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

[Matthew Nuzum]

http://xkcd.com/619/

Regarding the video card, it is an SIS graphics card. Those are
low-end for most purposes. If you get a better video card it will
help. Newer flash versions support hardware acceleration but you'll
probably get best results w/ one of the big three chipsets. Anything
reasonably modern, even a $40 one will provide pretty good results.
nVidia has a very good proprietary driver. It's not open source but
it's hard to beat the speed and it just works (once the drivers are
installed).

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 7:38 PM, Kendall Bailey <kendall at baileyplex.com> 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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-- 
Matthew Nuzum
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