Fixing up an older computer for multimedia pc. fresh windows 10 64 bit install. 2 gb ddr2 6400 ati 9600xt. i know its old but it should be able to play youtube. i got the fastest cpu the board supports, tried mozilla, edge and chrome. cpu use is near 100% even watching a music video on 480p. only thing holding it back is an AGP slot. thoughts beside get a new computer?
AMD 64 X2 4800+ not playing youtube smoothly
- Thread starter motocros1
- Start date
Solution
drtweak
Illustrious
- Sep 17, 2012
- 6,360
- 85
- 38,640
Ummm 64bit? No you don't install a 64 bit OS with less than 4GB of ram.
But trying windows 7/8 could help. I would try Windows 7 32bit as it would run better. Plus the ATI Graphics card could be the issue running on such a new OS and it may not be 100% compatible.
The issue will be, I suspect, that your old 9600xt doesn't have the hardware decode support for the youtube streams. If that is the case then you'll be falling back to software decode, which while not a big deal for modern CPUs, is asking a lot of that old CPU.
Depending on your browser, youtube streams will be either VP9 (Chrome) or h.264 (Edge, probably others too). Your 9600 XT was released way back in 2003, which was faaaar before VP9s time and only around the time of the early h.264 specs. I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine it has hardware decode support for h.264.
I just had a hunt for you, and I really don't think there are any AGP graphics card with hardware h.264 decode support. I'd be happy if someone could prove me wrong, but I'd be surprised. It's a shame really, because any slightly more modern but still cheap/rubbish GPU like a GT610 has those hardware decode blocks onboard, and would almost certainly allow that system to handle 1080P youtube just fine.
Short answer, I don't think that old computer is fit for any media playback, I'm afraid.
Depending on your browser, youtube streams will be either VP9 (Chrome) or h.264 (Edge, probably others too). Your 9600 XT was released way back in 2003, which was faaaar before VP9s time and only around the time of the early h.264 specs. I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine it has hardware decode support for h.264.
I just had a hunt for you, and I really don't think there are any AGP graphics card with hardware h.264 decode support. I'd be happy if someone could prove me wrong, but I'd be surprised. It's a shame really, because any slightly more modern but still cheap/rubbish GPU like a GT610 has those hardware decode blocks onboard, and would almost certainly allow that system to handle 1080P youtube just fine.
Short answer, I don't think that old computer is fit for any media playback, I'm afraid.
Justiceinacan
Admirable
- Jul 19, 2016
- 2,042
- 0
- 6,960
I can speak from experience, idling when my 4600+ was new on Windows XP would eat up around 30% of the CPU resources. Windows 10 background processes probably consume even more, as it was designed around CPUs a decade newer. Like mentioned above, the old video card might be causing you some problems. I used to have a 3 GHz Pentium 4, 1 GB DDR-333, and FX 5200 based system and watching youtube above 480p was hard for it to process, and anything lower had usually worse sound quality than the newer athlon 64 x2 based one and more stuttering. It did beat the crap out of the CPU and RAM but I think newer video processing standards the card wasn't made to do is your problem.
If you got a flash drive, humor me and try something like Linux Mint XFCE 32 Bit. It's a lightweight OS that eats less resources, maybe it could help?
Other than that, it's the obvious get a new system or upgrade. I doubt you could get the parts (new GPU, even a basic GeForce GT would work) and a Socket AM2 board with PCI express, for a worthwhile price, even used. Maybe buying a full machine used with the needed stuff (2 GB RAM minimum, stronger CPU (probably early core i3 would do fine) and a PCIe based GPU would help)
If you got a flash drive, humor me and try something like Linux Mint XFCE 32 Bit. It's a lightweight OS that eats less resources, maybe it could help?
Other than that, it's the obvious get a new system or upgrade. I doubt you could get the parts (new GPU, even a basic GeForce GT would work) and a Socket AM2 board with PCI express, for a worthwhile price, even used. Maybe buying a full machine used with the needed stuff (2 GB RAM minimum, stronger CPU (probably early core i3 would do fine) and a PCIe based GPU would help)
BFG-9000
Splendid
- Sep 17, 2016
- 4,252
- 810
- 29,590
There's no Windows 10 driver for 9600XT, so it is running as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter which does not even accelerate 2D.
Windows 10 compatible HD4650 and HD4670 are the only AGP cards that can hardware accelerate H.264 mp4, but only in Flash. By default (you can force H.264) Youtube sends VP9 which can only be hardware accelerated on Skylake + Kaby Lake IGP, or nVidia cards with VDPAU Feature Set F or later, which means second generation Maxwell (GM20x) or newer. AMD supposedly baked VP9 acceleration into Polaris and Vega but have never released a driver that worked with it.
Without hardware acceleration, decoding these streams requires a hefty CPU to do it in software. The codecs are used to reduce bandwidth requirements like any type of compression, and as hardware has gotten faster so has the workload to reduce size even more. Before these Youtube was 3gp and H.263, and I remember being able to play 720p full-screen with a Pentium 4 when using the older codecs, something that would be impossible now.
