some upgrade help please?

[dbarton]

My friend has Xp with a 250watt supply.
Video is choppy when in full screen.
She watches videos - no gaming.

What is a good upgrade from here?

She currently has:

NVIDIA NV34 FX5200 128 MB AGP Video Card
NVIDIA's FX5200 video card will add quality graphic images
to your computer system. Its flexible display options offer
a TV-out and a standard VGA connectors. With 128 MB memory
and 8x/4x AGP compatibility, this unit will provide
accelerated performance and superior graphics.
--> General Features:
- GeForce FX5200 Graphics Engine
- 8x/4x AGP interface
- 128 MB memory
-t for DirectShow, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video data

 

[cusideabelincoln]

What kind of video? Processor could be the culprit.

 

[dbarton]

She watches youtube videos and movies.
Worked great in small windows, but choppy when sized up.

Machine has only 512m, but seemed like this was just a video issue.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The processor is doing all the work for youtube videos, not the video card.

Adobe just released video card Flash video acceleration, but only more "new" card support it and these cards are more rare in AGP. You would probably have to get a PCI 8400GS, which should help play Flash.

edit: 8400GS as the cheapest option.

 

[dbarton]

The quality or the memory of the video card has *no* effect for playing Flash videos?

 

[ViRGE]

The quality or the memory of the video card has *no* effect for playing Flash videos?

In this case no. Flash video decoding can be offloaded, but only on newer cards.

 

[happy medium]

If you buy one of these 55$AR agp 4650 cards, videos will run smooth.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102851

From Anandtech 10.1 flash article:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2876

As I just mentioned, Adobe is using DXVA to accelerate Flash video playback, which means you need a GPU that properly supports DXVA2. From NVIDIA that means anything after G80 (sorry, GeForce 8800 GTX, GTS 640/320MB and Ultra owners are out of luck). In other words anything from the GeForce 8 series, 9 series or GeForce GT/GTX series, as well as their mobile equivalents. The only exceptions being those G80 based parts I just mentioned

AMD supports the following:

- ATI Radeon™ HD 4000, HD 5700 and HD 5800 series graphics
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4000 series graphics (and higher)
- ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 integrated graphics (and higher)
- ATI FirePro™ V3750, V5700, V7750, V8700 and V8750 graphics accelerators (and later)
It’s a healthy list of supported GPUs from both camps, including integrated graphics. The only other requirement is that you have the latest drivers installed. I used 195.50 from NVIDIA and Catalyst 9.10 from AMD. (Update: The Release Notes now indicate Catalyst 9.11 drivers are required, which would explain our difficulties in testing. ATI just released Catalyst 9.11 but we're having issues getting GPU acceleration to work, waiting on a response from AMD now)

 

[dbarton]

If you buy one of these 55$AR agp 4650 cards, videos will run smooth.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102851

That link doesn't work, so I'm not quite sure what card you are suggesting..

This one?
SAPPHIRE 100288L Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit DDR2 AGP 8X HDCP Ready Video Card

Seem like an upgraded power supply might be needed.

 

[happy medium]

This one?
SAPPHIRE 100288L Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit DDR2 AGP 8X HDCP Ready Video Card

Seem like an upgraded power supply might be needed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102851
Yes, thats the one, sorry the links suck for some reason.

I missed the 250watt psu part. Is it a Dell? If so a normal psu might not fit.

You would need a little better psu.
Antec 380 watt Earthwatts is good and cheap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371033

 

[dbarton]

It might be an e-machines. I don't recall.

Maybe we can just try the card as is and see what happens. Only one drive in there, so maybe 250 will cover it.