Dell 4550 video card performance/upgrade questions

[joshua]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Greetings,

I currently have a Dimension 4550 that I purchased about a year ago. I do a
lot of work with Windows Movie Maker and recently, with the purchase of a
MiniDV camcorder, I'm editing movie files that are a much bigger resolution
than what I was previously working with. The problem is every time I start
using Windows Movie Maker now, the program slows down to a crawl and
eventually crashes if I use it for too long. I've upgraded my RAM to 1GB
and it hasn't gotten any better. A friend suggested that it could be that
my video card isn't powerful enough. What's in there right now is an NVIDIA
GeForce MX 420 64MB video card, which came preinstalled.

Myself not having much experience with video cards, I'm just wondering if
this could in fact be what's causing the problem, and what I should upgrade
to. I'm thinking of just going all out and getting a GeForce 256MB video
card (the 5200 and 5600 are two models I've seen), but I want to make sure
what to look for in order to make sure it's compatible with my 4550.

Any suggestions or recommendations from anyone would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Joshua

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hate to tell you, but it has nothing to do with your video card. Movie
Maker isn't using more than 64MB of video memory. Movie Maker also should
not be crashing, but it is not really a high end editing program. I am
assuming that you are running Windows XP.

How specifically is it crashing? Rendering video is very, very slow, so
your machine slowing to a crawl is not surprising. On my 4550 (using a
different program, but same theory), it renders about 12 frames per second,
or 2 1/2 minutes per minute of video. My 2400 is a little faster at about
15fps.

My Dimension 8100 is about 7-8 fps.

Video requies raw CPU power.

Tom
"Joshua" <joshua@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:Xns94C5C5351FBE1hellzeryahoocom@130.81.64.196...
> Greetings,
>
> I currently have a Dimension 4550 that I purchased about a year ago. I do
a
> lot of work with Windows Movie Maker and recently, with the purchase of a
> MiniDV camcorder, I'm editing movie files that are a much bigger
resolution
> than what I was previously working with. The problem is every time I start
> using Windows Movie Maker now, the program slows down to a crawl and
> eventually crashes if I use it for too long. I've upgraded my RAM to 1GB
> and it hasn't gotten any better. A friend suggested that it could be that
> my video card isn't powerful enough. What's in there right now is an
NVIDIA
> GeForce MX 420 64MB video card, which came preinstalled.
>
> Myself not having much experience with video cards, I'm just wondering if
> this could in fact be what's causing the problem, and what I should
upgrade
> to. I'm thinking of just going all out and getting a GeForce 256MB video
> card (the 5200 and 5600 are two models I've seen), but I want to make sure
> what to look for in order to make sure it's compatible with my 4550.
>
> Any suggestions or recommendations from anyone would be greatly
> appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>
> -Joshua

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Joshua, I have the Dimension 8300 3.0, 1 gig memory, ATI Video Radeon
9800 and tons of hard drive. Have the Sony Mini DV camcorder and use
firewire. I never realized I had Windows Movie Maker. I use Roxio's
Easy Media Creator 7 and make Video DVD's. I opened the windows media
player and I think it said 640x480 size, and I did 81 meg of video in 10
minutes. No slow down or hang up. It just may be you need a faster
system. You also did not indicate the speed of your system or whether
you are using USB 2.0 or Firewire for the camcorder. My camera came
with both. I choose to use firewire and purchased the card. I also use
an external firewire WD 120 gig HD with an 8 meg cache for my video and
music keeping as much as I can out of c:\windows drive. I agree with
Tom, I think your video card is just fine. Check you msconfig startup
and try to illuminate everything you can from starting up. Even when
I'm ready to burn my 4.7 GB DVD video, I make sure my temp file is
empty, reboot and save my image/iso on another drive then C:

