI slot, and I am wondering if the interface will allow the card to accelerate the video successfully.

I am looking at a 8400gs PCI card for around $40. NVIDIA supports the Flash 10.1 Beta on 8400gs hardware.

The current integrated graphics are Intel 865 extreme.

Thanks.
 
Remember that GPU acceleration for Flash is still in the Beta stage. TBH I think if the computer can't even play YouTube videos smoothly (non-HD), it's time for a complete upgrade. A 8400GS might help, but probably not by much.

Also how could a motherboard supporting Celeron D (so LGA775) not have PCI-E or at least AGP? Or is it occupied?
 
Jd007 said:
Remember that GPU acceleration for Flash is still in the Beta stage. TBH I think if the computer can't even play YouTube videos smoothly (non-HD), it's time for a complete upgrade. A 8400GS might help, but probably not by much.

Also how could a motherboard supporting Celeron D (so LGA775) not have PCI-E or at least AGP? Or is it occupied?
Click to expand...

It was a low end dell from about 4 years ago. The motherboard does not have a video slot, so PCI is it.

I have talked to him about a complete upgrade, but this is a secondary computer for internet/email/word processing. When he gets a video forwarded to him, it has some trouble with playing the content. For all other purposes it is acceptable. A new computer would run $200-300 which is a little much for what he uses it for.

He would like to be able to coax a little more life out of the dekstop, but he also has a laptop that is a lot more current.

And the processor is a socket 478 not 775. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeron#Celeron_D
 
I thought the video acceleration in the beta was for only videss encoded in h.264 or is it for every kind in flash?
 
umm, if the video is AVC and can be decoded via DXVA isn't all that's needed some kind of splitter to pass the video to the gpu?
 
PCI cards are basically an unsupported configuration at this point, even if they can technically accelerate flash, don't be surprised if it doesn't work well.

You could probably swap in a new motherboard cheaply, why not do that?
 
Fox5 said:
PCI cards are basically an unsupported configuration at this point, even if they can technically accelerate flash, don't be surprised if it doesn't work well.

You could probably swap in a new motherboard cheaply, why not do that?
Click to expand...

If I get him to swap in a new board I would probably have him upgrade the processor/memory too.... and that gets to be more than he would like to spend.

I am looking for cheap deals on them, and even a cheap basic system from a big box.

Thanks.
 
FirNaTine said:
If I get him to swap in a new board I would probably have him upgrade the processor/memory too.... and that gets to be more than he would like to spend.

I am looking for cheap deals on them, and even a cheap basic system from a big box.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

There were plenty of DDR based socket 478 mobos with both AGP and pci-express. Still, the motherboard is one of the most annoying components to replace, as it requires uninstalling everything and then putting it back in.

I was faced with the same problem for my dad, and ended up just getting a refurbished system for him rather than bother upgrading anything. I then scavenged parts from the old computer to finish it off.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...c:2628|&Sort=4
http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=SYS

Replacement mobos (some include cpus):
http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=MBB
Also consider the FS forum here, I'm sure some people would have cheap old system's they'd like to dump.
 
I take it you're not near a frys. I've seen e5200 combos for like $60. DDR2 memory is pricy now though so that would be like another 30 or more for some of that.
 
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