[Cialug] 1GHz Athlon, Linux Mint, poor video

[Matt Stanton]

Some graphics cards are capable of hardware decoding, which would take 
the load off the CPU if it's an issue with CPU speed.  Before I went out 
to buy anything, I'd check to see what sort of CPU you're getting while 
watching a youtube video.

After that, it's a matter of finding out what sort of videos you're 
planning on playing on that computer, and finding out which cards 
support hardware decoding for that format.  My old athlon XP box had an 
AGP port, and the newest nVidia card that was available for AGP (that I 
could find, anyway) was a 7600GS.  It supposedly supported mpeg-2 and a 
couple of other formats (maybe H.264?).  I have no real clue what ATIs 
cards are capable of, but they do tend to be less expensive.  Another 
thing to consider is the status of the linux drivers for the GPU in 
question... nVidia's proprietary drivers seem to work quite well and 
support most, if not all, the features of the card.  I'm again not sure 
about ATI's drivers for linux.  Someone on the list is sure to fill you in.

If your processor isn't getting hit very hard, then it might not be 
something that a GPU can fix.  Even if it is experiencing high load, 
that could also just be a sign of a software/driver issue.

On 3/22/2010 7:38 PM, Kendall Bailey wrote:
> Trying to make an old machine usable.  It has 768MB, 1 GHz athlon, 
> loaded Linux Mint 8.  Everything is working nicely, but flash video is 
> really choppy.  A couple observations:
> - Installer chose a resolution that was too high for the Gateway VX700 
> monitor.  Result was wavy video.  I set it down to 1024x768, and 60Hz 
> and the display is nice a crisp now.  Every reboot, it starts out in 
> the higher res for a few seconds and then switches down by itself.  
> How to fix it permanently?
> - Don't know what graphics hardware it has (no names on the card).   
> lspci shows:
>        01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems 
> [SiS] 86C326 5598/6326 (rev 0b)
> Would a better video card make video playback better?  Might Mint be 
> just using the wrong driver or settings?
>
> I have an even older/slower laptop that plays youtube OK (it runs 
> Win2000), so I have some hope.  If a new vid card is needed, how do I 
> determine the right kind?  No gaming is required, but the kids 
> sometimes need to watch edu-focused video, so I'm hoping to set this 
> up as a homework machine (it's the only non-laptop in the house).  
> Advice?  Should I try Xubuntu? Puppy? Vector?  Mint is running so nice 
> and snappy otherwise.
>
> Thanks,
> Kendall
>
>
>
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