Hope some of this may help

Joan

Joshua wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I currently have a Dimension 4550 that I purchased about a year ago. I do a
> lot of work with Windows Movie Maker and recently, with the purchase of a
> MiniDV camcorder, I'm editing movie files that are a much bigger resolution
> than what I was previously working with. The problem is every time I start
> using Windows Movie Maker now, the program slows down to a crawl and
> eventually crashes if I use it for too long. I've upgraded my RAM to 1GB
> and it hasn't gotten any better. A friend suggested that it could be that
> my video card isn't powerful enough. What's in there right now is an NVIDIA
> GeForce MX 420 64MB video card, which came preinstalled.
>
> Myself not having much experience with video cards, I'm just wondering if
> this could in fact be what's causing the problem, and what I should upgrade
> to. I'm thinking of just going all out and getting a GeForce 256MB video
> card (the 5200 and 5600 are two models I've seen), but I want to make sure
> what to look for in order to make sure it's compatible with my 4550.
>
> Any suggestions or recommendations from anyone would be greatly
> appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>
> -Joshua

 

[joshua]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

My apoligies for not being more specific initially, but the slowdown
doesn't happen when I'm capturing video off of my camcorder (I'm using
fire wire BTW). That part goes fine. It's when I'm actually trying to
edit the movie files, like cutting up clips, adding them to the timeline,
moving them around, adding effects and music, etc. Everying thing I do
has about a 4-8 second lag depending on how long I've been using the
program, and occasionally after a while of that I get the dreaded
"Program Not Respoding" and it crashes. It never used to do this when I
was working with smaller resolution files (usually 320x240), so obviously
with the new resolution I'm working with (640x480), it's overtaxing
something and causing the slowdown. I've got a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 and the
gigabyte of RAM as I previously mentioned, so I didn't know of anything
other than the video card that I could even try to upgrade.

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

-Joshua


"Tom Scales" <tomtoo@softhome.net> wrote in
news:7fydnQ566JyibejdRVn-tw@comcast.com:

> Hate to tell you, but it has nothing to do with your video card.
> Movie Maker isn't using more than 64MB of video memory. Movie Maker
> also should not be crashing, but it is not really a high end editing
> program. I am assuming that you are running Windows XP.
>
> How specifically is it crashing? Rendering video is very, very slow,
> so your machine slowing to a crawl is not surprising. On my 4550
> (using a different program, but same theory), it renders about 12
> frames per second, or 2 1/2 minutes per minute of video. My 2400 is a
> little faster at about 15fps.
>
> My Dimension 8100 is about 7-8 fps.
>
> Video requies raw CPU power.
>
> Tom
> "Joshua" <joshua@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns94C5C5351FBE1hellzeryahoocom@130.81.64.196...
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I currently have a Dimension 4550 that I purchased about a year ago.
>> I do
> a
>> lot of work with Windows Movie Maker and recently, with the purchase
>> of a MiniDV camcorder, I'm editing movie files that are a much bigger
> resolution
>> than what I was previously working with. The problem is every time I
>> start using Windows Movie Maker now, the program slows down to a
>> crawl and eventually crashes if I use it for too long. I've upgraded
>> my RAM to 1GB and it hasn't gotten any better. A friend suggested
>> that it could be that my video card isn't powerful enough. What's in
>> there right now is an
> NVIDIA
>> GeForce MX 420 64MB video card, which came preinstalled.
>>
>> Myself not having much experience with video cards, I'm just
>> wondering if this could in fact be what's causing the problem, and
>> what I should
> upgrade
>> to. I'm thinking of just going all out and getting a GeForce 256MB
>> video card (the 5200 and 5600 are two models I've seen), but I want
>> to make sure what to look for in order to make sure it's compatible
>> with my 4550.
>>
>> Any suggestions or recommendations from anyone would be greatly
>> appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>>
>> -Joshua
>
>

 