BTW Justice, FX series had VPE which even predated Purevideo, so you were decoding entirely in software. Purevideo 3 of 8400GS rev. 2 was their first that could accelerate H.264 Flash decode, but only in certain resolutions. 3-digit nVidia models came with at least Purevideo 4 so can run H.264 in any below-4k resolution, and GT430 + GT620 were available as PCI cards in case OP prefers the Green Team.
Windows 10 compatible HD4650 and HD4670 are the only AGP cards that can hardware accelerate H.264 mp4, but only in Flash. By default (you can force H.264) Youtube sends VP9 which can only be hardware accelerated on Skylake + Kaby Lake IGP, or nVidia cards with VDPAU Feature Set F or later, which means second generation Maxwell (GM20x) or newer. AMD supposedly baked VP9 acceleration into Polaris and Vega but have never released a driver that worked with it.
Without hardware acceleration, decoding these streams requires a hefty CPU to do it in software. The codecs are used to reduce bandwidth requirements like any type of compression, and as hardware has gotten faster so has the workload to reduce size even more. Before these Youtube was 3gp and H.263, and I remember being able to play 720p full-screen with a Pentium 4 when using the older codecs, something that would be impossible now.
BTW Justice, FX series had VPE which even predated Purevideo, so you were decoding entirely in software. Purevideo 3 of 8400GS rev. 2 was their first that could accelerate H.264 Flash decode, but only in certain resolutions. 3-digit nVidia models came with at least Purevideo 4 so can run H.264 in any below-4k resolution, and GT430 + GT620 were available as PCI cards in case OP prefers the Green Team.
drtweak
Illustrious
- Sep 17, 2012
- 6,360
- 85
- 38,640
Wow didn't look to see that it was a AGP motherboard XD yea what BFG-9000 Said and also what I had said that card is just NOT compatible with windows ANYTHING running Aero more than likely. I bet if you tossed XP back on that machine it probably would run a lot better so long as you are using firefox
Also the whole 64/32 bit thing. If you have a PC running less than 4GB of ram and that is either all it can take or even will put in it you want to use 32bit. 32bit code is SMALLER and therefor takes up less RAM as well as hard drive space when you are running windows/programs. When you install 64bit on a machine with less than 4Gb of ram, like 2GB, it will EASILY eat that 2GB up.
But at this point you maybe able to find like a use PCI (Not PCIe) card that is newer (like maybe a GT8600 or something like that. I had gotten a PCI GT430 for a friend a long time ago. I think the 400 series was the last to ever see PCI), but I will say that most of the AGP cards more than likely won't work with the Aero them, at least for sure on windows 7 and up, You may be able to get by with Vista. Think I had a FX5700 on my old P4 3.4 and I can't remember if that ran windows 7 or not.
Also the whole 64/32 bit thing. If you have a PC running less than 4GB of ram and that is either all it can take or even will put in it you want to use 32bit. 32bit code is SMALLER and therefor takes up less RAM as well as hard drive space when you are running windows/programs. When you install 64bit on a machine with less than 4Gb of ram, like 2GB, it will EASILY eat that 2GB up.
But at this point you maybe able to find like a use PCI (Not PCIe) card that is newer (like maybe a GT8600 or something like that. I had gotten a PCI GT430 for a friend a long time ago. I think the 400 series was the last to ever see PCI), but I will say that most of the AGP cards more than likely won't work with the Aero them, at least for sure on windows 7 and up, You may be able to get by with Vista. Think I had a FX5700 on my old P4 3.4 and I can't remember if that ran windows 7 or not.
BFG-9000
Splendid
- Sep 17, 2016
- 4,252
- 810
- 29,590
Every card mentioned so far in this thread has Windows 7 drivers and supports Shader model 2.0 so can run Aero. The problem is these drivers cannot be installed in Windows 10--for example the latest driver for the OP's 9600XT is Catalyst 10.2 from 2010 which is incompatible with 10.
Win 7 32-bit runs fine on 2GB as you suggested, but even with drivers the 9600XT cannot accelerate H.264. It's probably not worth getting a card that can only accelerate it in Flash either (which is the only kind that will fit) because they keep talking about killing Flash off and it's already defaulted to click-to-play in all three major browsers.
Win 7 32-bit runs fine on 2GB as you suggested, but even with drivers the 9600XT cannot accelerate H.264. It's probably not worth getting a card that can only accelerate it in Flash either (which is the only kind that will fit) because they keep talking about killing Flash off and it's already defaulted to click-to-play in all three major browsers.
thanks for the input. i grabbed 2 more gigs of ram from another computer and removed the 9600xt. windows is a little smoother but still lags on high definition. i had similar problems with with youtube on a single core computer a couple of years ago and thought a dual core would do a little better. oh well i'll just play it on 480p
TRENDING THREADS
-
Question No POST on new AM5 build - - - and the CPU & DRAM lights are on ?
- Started by Uknownflowet
- Replies: 13
-
-
-
-
-
Discussion What's your favourite video game you've been playing?- Started by amdfangirl
- Replies: 4K
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram