Should I upgrade video card or ram ??

Question

I have a Celeron 1.2 processor, 128 sdram, onboard video. and on cable internet connection. When I watch streaming videos on CNN , Yahoo videos. or Google video I get a lot of buffer and choppy videos. Should I upgrade my ram or upgrade a video card ?
Would this video card be enough for video streaming ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814161011


Thank in advance

I had this PC since 2004. :]]

I'm using Windows XP .

Answer 1

RAM!!!!!

128MB (shared!?!?!) is totally inadequate for Windows 2000 or Windows XP, and even for Windows 98 would be pushing it these days.

Answer 2

You don't upgrade a video card, you buy a new one.

The RAM question depends a lot on your operating system, which you don't mention.

Choppy video also makes your internet connection suspect.

You can keep your old monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc., and just get a new "box" for a couple hundred bucks. Your problems will be solved.

If that is not possible, start with adding RAM. What you will find though, is older RAM is expensive and you don't really get the "bang" for your buck.

Don't even consider PAYING someone to do this work for you. The cost of parts and labor will exceed the "buy a new box for a couple hundred" idea mentioned earlier.

Best of luck to you.

OH, I consult on the side for people buying computers. I build them. I'm a gamer. I spend way too much money on my PC that I'm constantly adding to. I always have the fastest video card, RAM max'd out, fastest processor, and a dedicated 768k line to my house. I still get the occasional choppy signal from google, youtube, etc. You'll never fix that will the equipment you own. The problems there arise in the WWW in general, problems your internet service provider, and many times from the source.

Answer 3

128 Meg! Damn, you need to upgrade that to at least 768 M or higher. The onboard video is probably using the PC ram so that'd be the first thing as you're probably using mainly virtual memory (aka, the hard drive). If after that you still have issues, then look into upgrading the video card.

Answer 4

Dont upgrade your video card.... Streaming video is SO low quality, video card has virtually nothign to do with it.

You may not even need ram.

You need to tweak your players settings. Set a higher buffer. Change the connection speed in the players preferences for example.

*Real fast, press Ctrl+Alt+Del and click on the "Processes" tab. At the bottom click the check box "Show processes for all users", and then count the items listed there. It will help your diagnosis!

Answer 5

I would upgrade the RAM first but only because it's ridiculously low for a PC in this day. This may fix your issue but it's sounds like a slow Internet connection to me. Could also be caused by network traffic.

Answer 6

First upgrade your RAM. Then, see if you can upgrade your Internet connection. Most modern video cards have more than enough oomph to handle streaming video.

Answer 7

RAM. No doubt. You aren't having problems rendering the video, it's just that the video doesn't have a lot of RAM to load into, so you are getting a lot of choppiness. You should at least double your RAM.

Answer 8

Upgrade RAM to at least 512mb. The graphics card may help. It is fast since it uses ddr memory and it will free up shared RAM that was being allocated to integrated graphics.

Answer 9

That choppy movie has nothing to do with your video. If it were your video , you wouldn't see anything.

Upgrade RAM. Wouldn't hurt to get a better processor though, that helps with Broadband flow.

(i.e. your computer is really really out of date)

Answer 10

i suggest you upgrade ram!!!! and your internet connection....
but i would be better if you spend a little more money to upgrade the whole system...... and dont think you can buy an sd ram now.... its too outdated!!!!