[gus]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Joshua wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I currently have a Dimension 4550 that I purchased about a year ago. I do a
> lot of work with Windows Movie Maker and recently, with the purchase of a
> MiniDV camcorder, I'm editing movie files that are a much bigger resolution
> than what I was previously working with. The problem is every time I start
> using Windows Movie Maker now, the program slows down to a crawl and
> eventually crashes if I use it for too long. I've upgraded my RAM to 1GB
> and it hasn't gotten any better. A friend suggested that it could be that
> my video card isn't powerful enough. What's in there right now is an NVIDIA
> GeForce MX 420 64MB video card, which came preinstalled.
>
> Myself not having much experience with video cards, I'm just wondering if
> this could in fact be what's causing the problem, and what I should upgrade
> to. I'm thinking of just going all out and getting a GeForce 256MB video
> card (the 5200 and 5600 are two models I've seen), but I want to make sure
> what to look for in order to make sure it's compatible with my 4550.
>
> Any suggestions or recommendations from anyone would be greatly
> appreciated. Thanks in advance.

My first guess would be your software. I've never seen any survey or
Usenet post which rated MS MM highly. Probably your best bet would be to
follow a couple of the video groups (my ISP carries an authoring & a
software NG).

 

[gus]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Joan Hansen wrote:

> Joshua, I have the Dimension 8300 3.0, 1 gig memory, ATI Video Radeon
> 9800 and tons of hard drive. Have the Sony Mini DV camcorder and use
> firewire. I never realized I had Windows Movie Maker. I use Roxio's
> Easy Media Creator 7 and make Video DVD's. I opened the windows media
> player and I think it said 640x480 size, and I did 81 meg of video in 10
> minutes. No slow down or hang up. It just may be you need a faster
> system. You also did not indicate the speed of your system or whether
> you are using USB 2.0 or Firewire for the camcorder. My camera came
> with both. I choose to use firewire and purchased the card. I also use
> an external firewire WD 120 gig HD with an 8 meg cache for my video and
> music keeping as much as I can out of c:\windows drive. I agree with
> Tom, I think your video card is just fine. Check you msconfig startup
> and try to illuminate everything you can from starting up. Even when
> I'm ready to burn my 4.7 GB DVD video, I make sure my temp file is
> empty, reboot and save my image/iso on another drive then C:

Good advice IMHO. FWIW, I'm using Pinnacle's Studio 8 (and their AV/DV
capture card) and am very happy with it. I have a Dim 4550 with a 2.66
ghz chip & 1 GB of memory and have no hang ups while editing - as
someone else posted, rendering just takes a looooong time. Pinnacle has
a reputation, which I support, of releasing buggy software; but they
will fix the bugs. The version I'm using is completely stable. I have
worked with video files in the 25-30 GB range, i.e., about 2 hours of
video. Don't know if it's a factor, but I don't have any digital sources
at present.

Pinnacle, as well as my more experienced friends, also recommends
capturing to a different HDD from your C: drive.

HTH

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I really believe that your ultimate problem is Movie Maker.

Tom
"Gus" <GusPod@optOFFline.XXXX.net> wrote in message
news:W1rdc.20219$Po2.8203321@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
> Joan Hansen wrote:
>
> > Joshua, I have the Dimension 8300 3.0, 1 gig memory, ATI Video Radeon
> > 9800 and tons of hard drive. Have the Sony Mini DV camcorder and use
> > firewire. I never realized I had Windows Movie Maker. I use Roxio's
> > Easy Media Creator 7 and make Video DVD's. I opened the windows media
> > player and I think it said 640x480 size, and I did 81 meg of video in 10
> > minutes. No slow down or hang up. It just may be you need a faster
> > system. You also did not indicate the speed of your system or whether
> > you are using USB 2.0 or Firewire for the camcorder. My camera came
> > with both. I choose to use firewire and purchased the card. I also use
> > an external firewire WD 120 gig HD with an 8 meg cache for my video and
> > music keeping as much as I can out of c:\windows drive. I agree with
> > Tom, I think your video card is just fine. Check you msconfig startup
> > and try to illuminate everything you can from starting up. Even when
> > I'm ready to burn my 4.7 GB DVD video, I make sure my temp file is
> > empty, reboot and save my image/iso on another drive then C:
>
> Good advice IMHO. FWIW, I'm using Pinnacle's Studio 8 (and their AV/DV
> capture card) and am very happy with it. I have a Dim 4550 with a 2.66
> ghz chip & 1 GB of memory and have no hang ups while editing - as
> someone else posted, rendering just takes a looooong time. Pinnacle has
> a reputation, which I support, of releasing buggy software; but they
> will fix the bugs. The version I'm using is completely stable. I have
> worked with video files in the 25-30 GB range, i.e., about 2 hours of
> video. Don't know if it's a factor, but I don't have any digital sources
> at present.
>
> Pinnacle, as well as my more experienced friends, also recommends
> capturing to a different HDD from your C: drive.
>
> HTH
>

 

[joshua]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

You're probably right, Tom. I know there's better movie edting programs out
there, but I'm just so used to using Movie Maker at this point and it does
everything I need it to do, so that's why I'm so adament on still using it.
I guess it's time to finally think about using something new. I'll check
out Pinnacle's program. I've also heard Unlead Studios makes a good one
too.

Thanks for all your help, guys and gals. Greatly appreciated once again.

-Joshua


"Tom Scales" <tomtoo@softhome.net> wrote in
news:Lf6dnUVrnuqL4OvdRVn-gw@comcast.com:

> I really believe that your ultimate problem is Movie Maker.
>
> Tom
> "Gus" <GusPod@optOFFline.XXXX.net> wrote in message
> news:W1rdc.20219$Po2.8203321@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
>> Joan Hansen wrote:
>>
>> > Joshua, I have the Dimension 8300 3.0, 1 gig memory, ATI Video
>> > Radeon 9800 and tons of hard drive. Have the Sony Mini DV
>> > camcorder and use firewire. I never realized I had Windows Movie
>> > Maker. I use Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7 and make Video DVD's. I
>> > opened the windows media player and I think it said 640x480 size,
>> > and I did 81 meg of video in 10 minutes. No slow down or hang up.
>> > It just may be you need a faster system. You also did not indicate
>> > the speed of your system or whether you are using USB 2.0 or
>> > Firewire for the camcorder. My camera came with both. I choose to
>> > use firewire and purchased the card. I also use an external
>> > firewire WD 120 gig HD with an 8 meg cache for my video and music
>> > keeping as much as I can out of c:\windows drive. I agree with
>> > Tom, I think your video card is just fine. Check you msconfig
>> > startup and try to illuminate everything you can from starting up.
>> > Even when I'm ready to burn my 4.7 GB DVD video, I make sure my
>> > temp file is empty, reboot and save my image/iso on another drive
>> > then C:
>>
>> Good advice IMHO. FWIW, I'm using Pinnacle's Studio 8 (and their
>> AV/DV capture card) and am very happy with it. I have a Dim 4550 with
>> a 2.66 ghz chip & 1 GB of memory and have no hang ups while editing -
>> as someone else posted, rendering just takes a looooong time.
>> Pinnacle has a reputation, which I support, of releasing buggy
>> software; but they will fix the bugs. The version I'm using is

>> completely stable. I have worked with video files in the 25-30 GB
>> range, i.e., about 2 hours of video. Don't know if it's a factor, but
>> I don't have any digital sources at present.
>>
>> Pinnacle, as well as my more experienced friends, also recommends
>> capturing to a different HDD from your C: drive.
>>
>> HTH
>>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Fri, 09 Apr 2004 14:30:47 GMT, Joshua <joshua@yahoo.com> wrote:

>You're probably right, Tom. I know there's better movie edting programs out
>there, but I'm just so used to using Movie Maker at this point and it does
>everything I need it to do, so that's why I'm so adament on still using it.
>I guess it's time to finally think about using something new. I'll check
>out Pinnacle's program. I've also heard Unlead Studios makes a good one
>too.
>
>Thanks for all your help, guys and gals. Greatly appreciated once again.
>
>-Joshua
>
Joshua, join microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker and ask for advice
there. I have more or less the same configuration that you have and
have absolutely no trouble with moviemaker. I bet your problem is
almost certainly a software one and there are guys in that group well
qualified to give you assistance.